don’t put all your energy into the content This is the fourth of five thoughts dealing with professional presentations and public speaking. An Australian survey found that 70% of executives believe that good presentation skills are critical to professional advancement. Despite the widely acknowledged importance of presentation skills, this slightly arrogant but award-winning speaker finds […]

don’t put all your energy into the content This is the fourth of five thoughts dealing with professional presentations and public speaking. An Australian survey found that 70% of executives believe that good presentation skills are critical to professional advancement. Despite the widely acknowledged importance of presentation skills, this slightly arrogant but award-winning speaker finds that most executives present badly. While many focus their attention on the content of a speech, research highlights the importance of other factors. One such study found the impact of a speech on an audience to be: 10% content 20% tone 70% tone presentation Despite having some doubts about what ‘impact’ means and how it may be reliably measured, I have quoted these statistics because they ring true with my experience, and results are replicated in study after study. Accurate or not, these numbers highlight the fact that presentation skills and tone are critically important,…