2P Presentations Impress Your Audience Every Time

We are a now a TV/Computer screen society and people today expect you to make presentations that are engaging, informative and polished. Professional presenters do not leave success up to chance. They plan for it by crafting a program that is customized for the audience with the outcome in mind.

You can present, using the 'same old same old'  that you feel comfortable with, adding the tired PowerPoint that holds no excitement for anyone (including you) and make an adequate presentation. OR - you can present to others in a way that shows your ability to address their informational needs with a powerful and creative style.

• Ask - Start with asking the right questions: Who is the audience? What do they want to know? What do you want them to do as a result of your presentation? What do they need to know in order to do that?

• Strong Opening – Grab their attention from the very start. Tell a story, use a surprising statistic, ask a question, share an example of the consequence of inaction, show a picture or video, or talk about the benefit or the happy ending if your  ideas or suggestions are adopted.

• Hello – First impressions matter so make it the right one with professional attire, eye contact and a confident smile (whether you feel it or not). If it’s a little more formal, provide a well crafted introduction of who you are and why you are the person to make this presentation.

• Logical Progression – Create a logical sequence for your talk. It can develop like building blocks, have a beginning, middle, and end, or start simply and grow to become complicated. Start where your audience needs to begin and design a map to get them where you want to end up.

• Customize – Create a presentation where the focus is one the audience’s need. If they are beginners, start them out with basics. If they have a good grasp of the basics, focus on application. If you have a mix of knowledge levels, make sure to offer additional resources, websites, articles, and books on your subject.

• Stop Talking – Allow for questions, discussion, comments or reflection. Not only will you engage your audience, you can determine if they are moving in the direction you had hoped.

• Multiple Paths – Use a variety of approaches. Use stories, facts, statistics, pictures, models, terms (and their definitions), examples, handouts, or quotes (but not too many!). 

• Plan for Questions – Anticipate questions and prepare answers. Have examples ready to demonstrate your points.

• Strong Close – Just like your opening, your closing should be strong with a call to action. As a result of your presentation, what are you asking for? Do you want them to know something new, learn about themselves, believe, get motivated, act, buy, or communicate to others?

• 2P – Preparation and Practice draws the line between savvy and stupid! Rehearsing reduces nervousness by up to 75% and decreases the chance of errors by even more!

Match the needs of your presentation to your audience and your invitations to speak and to be seen as a valuable resource will increase. Communicating effectively is one of the most needed and valued professional skills. THe more senior your position, the more it's expected.

Your Company Culture - It'a About the LEADER

Corporate culture is the company’s value system. It flows from one place only -- the top. Changing a culture is an evolution, not a process and not an event. Impatience will not serve anyone well. Patience is a requirement. The corporate culture can not change unless the LEADER changes, or unless the LEADER delegates the authority to change and then stands aside and allows it to happen.

So if you LEADERS really want to create a culture change, I've got some tips:

• What you say has nothing to do with creating the company’s culture. It is only what you do that matters. Stop talking, crafting speeches, selecting slogans and tag lines and start showing up, being seen, and modeling what you are talking about.  

• Culture starts to be created with the first day on the job, as the employee’s observe the boss’s every move. Be aware of their ongoing and relentless scrutiny and show that the messages you are sending are designed to encourage the culture you publicly espouse. Employees at all organizational levels watch the boss like a hawk and are always watching. Don't forget it. You may think they have better things to do - but this one of the things they think is pretty important. 

• Just like skiing and gymnastics, you can not learn and improve in an environment where you are not allowed to fall down. Encourage risk taking and allow first-time mistakes. Determine how much risk and failure can be tolerated, and focus on what is learned from attempts. If you punish, limit, curb or eliminate any person for trying to do something new, people learn quickly to keep their heads down. Innovation IS risk.

• Change is inevitable and the corporate culture will need changing from time to time. Take steps to inventory and alter the existing culture when it no longer represents what is best for the company. Don’t be afraid to ask “Why is it done thins way? Is this the best/more effective/more efficient? Is there a better way? If we were creating this today, how might it be different? “ And be brave and smart enough to listen to the answers.

• Do not underestimate the difficulty of changing a culture of an acquired organization (or your own organization for that matter). The road to change will take twice as long as you think, and casualties will be twice as heavy. Be prepared to go slow. Have a plan based on data, not just hopes and dreams. Spend time doing a cultural audit to determine how big the gaps are and what may need to be done to eliminate or reduce them.

 

It's not easy to feel the urgency every day AND take the long view. Culture change requires both.

Focus on What People Do Right

• Jon was tired of complaining to me about Linda. A Director of his firm’s division, one of Jon’s senior level managers was taking up too much time and attention. “Every few months we have the same conversation. She doesn’t delegate and doesn’t develop her people. Her commitments take her out of the office so much that she rarely meets with them to provide feedback or instruction. I am not getting through to her“

• Mary, a Vice President in financial services was reading yet another book on finding the key to solving her “problem employee problem,” as she struggled to find a yet another new way to work with Steve. “No matter how many times I talk with him about this issue, he still can not figure out how to work well with women on a team. He is a smart guy about so many other things - but on this issue, he is a total twit.”

• Jean is wondering if it isn’t time to start a formal written record of her conversations with Sharon. “She has talent by the bushel but she doesn’t check her work. Sure, the errors are caught before things go out, but I don’t see any improvement. There is always some aspect of her work that is simply unacceptable.”

While the names have been changes to protect their privacy, you may recognize these managers. They spend a huge amount of their time focusing on the best way to improve an employee’s area of weakness. While I have many clients and colleagues whose staff is fairly accomplished, requiring relatively little guidance from them, I have far more who wonder how their employees will ever develop to the next level or be capable of more sophisticated work.

If you are spending too much of your time with employees focusing on the best way to improve areas of weakness, you aren't alone. Your management style may be ‘old school,’ and you are wasting valuable time.

Focus instead on creating a strength-based workplace rather than doing remedial work with folks. The reality of any workplace, whether it is a Fortune 100 firm, non-profit organization or an educational institution, is that there are some very real limits as to how much you can really change another person. But there are huge contributions every person can make if you leveraging the capabilities, talents and skills that the person possesses.

The 80/20 rule often applies to boss-employee interaction: the boss spends 80% of their time with the 20% of the employees that require the most help and support. What would happen if the boss focused on the things that the employees did well? By focusing on people’s strengths, they might spend more time boosting the most productive employees.

Both managing (getting work done through others) and leading (developing committed followers) are important. The managers who are head and shoulders above the rest are those that coach, support, and mentor. These are the folks who focus on the strengths of their employees so that they believe in their own success. Leaders focus others on a better future. They inspire others with their optimism and confidence combined with clarity about organizational goals and objectives, as well as ideas about how people can move things forward daily.

Successful managers cut out the things that they don’t like doing in order to unleash the power of their strengths. If you want people to be successful, look at how best to leverage their strengths. talents, and abilities, and find ways to eliminate or reduce the things that make them feel less confident.

• Perhaps Jon makes Linda a senior level individual contributor who is charge of projects rather than people. If managing others is not a priority, repeating that it should be won’t make it one.

• Putting Steve in situations where he embarrasses himself, the firm, or alienates a percentage of the company’s employees is good for no one. Mary can reduce her headaches by not having Steve lead teams. She might also suggest to employees that while Steve is talented and skilled, his ability to work with everyone at the professional level desired is a ‘work in progress.’ Staff might also make him aware, confidentially, when his remarks veer off course.

• Jean might help Sharon find someone who IS a good proof reader and barter a trade in an area where she has a talent or skill they can use. While Sharon may never be good at proofing her work, paying attention to what she is NOT good at and making sure there is some quality control in place is definitely something she can get better at attending to.

A good question to ask every professional is “Do you like what you are doing, or are you drained by it?”

Figure out what people don’t like doing and figure out how to reduce it or even better yet, eliminate it. Focus on encouraging and developing the talent that you hired someone for in the first place.