Steve Ballmer Could Make More Money if He Presented Well

I’m connecting some pretty broad dots here but even though he’s a billionaire, Reuters reported that Steve Ballmer made $100,000 dollars less last year than the previous one.

Interestingly, each of the next few Fridays, Distinction Services will be posting the results of their annual executive survey of the impact of presentations on an executive’s career. Their first post from last Friday stated 86.1% of executives said “communicating with a solid level of clarity and confidence directly impacts my career and income.” See? It impacts their income. Ballmer could have made more last year if he’d invested more in his presentation.

Thank you for the tremendous participation in our survey [ http://blog.duarte.com/2010/02/product-launches-should-be-a-big-deal/] about Ballmer’s Window’s 7 launch presentation. Results were as expected. It was lousy.

Here’s the results:

Did he have a researcher or writer to help with his speech?

Screen shot 2010-02-09 at 12.16.42 PM

How many hours did he spend on content for their biggest launch in 10 years?

Screen shot 2010-02-09 at 12.16.48 PM

How many hours did he spend rehearsing his delivery?

Screen shot 2010-02-09 at 12.16.57 PM

Did he say any headline-worthy or tweet-worthy soundbites?

Screen shot 2010-02-09 at 12.17.03 PM

http://www.toastmasters-public-speaking.com Leon

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.
- http://www.duarte.com/ Nancy Duarte
  
  @leon all excellent points. I should have had people form their own opinions first…good catch. I always too readily have strong opinions
dal

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?
Bruce Couch

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.
Bruce Couch

BTW: thanks for doing this Nancy!
Bob

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.

/ Let us suggest something

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