You've probably been there.

In my current profession, it seems the standard for teaching, presenting and addressing is to create a PowerPoint presentation with everything you could possibly want to say, then reading it to everyone as everyone reads along with you.

If you are really good, you put a cool picture or video in every now and then and then jump back to reading the slide show aloud to the troops. Presumably because people can not retain this information if they read it themselves, or because people do not understand anything unless you drone it out to them or I guess just because that is the way everyone does everything.

I think it is not so different than the training you might have received in group settings or the presentations to which you may have been exposed. I've even sat through a sermon that was completely read off of PowerPoint slides. I could have read it faster myself and gotten to the potluck much quicker.

In the professions I have been involved in, I have been exposed to some very good speakers. In fact, some of them are known to be among the best in the world. I have also been exposed to some very bad speakers. Guess which ones were more likely to use the PowerPoint method of presenting?

Realizing this, I was intrigued when I found the book "Real Leaders Don't Do PowerPoint" by Christopher Witt with Dale Fetherling. Far from being a blast against PowerPoint, it reveals many of the techniques and methods that good speakers use to make powerful, memorable and meaningful presentations.

One reviewer put it like this, "“Real Leaders Don’t Do PowerPoint” is intended to get leaders to return to making their thoughts, convictions, vision and character manifest themselves in what they say, and stop trusting PowerPoint to make their points."

While it is written specifically for leaders of all stripes, anyone that engages in teaching, presenting or public speaking will find some help, or at least some reminders, as they build and deliver better presentations.