Your objective is your anchor

What’s the first thing you do when preparing a presentation?

If your answer is “open PowerPoint,” you’re not alone—but there’s a better place to start.

Too often, presentations begin with content. Slides, data, a running list of points to cover. But starting there is like building a house without a blueprint.

Before you open PowerPoint, you need to be clear on this:

What is the objective of this presentation?

Not just "to update" or "to share information"—those are vague.

Instead, get specific.

What do you want your audience to do, think, feel, or decide as a result?

I was recently helping a client prepare for a high-stakes presentation to senior executives.She had a tonne of data a clear sense of what she wanted to achieve—but she hadn’t taken the time to articulate it in a single, focused sentence. Once she did, it changed the game. Her content and delivery became sharper, clearer, and far more compelling.

Here are a few examples of well-defined objectives:

• Approve additional budget for a pilot project

• Understand the strategic risk and ask better questions

• Support the recommendation you’re making 

  
  

There may be times when this step feels unnecessary—maybe you’re just “presenting to inform” or providing a routine update. Or the objective seems so obvious it doesn’t feel worth naming. In both cases, the trick is to go deeper.

Get strategic in your thinking.It’s not just about agreement—you may want them to:

• Feel excited about what you’re presenting

• Appreciate the urgency in moving forward

• Recognise the value of the work you’re doing

This is the most important first step—because your objective is your anchor.

When it’s clear, your message stays focused, and your audience can follow your thinking.

So before your next presentation, try this:

👉 Write out your objective in one sentence, starting with:

"By the end of this presentation, I want my audience to..."

👉 Then use that sentence to guide everything else you create—your content, structure, even tone.

It’s a small shift that can change everything. Because when you’re clear on what you want to achieve, you're more likely to achieve it.