Some experts estimate that you have an initial 15 seconds – maybe 20 – to hook and hold your audience as you start your presentation. And with a kaleidoscope of modern-day distractions, you face an uphill battle. In that short window of less than a minute, while they’re sizing you up, you must blast into their minds. Get … Continue reading How to Start Your Presentation
Do you ever consider how you actually appear to people with regard to your facial expressions? Many folks are seemingly oblivious to their own expressions or to a lack of expressiveness. Their faces appear dull and lifeless. Nondescript. In your business presentation, you communicate far more with your face than you probably realize. This can … Continue reading Encore! Your Especially Powerful Expression
Nike has a new ad campaign that plays off the Olympics. Its theme is “Find Your Greatness,” and it is, frankly, a great presentation on presentation greatness. “Somehow we’ve come to believe that greatness is only for the chosen few, for the superstars. The truth is, greatness is for us all. This is not about … Continue reading Great Presentation . . . or Presentation Greatness?
A pestilence infests the business landscape, and you’ve seen it dozens of times – the bad business presentation. You see it in the average corporate meeting, after-dinner talk, finance brief, or networking breakfast address. While unrelenting positivity is probably the best approach to presentation improvement, it helps at times to see examples of what not … Continue reading The Bad Business Presentation
Coca-Cola’s 1929 slogan was “The Pause that Refreshes” and likewise we can use the public speaking pause to especially powerful effect. Pauses can, indeed, be refreshing, and a judicious pause can refresh your business presentation. I’m taking a cue from Coke. I’m pausing here in this space, right now. It should last for a few days. Not … Continue reading The Public Speaking Pause
A powerful presentation voice that is resonant, clear, and captivating can lift your business presentation into the province of “professional.” That voice is yours for the asking and development. So what constitutes a great speaking voice, a voice ready for prime-time presenting? Just this . . . A voice that is stable, sourced from the chest … Continue reading How to Develop a Powerful Presentation Voice
“How come I never get a good group?” Who hasn’t uttered this pitiful refrain during business school when laboring over a group presentation? Leaving aside the conceit of faux martyrdom for a moment, let’s recognize that group work is a necessity in the 21st century business world. Your group has been assembled with a professional purpose … Continue reading Surviving the Group Presentation
Group work carries with it problems, so I offer here group presentation tips to help you survive this business school rite of passage to gain personal competitive advantage. Anyone who has participated in even one group project in college knows that group presentations can challenge you in all sorts of ways. Perhaps you believe these … Continue reading Group Presentation Tips for Power and Impact
The Complete Guide to Business School Presenting reveals the secrets that professors won’t tell you . . . and the secrets that senior corporate executives simply don’t know. Dr. Stanley K. Ridgley, of Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business, engages especially powerful instructional techniques from one of America’s great business schools and combines them with the … Continue reading Business Presentation Guide
I advocate storytelling in your business presentations. Stories can capture powerful ideas in a few telling strokes, and stories involve your audience better than any other competing technique. But in telling a story, we can sometimes veer off-course. We get so enamored with our own words that they build a momentum of their own, and … Continue reading Focus on Your Presentation Story MIP
Today, I link to an inspiring story, a story of a brave girl who, through courage and persistence, overcame her debilitating handicap – the business presentation pathology of Uptalk. This testimony on conquering Uptalk is too good not to share. It relates to a young woman who recognized her own debilitating verbal pathology of Uptalk and committed herself to ovecoming … Continue reading Uptalk Prisoner Liberated!
When we speak of presentation stage fright, we are really talking about the battle within ourselves as we prepare to deliver our presentation. It’s self-confidence versus self-doubt. Confidence is one of those elusive qualities. It’s almost paradoxical. When we have it, it’s invisible. When we don’t have it, it’s all too apparent to us. Confidence … Continue reading No More Business Presentation Stage Fright!
Not many of us readily accept coaching or suggestions of how to improve ourselves, particularly when it comes to highly personal aspects of our very being. For instance . . . Your voice. There’s nothing sacred, sacrosanct, or “natural” about your speaking voice. Your voice is the product of many years of development from numerous influences, … Continue reading Voice – The Secret Video
Loki is a diminutive fellow, and yet he projects a powerful and professional presentation appearance. You get that from the first minutes of the film Thor, and in the newly released Avengers. Loki is played by British actor Tom Hiddleston, whose other roles include F. Scott Fitzgerald in the light Woody Allen comedy Midnight in … Continue reading Walk like Loki . . . for Professional Presentation Appearance
Uptalk is the most ubiquitous speech pathology afflicting folks under thirty. Once it grips you, uptalking is reluctant to let go. It’s maddening, and it infests everyone exposed to this voice with doubt, unease, and irritation. It bellows amateur when used in formal presentations. It cries out: “I don’t know what I’m talking about here … Continue reading Uptalk Undermines the Best Presentations
We sabotage our own presentations more often than we imagine, and we experience presentation fail more often than necessary. Self-defeating behaviors come in many forms, but negative self-talk is one of the chief culprits. We tell ourselves repeatedly that we’ll fail. We envision humiliation, embarassment, and complete meltdown. Presentation Fail: You are Responsible Negative self-talk begins … Continue reading Business Presentation Fail: Don’t Sabotage Yourself
If you feel reasonably confident, competent, and thoroughly satisfied with your presenting skills, then I congratulate you. Please do pass Business School Presenting along to a buddy who might profit from the humble advice offered herein. But if you are like most of the 1.3 million English-speaking business school population worldwide, you doubtless have issues … Continue reading “I Hate Presentations”
Presentation tips are about as valuable as “tips” to become a rocket scientist. Let’s look hard at the phenomenon of presentation tips . . . what I call McTips. And then discover the actual path to personal competitive advantage to deliver a powerful business presentation every time. The Two Groups? With regard to presentations, I … Continue reading Super-Size those McTips?
Do you “move” during your business presentation so to maximize your personal competitive advantage? Listen to this story . . . After I delivered an incredibly inspiring lecture in a class last year – one of many, I am certain – a student approached me and shared this: “I stand in one spot for the most … Continue reading Move Like Jagger in Your Business Presentation?
The business presentation is an entirely different form of communication than a written document, and thats why you need a reliable PowerPoint Guide to get you through the rough waters of slide preparation. For your presentation, do you ever throw together a half-dozen makeshift slides cut-and-pasted from a written report, with dozens of bullet points peppered throughout? … Continue reading The only PowerPoint Guide you’ll ever need
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