Does every presentation need to have a PowerPoint?

“I have an upcoming management meeting — I need to prepare some slides.”

“Next week is the meeting with our top clients — the slide deck needs to be ready asap.”

Sound familiar?

We have been conditioned to accept that if you are summoned to prepare a presentation, you’ll need to get your slide deck ready. That’s not always necessary. It might actually be a time waster.

Make no mistake: I love PowerPoint. I love using it and teaching others to use it. But there is a time and place and it shouldn’t be the go-to just because you feel pressured to do so or feel it’s the expectation.

Situations where a PowerPoint or other slide presentation tools may NOT be needed:

[ ] You’re presenting to a small group. You want to make a more personal connection.

[ ] Your presentation doesn’t require visuals. Your message is simple enough to be explained orally.

[ ] You rely too much on your slides and tend to read from them directly, rather than engaging your audience with your dazzling personal style.

So what do you do instead?

Note cards. Bullet points written on them with a sharpie. Why a sharpie? Because you can’t fit too much on a 3x5 note card and that’s exactly the point. Keep it brief. The bullet points are there to guide you, not to recite.

So the next time you’re asked to give a presentation, think carefully before grabbing that slide deck.

Your message might just be delivered perfectly with just you as the feature.

How often do you use a PowerPoint with your presentations? Always, sometimes or never? Tell us your answer in the comments with an example!