I was working with a presenter the other day who was stuck in what we call no man’s land. No man’s land is a spot about halfway between the laptop and the screen. It doesn’t matter what size the room is or how the equipment is set up; No man’s land is always the spot...
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Earlier this year, Greg Owen-Boger posted a blog entry here called “TRUST: It’s Yours to Lose.” In it, he talked about what a senior executive needed to do to keep the trust of the people in his organization. Greg’s point was about being genuine, transparent, and respecting the needs and views of others. Today I’d like...
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I was on LinkedIn and ran across a discussion that caught my eye. The question that was posed was this: “You prepared a 30-minute presentation, and when you arrived, it was reduced to 20 minutes. What would you do?” This is a common occurrence, of course. Meetings often run long. If you’re at the end of the...
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If you’re a business presenter, you know that one of the challenges you face is context. Not only do you need to think about how your recommendations fit into the context of your listeners’ lives, but you also have to consider how each of your slides fits into the context of the presentation as a...
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It seems almost every time I visit LinkedIn, I see a post about how to deliver a perfect presentation. This makes me cringe. If you click on any of these articles, you’ll inevitably find that the tips and tricks mentioned are applicable to the speechmaking process — not business presentations. Speeches and Business Presentations Are...
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Managers often come to us and ask how they can help their team members get a handle on the nervousness they experience when presenting. This isn’t surprising, of course, since this type of nervousness is a real issue for a lot of people. We all experience it differently and to varying degrees, but the reality...
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This is a follow-up to the blog I wrote a few months ago, They Won’t Speak if You Don’t Listen. In that post, I mentioned that facilitators have two fundamental goals. They need to (1) encourage participation in the conversation and (2) control the discussion once it begins. As I said, facilitators often spend too much...
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As a communication consultant working with presenters, facilitators, and trainers, I have a lot of interesting conversations with business leaders about their employees. The conversations may go something like this: “Greg, I know John is smart. He has great ideas and is always willing to put himself out there, but in meetings, he doesn’t communicate...
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As you know, if you’ve ever participated in one of our workshops, we talk a lot about the use of engagement skills, eye contact, and pausing. We say that using these skills to engage listeners in the conversation reduces nervousness, brings listeners into the conversation, and helps you avoid the hazards of a canned performance....
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Recently I had a lively phone call with a potential client. It was clear that he had done his homework on us and our competitors and had prepared some tough questions for me. Here’s my favorite question: “What’s the biggest barrier you face when working with people in your workshops?” I love this question. My...
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