With apologies to David Letterman, we offer this abbreviated list:
 
It's time to lose the PowerPoint if....
 

5. That low hum you hear sounds suspiciously like snoring.

 

4. You have to keep apologizing for the 12-point font size because "it was the only way to get twenty lines of text on each slide."

3. Your audience has finished reading the printed handout and you're only on slide two.
  
2. You spend more time facing the screen than looking at your audience.
 
And the Number 1 hint that it's time to lose the PowerPoint is....

1. Meeting participants ask you to stand still so they can read the text appearing on your forehead. 

 

Even if you have abandoned your dieting resolutions in record time this year, you could still resolve to take the actions below--small management actions that will help you build and develop the team you need for weathering tough times.

1.  Listen more than you talk.
One quiet but effective leader puts it this way: "As long as I am the one doing the talking, I am not learning anything new. I am only hearing what I already know." 

 
2.  Don't confuse efficient communication with effective communication.
Spend "face time" with your employees to develop and preserve good working relationships. Save e-mail for fact-based, not feeling-based content. 

 
3.  Solicit good ideas through a two-step process.
Accommodate the pace of both quick-processing thinkers and those who take their time. Ask twice, but in different ways. "Pre-ask" by circulating an agenda or e-mail a couple of days ahead of time. Then ask in the meeting...and watch those ideas pour forth!

 
4.  Don't flip-flop on plans.
Having the flexibility to adapt to new information about a plan is one thing; but changing your mind all of the time is quite another. Staff who work for flip-floppers feel yanked around and disregarded.