One of the most important things for business communicators to understand is the distinction between a speech and a presentation. They are not the same. The problem is not that people struggle to articulate the difference between the two or have a hard time distinguishing one from the other as an audience member. The problem...
read more
People often ask us about the rules for PowerPoint. Some examples include, “What’s the rule for … the number of bullets on a slide?” the number of words per bullet?” the number of slides a presentation should have?” the right size font to use?” the right font to use?” We also hear apologies like these:...
read more
How to be persuasive when presenting data If you deliver a lot of data-heavy presentations, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut and approach each of them with the same goal, “I just need to deliver the information.” You might be tempted to assume that the data speaks for itself and that its usefulness...
read more
Many presenters ask us about the best way to get their presentations started. They say that once the conversation gets going, they’re fine. But getting through the opening is always uncomfortable. Getting past the presentation nervousness that builds up before and at the start is a struggle. This is a tough issue for us to...
read more
For some presenters, preparation is all about collecting data and turning it into PowerPoint slides. There’s more to effective, efficient preparation than that, though. It’s not that you won’t use slides. It’s that by creating slides right off the bat, you may skip steps intended to help you craft your content to meet the needs...
read more
I’ve written a lot about how important it is for presenters to initiate and manage a genuine conversation with their audiences—how it’s the presenter’s responsibility to focus on making listening and understanding easy for everyone. But what if there is a team involved? What are the challenges unique to that situation? Features of a Successful...
read more
We are always looking for new ways to improve the impact that we have on our clients, their teams, and the portion of the business that they support. This article is about a recent client request and how we made an on-the-fly adjustment to a workshop, which resulted in a big win for the presenters....
read more
Some time back, Dale and I were the guest speakers on a webinar. The topic was about how we’ve redefined business presentations as Orderly Conversations. We were talking about the use of eye contact and pausing in order to get yourself engaged in the conversation. When we talk about being engaged as a presenter, we’re talking about...
read more
As a leader, you expect your employees’ business communication to be effective and efficient. But is it? Too often, it’s not. (I’ve written about the business implications here.) However, it doesn’t have to be that way. To be effective and efficient, business interactions must succeed on two levels. Helping your employees understand this concept is the...
read more
As a presenter, when you are engaged in the conversation, you are connected to your thoughts and externally focused on the people you are speaking with. If you’ve been in business for any length of time, you know that some presenters are NOT engaged in the process. Not only are their presentations hard to listen...
read more