A necessary skill for every leader ...
We can survive a leader who has low Emotional Intelligence, extreme doses of extroversion or introversion, some grumpiness and we can even forgive those leaders who send 30 emails at midnight!
BUT, we cannot cope with a leader who cannot engage, inspire and move us 'to do' - yep, I'm identifying the ability to communicate in front of a group of people.
One of the necessary skills of a leader, is their ability to present. It's one of those skills which can easily be developed - in other words - there are no excuses for standing in front of a group, using a monotone voice, waving notes of paper, killing us with PPT and going on for more than 30 minutes without stopping and involving us.
Last week I worked with a group of self titled (confident) Geeks - yep, the IT guys of a big biz and we explored everything there is to know about getting started in presenting to audiences.
This week - I'll share some of the components we covered - quick lessons for the leader who needs a boost of 'presentation skill'.
A simple way to immediately gain an insight to this still is to reflect on who is great at Presenting.
Activity One:
Consider people who you've seen present and identify what specifically they've done to positively capture your attention. Was it the message, the way they conveyed the message or their personal style?
One person who is respected by many is Sir Kenneth Robinson. His TED talk is very interesting however it's his style and approach to his subject which grabs your attention. Check it out.
Three Tips to get you focused:
- Know what you want your audience to do at the end of the presentation - make it clear & obvious.
- Write the full script or record what you want to say - it's a test of your content and your approach to communicate.
- Warm your voice up - use tongue twisters, hum and avoid coffee, tea, dairy and drink water.
If you're hosting a meeting this week, using Skype, launching new information spend some time making it purposeful and engaging,
The next installment available Tuesday 18th August.