Comments on: Steve Ballmer Could Make More Money if He Presented Well

By: Bob

Bob — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:11:35 +0000

Ballmer doesn’t need to give great presentations in public to “make more money.” He needs to give great presentations to his bosses — the Board of Directors. From everything I hear, he is sharp, detail oriented and knows his stuff.

By: Nancy Duarte

Nancy Duarte — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:28:57 +0000

@leon all excellent points. I should have had people form their own opinions first…good catch. I always too readily have strong opinions :-)

By: Bruce Couch

Bruce Couch — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:28:30 +0000

BTW: thanks for doing this Nancy!

By: Bruce Couch

Bruce Couch — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:24:15 +0000

impressions are more important than reality. I don’t know how much or how little effort he put into it… I just know how it appeared to me.

By: dal

dal — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 16:19:30 +0000

I would say that more people who follow this blog crave creativity and anyone from Microsoft would sound dull to them.
Steve Ballmer could go along way to improving his presentation, but no matter what he does, he will never be Jobs.
Then again….he makes way more money, so does he really care?

By: Leon

Leon — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 23:50:53 +0000

You touch upon three of my interests with this post: Psychology, Statistics and Public Speaking (or Presentation).

On psychology and statistical method I feel you biased your audience by discussing your review, before asking for their opinion. Thus you get stats that confirm what you already know ;-)

I would like to have seen the speech on You Tube or if not that, maybe just read the pre-analysis speech. Then answer the questionnaire. And then read your review of it.

But then I also get what you are saying about impact and how the speech didn’t exactly lend itself to being memorable. Your (Ballmer’s) public image is all about perception and you aren’t doing yourself any favors by giving lousy, seemingly unprepared presentations.