7 Presentation Mistakes That Make You Look Unprofessional

This expert opinion by Peter Economy, also known as "The Leadership Guy," was originally published on Inc.com.

Everyone has been there – that moment when you’re watching someone who clearly knows their stuff deliver a presentation that just falls apart. I still cringe thinking about the time I witnessed one of my fellow managers lose her executive team audience when her carefully prepared slides wouldn’t load. The painful part? It wasn’t the technical glitch that tanked her credibility. It was how she poorly handled it.

After sitting through hundreds of presentations (and bombing a few of my own), I’ve noticed that even the smartest business people often make these seven avoidable mistakes. One thing is for certain: Your brilliant insights deserve better than to be undermined by these all-too-common presentation pitfalls.

1. Using Your Slides As A Teleprompter

I once watched a tech guru in our company read every single word on his 33 text-heavy slides. By slide 12, people were checking their emails. By slide 25, I’m sure someone was on their laptop shopping for cat food on Amazon. When you turn your back on your audience to read your own slides, you’re essentially saying, “I don’t know my stuff.”

Reality check: Your audience can read faster than you can speak. If you’re just going to read slides, you might as well email the deck and give everyone back their lunch hour.

2. The Technical Fumble Dance

“Can everyone see my screen?” “One second—let me figure out how to share the audio.” “Sorry, I’m not good with technology.” Whether you have witnessed this awkward dance or performed it, it is painful. Those first five minutes of technical struggles set a tone that’s hard to recover from.

Reality check: No one’s impressed when you make the entire room watch and wait as you troubleshoot your laptop or your PowerPoint deck. Arrive early, test everything beforehand, and have a tech-savvy colleague on standby if possible.

3. The Time Warp

Or how about when you accept an invite for a 15-minute update that ends up consuming 45 minutes of your precious day? If it’s you who makes a habit of this, people are going to find excuses for not attending your “brief” updates. When you run significantly over your allocated time, you broadcast poor planning skills and a lack of respect for everyone’s schedule.

Reality check: People mentally check out when you go overtime. If you can’t seem to finish on time and you’re not sure why, practice with a timer, not just in your head.

4. The Pre-Emptive Apology Tour

“I’m sorry, I just threw this together last night.” “I’m not really an expert in this area, but …” Why begin your presentation by undermining yourself? I once heard a speaker apologize three times for her slides before she even reached her main point. By then, all I could see were the flaws she kept highlighting.

Reality check: Nobody was thinking about your flaws until you pointed them out. Own your presence, even when you don’t feel 100 percent confident.

5. Bulldozing Past Confused Faces

We’ve all experienced that presenter who barrels through complex material while completely ignoring the sea of confused looks staring back at them. When you leave your audience with more questions than answers, then something’s wrong. Either you have the wrong presentation or the wrong audience. Which is it?

Reality check: If half your audience looks lost, then pressing forward with your script won’t magically create understanding. Build in pause points to check comprehension and be willing to adapt and explain what you’re talking about.

6. Death By Visual Chaos

I hate it when someone puts up a graphic in teeny-tiny text that I need a magnifying glass (or a telescope) to read. I’m no fan of those competing fonts that look jarring, or pixelated logos amateurishly stretched from a Google image search. These visual distractions scream, “I don’t care enough to make this look professional.” If you’re the guilty party, then you clearly don’t.

Reality check: People judge the quality of your thinking by the quality of your visuals. Unfair? Maybe. Reality? Without a doubt.

7. Data Without A Story

Numbers rarely speak for themselves, no matter how impressive they are. I once sat through a presentation packed with impressive metrics about a new product’s performance, but left with no idea why I should care. The presenter never connected those figures to actual human problems or experiences.

Reality check: Even the most data-driven audience connects through stories. Give your facts a narrative home that helps people understand why they matter. Whether you’re pitching to investors, presenting quarterly results, or leading a team meeting, avoid these mistakes to ensure your expertise shines through rather than getting lost in preventable distractions. Presentation mistakes are common, but you don’t have to make these seven.