Presentation Skills – It’s all about your Goal…

The pressure is on.  Steve has been asked to deliver a presentation in a few weeks.  He’s been given the title but that’s about it.  He spends the next week drinking lots of pinot grigio whilst designing a presentation around the title he’s been given.  It looks ok, a few slides, a bit of serious stuff and a couple of gags thrown in for good measure.  After two practice runs, he’s good to go.

Sadly, for Steve, his presentation didn’t grab his audience’s attention.  They drifted off, unsure as to the point of it all.  Steve had made a common presentation faux pas – he’d forgotten about the goal.

Steve, just like many other presenters that I meet, are so concerned with the title, the content and the slides that they forget about the holy grail of presentations…the goal and objectives.  What do you want your audience to think, to do, to feel by the end of your presentation?  What’s the point of it?

If you don’t know the point, then it’s pretty much a dead cert that your audience won’t – and if they don’t then you’ll lose them and sadly, they’ll probably stop listening.

Before designing your next presentation, slam the brakes on, take a step back and ask yourself the following questions

• What’s the ultimate goal or objective of your presentation?
• What tangible changes, results or actions do you want your presentation to inspire?
• If your adoring crowd were to remember one key thing what would you want it to be?

It’s important to refer back to your goal/objectives when designing your presentation.  This will ensure you don’t drift away from the key message you’re trying to get across and will keep it entirely relevant to your audience.

I hope you’ve found this useful. If you want to know more about how we can help you improve your presentation skills, why not get in touch with Mike for a chat on 07825 301660, or click here now for our full contact details.

C’mon, trust me – I’m your manager

Tom trusted his team implicitly. In his eyes, he always ‘watched their backs’ and defended them whenever his team faced criticism. He empowered them and only micro managed when he felt it was absolutely necessary. He delegated appropriately and kept the team up to date with what direction the business was going in. All in all, Tom was happy with how he managed his team. Tom’s team didn’t trust him as far as they could throw him. They always felt that he was on their backs, watching their every move, waiting for them to trip up and make a mistake. In their eyes, he always micro managed them and they hated it. They wanted to be left alone to do their jobs but there was no chance of that with ‘Peeping Tom’ hanging around. They also felt that he was quite secretive. He hardly ever updated them about company matters even though there had been rumours of a takeover. He also had an annoying habit of taking credit for other peoples work. As a consequence, there was disharmony in the team, a lack of morale, productivity was down and quite significantly, there was zero trust.

Trust can be measured across 5 levels…

Level 1. Total Trust – If you’re going into battle, I’m coming with you

Level 2. Social Contract – We have a mutual connection – This can be created through commonalities, personality, or just a mutual respect for how you both work

Level 3. Quid Pro Quo – You do something for me and I’ll do something for you

Level 4. Deception – Trust is now on the slide. I see you through a different set of eyes

Level 5. Revenge – I will get my own back on you

Tom would probably put his team at level 1, 2 or 3. Sadly for him though his team would place him at level 4 or even 5.

Thankfully a colleague told Tom about the gap in trust and Tom worked hard in the proceeding months to rebuild it. If it hadn’t come to light the gap would have got bigger and bigger, to the detriment of everyone and of course to the business.

What level of trust are your team at? Where would they place you? Once you have identified this you can then proactively put a plan in place to improve the relationships in your team.

Do you need a hand helping your managers to improve the levels of trust in their teams? Why not get in touch to see how we can help.

Managing Conflict – Preventing it all from kicking off

Karen was notorious for flying off the handle, especially when faced with conflict. Her pupils would turn green and she would explode into a ranting rage. Her fists would immediately go up and she would get defensive and blame anyone and everyone but herself. All in all, it looked like she’d had one too many fruit shoots!

Karen was well known for diving in with both feet when dealing with a conflicting situation. In her opinion, “It got everything out in the open and sorted”. In reality of course, she made matters far worse. The divide between her and her team was getting wider by the day. Her biggest failure was that she never took a step back to analyse the situation and figure out how best to resolve it.

The PU View

We would advise Karen to take an hour out and think about which of the following techniques she could use to resolve her conflict situations. She could:

Compromise – Find common ground to maintain the relationship
Compete – Very much a win/lose situation. (I suspect she would love this approach)
Avoid – A lose/lose situation.
Accommodate – This approach is generally used when one party is willing to forfeit their position
Collaborate – Very much a win/win situation. Requires trust and commitment on both sides (I can’t see her adopting this approach)

The key when trying to resolve conflict is to take a considered step back to reflect. Do you really want to resolve the conflict? If so, which technique/strategy is likely to have the best effect in order to achieve the desired goal? How will the other party react? More importantly, how will you react?

Sadly for Karen, she will always be picking up the pieces of conflict. Conflict will never get resolved in her eyes and all because she won’t take that essential step back to reflect and consider each situation objectively.

Book Recommendation 

This book will change how you see all conflict.  Leadership and Self-Deception: Getting Out of the Box by Arbinger Institute 

Tacit Knowledge – Get it out of their heads

Mel managed a team of stars. Her small but perfectly formed HR Team of three had worked together for five years. They knew each other and their respective roles inside out. They all worked on autopilot. Managing them was the easiest job Mel had ever had. That was until one fateful wet and windy November morning…

Mel was always first into the office, so she thought it unusual to find all of her team members sat waiting for her. The expression on their faces didn’t look good. They didn’t waste any time in thrusting their one months’ notice letters in front of her. Mel looked aghast as they each apologised feebly and went on to explain that they had been offered more money by one of their competitors and that their minds were well and truly made up.

Four weeks passed quickly and before Mel knew it they were all gone. Not only did they take their belongings, they also took a staggering combined total of 15 years’ experience with them. All that was left was a mouldy pack of fig rolls, an out of date procedures manual and some complicated flow charts. Sadly for Mel, a high percentage of their knowledge had been in their heads. In other words, they had legged it with a multitude of tacit knowledge – knowledge that was now lost forever.

Mel sat back, ate three of the mouldy fig rolls and began to deeply regret never surfacing some of their tacit knowledge during the five years they had all worked together.

How much tacit knowledge is swirling around in your team or business?
Are you in danger of falling into Mel’s trap?
Who would leave a massive gap if they left your team tomorrow?
What can you proactively do to surface some of their tacit knowledge?

After a few bottles of Pino Grigio, Mel dusted herself down, recruited three replacements and put a plan in place to ensure this could never happen again in the future. Amongst other things, she introduced regular knowledge sharing sessions so that knowledge and best practice could be shared amongst the team and introduced a mentoring, coaching and job shadowing scheme.

At least if any of Mel’s new team members ever decided to jump ship, all would not be lost again.

Do you need a hand helping to surface the tacit knowledge of your employees? Why not get in touch now to see how our ‘Sharing Best Practice’ training course can help.

Bringing your Tender Document to Life

Steve had spent weeks preparing his tender document and so he was overjoyed when he heard the news that he had been selected to present his tender to an eagerly awaiting panel. Steve knew deep down that his presentation skills weren’t that great but he was convinced that his product and more importantly the tender document would win them over.

So there he was on the big day, all suited and booted looking like a little boy on his first day at school. Fast-forward only an hour and Steve looked a little more than dishevelled and appeared to be in need of a stiff gin. All was not well. Steve’s presentation had bombed. He simply froze – he couldn’t answer the panels questions, or elaborate on any of the points in his document. The panel were left disappointed and went in search of some more willing victims.

So many clients that I work with believe that all the work has been done once they receive glowing feedback about their tender document. But this couldn’t be further from the truth. If you are preparing for a tender presentation then it’s vital that the panel are left:

Suitably Impressed
Totally convinced by what you have to say
Reassured that you can deliver what you promise
Adequately Informed about how you can benefit their business

Poor old Steve didn’t tick any of these boxes and was left devastated as a consequence. Steve was seen a few hours later on Wigan North Western train station hugging a bottle of Bombay Sapphire Gin – If only he hadn’t been so complacent then things might have been different….

Here are some tips that maybe Steve should have taken on board:

People buy people
It’s essential to build rapport with the panel as early as possible. You may have the greatest product on the market, but if they don’t warm to you then they won’t buy from you.

Know your audience
Know who will be sat there and speak their language, speak their jargon if needed and get on their wave length as quickly as you can.

Now isn’t the time to lie
Tell the truth, the panel will be listening intently and will be able to smell a lie no problem! 55% of how we communicate is via our body language – so they will read you like a book. Don’t make any false claims and never commit to things that you know deep down you can’t deliver.

Be assertive
Be proud of what you have to say. You are representing your business so speak confidently and with conviction.

Structure
Right from the outset the panel will need to know:-
Why you are talking to them
Why you have made your suggestions
How you have come to your conclusions
How they will benefit from your approach

And finally, stick to the point and when asked a question simply answer it, don’t go off on a tangent – the panel will consist of busy, important people, so no waffling. There is so much at stake that tender presentations can be a tense affair but it’s all about bringing your tender document to life and with a bit of careful preparation there is no reason why you cant blow their socks off.

Need a hand with your presentation skills? Contact us now for a chat, or speak to Mike direct on 07825 301660.