Every person needs a life-preserver at some point during a speaking career, and this is where your conclusion is crucial. At times, even the finest presenters get themselves in trouble, and having this rescue device near to hand can salvage a speech that is careening off-course, that is flirting with disaster. Seize these Two Words … Continue reading To the Rescue! . . . a Classic Life Preserver
You know the lament of those folks who will never clear the presentation bar. “I’m just not comfortable doing that. It’s just not me.” This is what passes for sage wisdom in some quarters in reaction to new ideas, new methods, different techniques, and sometimes just good advice. What hokum. For example, look at the … Continue reading Don’t Lower the Presentation Bar . . . Jump Higher
“How come I never get a good group?” Recognize that your group has been assembled with a professional purpose in mind, not to make your life miserable. You will disagree with each other on aspects of the group presentation. How you disagree and how you resolve those disagreements for the good of the team and of … Continue reading Surviving the Group Presentation . . . PART 2
You find all sorts of problems in group work. Anyone who has participated in even one group project in college knows this. Perhaps you believe these challenges are external to you? Others cause problems, because surely you must not be contributing to the challenges facing your group? Let’s examine, understand, and overcome these challenges before … Continue reading Surviving the Group Presentation . . . PART 1
Do you put passion in presentations, or do you settle for being an emotionless automaton? Do you save your passion for other things? Meaningless things? Do you even know what infuses you with passion? Think about it. What is it you long to do? What is it that fills you with the thrill of discovery, … Continue reading How to put Passion in Presentations
We’re all familiar with the droning voice of the numbing speaker who rarely varies pitch, tone, or pace of a talk and who quickly loses us in monotony. In like fashion, you can be visually monotonous. Visual monotony – either of repetitive constant movement . . . or of no movement whatsoever. We know well … Continue reading Secret #5 – Avoiding the Kiss of Sleep . . . With This
Class had ended, and I was giving final feedback for a group that had just presented their business case. Not a bad group presentation by any means, but individual students needed work, and I like to give advice that young folks can carry with them beyond the classroom and on into the workaday world. Not … Continue reading Secret #4 – Expression and Drama
Your voice is one key to an especially powerful business presentation . . . or a disastrous one. Your voice and your appearance are the constants that pervade your presentation from start to finish. Voice is one of the seven dimensions along which we measure the Power Presenter, and a strong, clear, confident voice is one … Continue reading Secret #2 – Your Voice
Your ready position is the default stance you assume when giving your talk, when not emphasizing with movement and gesture. Your Ready Position. It’s a stance affirmed by more than 2,000 years of trial and error, and imbues your talk with an especially powerful ambience. Have you thought about how you’ll stand while you give … Continue reading Secret #1 . . . Especially Powerful Stance
You want to project strength, competence, and confidence throughout your presentation, and one important way to do this is with your stance. Those techniques comprise our backpack full of Seven Secrets of powerful presenting. Your first technique – or secret – is fundamental to projecting the image of strength. It’s basic to demonstrate competence and … Continue reading Secret #1 . . . Your Stance
7 Secrets of Powerful Business Presentations. Could there be anything more tantalizing? Everyone loves secrets. Dark secrets. Sweet secrets. Secrets to tickle the fancy. Secrets to gain the upper hand. Not just one . . . but seven of them! I offer you – beginning here and now – 7 Secrets of Power Presenting. Seven … Continue reading Seven Secrets of Business Presentations
If experience is any guide for us, we can say that approximately 90 percent of our business presentations are delivered in 2-D fashion . . . stick-puppet presenting. No, I don’t mean this literally in the sense that people become stick figures. I mean that the typical business presentation is stripped of depth and breadth. Stripped of … Continue reading From Stick-Puppet Presenting . . . to 3D Presenting
Before computers. Before television and radio. Before loudspeakers . . . Before all of our artificial means of expanding the reach of our unaided voices, there was the public speaker. The “business presenter.” From the time of Corax in the 5th century B.C., public speaking soon developed into what was considered close to an art … Continue reading Who is “The Business Presenter?”
I advocate storytelling in your business presentations to convey your Most Important Point. Stories can capture powerful ideas in a few telling strokes. Stories involve your listeners better than any other competing technique. Remember to tell a story, however, that relates to your subject. A story that contributes to your Most Important Point. Don’t get … Continue reading The Most Important Point – Your MIP
Do you know how to begin a presentation with a compelling intro? Does your introduction have Pow? Or do your forfeit personal competitive advantage right from the get-go? Consider for a moment . . . Do you begin confidently and strongly? Or do you tiptoe into your presentation, as do so many people in school … Continue reading Pow! . . . Grab ’em at the Intro!
Here I speak of Power Words for Business. Words are the stuff of power. Anyone who works with words for a living knows their power. Well, let me issue a caveat . . . anyone who works with words ought to know their power. Every profession has its power words. Words that elicit emotion. Power … Continue reading Power Words for Business Presentations
George H. W. Bush might have called it “the vision thing.” He beat me to it by about 20 years, and while it might have been a phrase suitable for ridiculing an uptight politician, I think it does capture its amorphous quality. It seems that the vision thing is amorphous . . . to everyone … Continue reading Beware the Sneer of the Wise
The business case competition puts you in front of Corporate America in naked competition against the best students from other schools. No hiding behind a resume. No fast-talking a good game. No “national rankings.” Just pure performance that puts you in the arena under lots of pressure. Business Case Competition as Crucible In case competitions, … Continue reading Business Case Competitions
If you discovered that there was one thing – business presentation skill – you could learn that would immeasurably increase your chances of getting a great job after graduation, wouldn’t that be great? What would you think of that? Too good to be true? And what if you discovered that this skill is something that … Continue reading Business Presentation Skill – Your Silver Bullet
Group work can be a bear, sure. But recognize that your group has been assembled with a professional purpose in mind, not to make your life miserable. You will disagree with each other on aspects of the presentation. How you disagree and how you resolve those disagreements for the good of the team and of your presentation … Continue reading The Presentation – Group Work Part II
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