The presentationmagazine.com website prepared a series of tips applicable in a situation where you are asked to deliver someone else's presentation.What should you do when you don’t have the opportunity to rehearse and practice the presentation? You can read the basic tips in the first part of our article. Now let's look at the remaining tips – and find a career-booster at the end.
Are there any bad slides in the presentation?
If you have any slides that simply are no good, it might be better not to show them on screen during the presentation. However, you can use their content for your remarks and at least say something based on them.
Questions you cannot answer
It is never good to say you don’t know but it's always better than pretending to know. If an awkward question does appear, it's best to admit you cannot answer it on the spot but a response will be sent later by email. You can even mention when the questioner might expect the answer in their mailbox. Naturally keep the promise. Mentioning a deadline will make your answer and promise sound far more credible. After the presentation all inquiries and e-mail addresses should be handed over to whoever should have delivered the presentation. You can also inform questioners that their queries have been passed on to someone else. Of course, this depends on the situation and nature of the relationship you have with the person you substituted for.
Feedback
Whether you stood in for a colleague or for your superior, tell them how it went. If you don’t raise the topic, it is quite possible that the same thing will happen again. Many people do not realise how difficult it is to do a good job when you are ordered to deliver a presentation at the last minute. You can also make some suggestions:
- Next time it would help if you could attend some training sessions you found that are focused on presentation skills.
- Try to discuss how useful the other activity was that the person favoured rather than delivering that important presentation. Maybe the outcome will be that next time they will give preference to the presentation.
- Perhaps it might help if next time you were involved in the preparation of the whole presentation. Then you can easily substitute for the person concerned. And perhaps such cooperation will help your career, don't you think?
-jk-