About Real Leaders Don’t Do PowerPoint
A Book to Read in an Evening and Use for a Lifetime
Think about the most powerful speech you’ve ever heard a leader give. What made that speech—and that speaker—memorable was likely a mix of authenticity, stage presence, masterful delivery, and—above all—an inspirational message.
Nobody ever walked out of a great speech saying, “I loved the way the speaker used PowerPoint.”
Yet all too often, speakers rely on PowerPoint and tools like it to carry them through a presentation—tools that lessen their impact.
“By gearing his expertise to leaders who must wean themselves from PowerPoint and similar business crutches, communications consultant Witt (with the help of Fetherling) has struck figurative gold.”
- Booklist Review
As Chris Witt says “Let’s call PowerPoint what it really is—corporate karaoke. We endure it even though it bores audiences, trivializes content, and pushes speakers to the side of the stage where they interact with their slides, not with the audience.” Real leaders want nothing to do with it.
“Witt, founder and president of his own Witt Communications company, goes into great detail illustrating exactly what a successful speaker does and how those skills translate to good leadership.”
- Publishers Weekly
Real leaders speak to make a difference, to promote a vision, to change the way people think and feel and act. Their ability to lead goes hand-in-hand with their ability to get their message across, no matter what size audience they’re addressing. You may not be in a position of authority, but you can learn how to sell yourself and your ideas by mastering the strategies, skills, and techniques that great leaders use.
“As much as you might think that Real Leaders Don’t Do Powerpoint might be a screed against the obsequiousness of the Microsoft tool, based on frustration from sitting through too many presentations. It isn’t. It is a book on how people at all levels of business need to present themselves and their ideas better.�
-Sacramento Book Review
Download a PDF of the table of contents and the first two chapters of Real Leaders Don’t Do PowerPoint.
Drawing on his years of experience in coaching executives, Chris Witt provides practical advice on how to take your game to the next level, including:
- Influence and inspire. People don’t need more information—at least not from their leaders. Give them instead a way of understanding what they already know and the hope that they can do something worthwhile.
- You are the message. Who you are—your character, experience, values—shapes the message your listeners hear.
- Content is king. Delivery is important, but it is only the helpful—or unhelpful—servant on your message. So build each speech around one, and only one, “Big Idea.”
- A confused mind always says no. When you want your listeners to say “yes,” you’ve got to make them understand what you want them to do and why they should care.
- Dare to do the unexpected. Leaders know the rules, and they know when, why, and how to break them.
In chapters that can be read in five minutes or less and in a book that can be read in one sitting, Witt shows leaders and aspiring leaders how to become more confident, more commanding, more compelling speakers. But this isn’t just a book about speaking. It’s about leadership and about how people—CEOs and PTA presidents, small business owners and sales reps, middle managers and techno geeks—can present themselves and their ideas with greater impact.
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