Perhaps the most important piece of communication that every leader needs to perfect on their rise to the top is the ability to deliver an effective presentation.
Too often today presentations tend to be boring, meetings drone on seemingly not to have a point, and many presenters read their PowerPoint slides to us (I could have read it on my own…). And while we are talking about PowerPoint – these presentations tend to have too many slides, with too many distracting images, movement or too many words.
This afternoon I am flying out to deliver one of my favorite workshops that we teach – “Delivering Dynamic Presentations”. In this two-day workshop we teach both experienced and inexperienced presenters a variety of skills. Among them:
What’s Your Point: Perhaps the most commonly missed preparation point that presenters make. Essentially it boils down to answering the questions: What should the audience be thinking, feeling or doing as a result of this presentation. (two side notes: a. Who is the audience, and why are they there, and b. what if every meeting organizer thought about their “point” before they sent the Outlook invite…)
Managing and Harnessing pre-presentation jitters: Every time you present you are playing a role. We work with presenters on calming their nerves and using that energy to show up as their ‘branded’ self. Playing the ‘real you’ and targeting energy, movement and language to the audience.
Presentation Outline: Our overall outline and structure we teach is simple, and one that matches several other models. Start by getting the audience’s attention in a relevant, respectful and reasonable manner, Make your points and sub-points with clarity, summarize, ask for questions and wrap up in control. Leaving the presentation in control helps the presenter ensure their points were heard. Another mistake presenters made is to conclude, ask for questions and leave the stage. If the last question unraveled the presenter’s main point they just lost.
Visual Aids: Technology can and does fail. Many presentations rely too much on slides. Presentations should be about the speaker, and the message the speaker has; slides should provide visual illustrations and help make the point.
Giving a great presentation can earn credibility and position the speaker for both additional speaking engagements and open them to further career growth. Giving a bad presentation can be an anchor, and can (and probably does) slowly drive the audience away from listening to you. Start giving great presentations by a. defining your point, practicing in advance, using slides as a visual, not a crutch.
Authored by: Zack Clark, MBA
Zack is a Senior Consultant and one of the founding partners at Five Degrees Consulting. This is a blog we share between several of the Consultants at Five Degrees, guest authors and colleagues. We work with companies large and small on People and Organization strategies. Our work specializes in organizational development, leadership effectiveness and executive development. With a focus on working with leaders at all levels to create an intentional corporate culture, we help organizations increase employee engagement, energize working teams, develop critical leadership competencies and enhance strategic communications for more information about our services, please connect with us.