Gold Medal Winning Mistakes When Presenting

Many executives in Japan sit through long, boring presentations that don’t lead to action. In a distracted, busy world, you only have a few seconds to win your audience — or lose them.

This page explains how to make your business presentations clear, memorable, and relevant for 日本企業 (Japanese companies) and 外資系企業 (global multinationals) in 東京 (Tokyo).

Most presenters never ask a basic question: “Who is in the room?”

• They don’t check the audience’s company, role, or level.

• They deliver content that fits their own world (for example, a huge global company) but not the audience.

• The result: people feel, “This is not for me,” and they disconnect.

Before you design your talk:

• Get the list of companies and positions if possible.

• Decide: are they experts, managers, or general business professionals?

• Adjust your stories, examples, and language to match their world (SMEs, 日本企業 (Japanese companies), 外資系企業 (global multinationals), etc.).

Mini-summary: Know exactly who will listen, and build your presentation for their reality, not yours.

A topic is not a purpose. You must decide:

• Are you trying to inform?

• Are you trying to entertain?

• Are you trying to inspire?

• Are you trying to persuade?

For example:

• Inform: share best practices in プレゼンテーション研修 (presentation training) or 営業研修 (sales training).

• Inspire: motivate leaders to change their behavior after リーダーシップ研修 (leadership training).

• Persuade: get approval for a budget, project, or DEI研修 (DEI training) program.

If you mix everything, the audience gets confused and remembers nothing.

Mini-summary: Choose one main purpose and design your talk to achieve that single goal.

Today, people judge you in about three seconds:

• If your opening is weak, they reach for their phone.

• If your opening is strong, they focus on you, not on email or chat.

Avoid these common mistakes:

• Head down, playing with the laptop and projector.

• Hitting the microphone and asking, “Can you hear me?”

• Starting with boring housekeeping or your job history.

Better options:

• Start with a strong question:

  • “How long does it take you to judge a new colleague?”

• Start with a surprising fact:

  • “Most presentations fail in the first 3 seconds.”

• Start with a short, relevant story about a client in 東京 (Tokyo) or a real situation in a 日本企業 (Japanese company) or 外資系企業 (multinational).

Mini-summary: Plan a powerful first sentence so people put down their phones and look at you.

How do you keep attention in the age of distraction?

Your audience is:

• Quick to judge

• Slow to trust

• Fast to escape (mentally, via their phone)

To keep their attention:

1. Rehearse (never practice on your audience)

   • Check equipment in advance.

   • Have someone else open the slide deck if needed.

   • Arrive early and test everything, calmly.

2. Use focused eye contact

   • Pick one person halfway back, center of the room.

   • Speak just to them for about 6 seconds.

   • Then randomly move to another person for the next 6 seconds.

   • Continue this pattern across the room.

This makes everyone feel, “The speaker is talking to me,” not to a vague crowd.

Mini-summary: Preparation plus one-to-one eye contact keeps people with you instead of drifting away.

Most technical or executive speakers fall in love with their data. They think:

“If the data is good, they must listen.”

Reality:

• Audiences remember you and the stories you tell.

• They quickly forget long lists of numbers and bullet points.

To make your key points stick:

• Wrap your data inside a short story:

  • A client situation in a 日本企業 (Japanese company) in Tokyo.

  • A successful 営業研修 (sales training) project.

  • A leader’s transformation after エグゼクティブ・コーチング (executive coaching) or リーダーシップ研修 (leadership training).

• Use simple structure: situation → action → result.

Even when people check their phones, a strong story will pull them back to you.

Mini-summary: Data informs, but stories make people care and remember.

What is the good news for busy executives?

The bar for “good” business presentations is still low:

• Many presenters don’t rehearse.

• They don’t think about the audience.

• They don’t use stories.

This means you can stand out quickly by:

• Avoiding basic mistakes.

• Using clear structure and purpose.

• Opening strong and using stories.

You don’t need to be perfect. You just need to be better than “average.”

Mini-summary: Small changes in preparation and delivery can make you look like a “presentation Olympian,” not a “presentation dud.”

• Know your audience: research who is in the room and design your examples for 日本企業 (Japanese companies) and 外資系企業 (multinationals) in 東京 (Tokyo).

• Define one clear purpose: decide if you inform, inspire, entertain, or persuade—and build everything around that.

• Win the first 3 seconds: start with a strong question, fact, or story so people stay off their phones.

• Use stories, not just data: connect your message to real client cases, leadership changes, 営業研修 (sales training), プレゼンテーション研修 (presentation training), エグゼクティブ・コーチング (executive coaching), and DEI研修 (DEI training).

Founded in the U.S. in 1912, Dale Carnegie Training has supported individuals and companies worldwide for over a century in leadership, sales, presentation, executive coaching, and DEI. Our Tokyo office, established in 1963, has been empowering both Japanese and multinational corporate clients ever since.