PRESENTATIONS

January is a traditionally a very busy month for us. We help clients conceptualize and delivery annual (corporate and sales) representations to educate and energize the team to achieve new heights in the coming year. It's also a busy month as we train sales people to improve their presentation effectiveness. Here are some tips we're passing on.

• Focus on the audience, not on yourself. Everyone is nervous; even the most polished speaker. The difference is focus: paying attention to what the audience needs to hear and how the message should be presented for maximum effectiveness, leaves little energy for paying attention to your butterflies – and the result is they disappear quickly as you get into the "flow" and get positive feedback from the audience.
• Make it engaging. Today people's attention spans are shorter than ever. Plus, we've all gone through boring presentations. So the burden is on you to come up with a format that engages the person so he/she wants to hear/watch more. Just as you don't want to hear old news or a stale joke, neither does your audience.
• Keep it succinct. Less is more. With shorter attention spans, people remember "bumper stickers" better than a litany of statistics. If the goal is to get the audience to act, including often getting them to related the story to others who will help them take action, then don't distract the audience with clutter.

LEADERSHIP

Much of our work involves helping Leaders craft and communicate powerful visions to the team and help them mobilize the team to execute it through management systems, training and executive coaching, and changing corporate culture and structure. As we head into 2010, here are some tips we're passing on:

• Be transparent about changes. A new year calls for new actions, but people also want a sense of continuity. Therefore, it's important to explain what worked and didn't work in 2009 and why the new changes for 2010 are likely to produce desired results.
• Improve your Leader Presence. There were lots of leader scandals and disappointments during 2009 – in business, politics and sports – and all leaders are being viewed from a more skeptical position this year. Discover what image of leadership you are presenting, and if it's not as strong as it should be, then allocate some extra time at the beginning of the year to increase your leader effectiveness.
• Separate out your leadership versus management functions. Most executives wear both hats, but while the latter increase their effectiveness by delegating, the former increase their effectiveness by grasping trends (industry, economic, demographic, political and social), and anticipating where the company should go in the future to capitalize on them. With the New Year, re-double your leadership skills and acumen.

AFFILIATE NEWS

This year, Dr. Cahn has agreed to chair a new Vistage group for local executives. Vistage Int'l is a 52 year old firm serving 14,500 members that uses a unique service format to help Chief Executives become better leaders, make better decisions and produce better results. (Research shows that members almost triple their annual growth rates after joining a Vistage group!). He will be forming Vistage New York, a peer advisory group of about a dozen executives committed to increasing their effectiveness, enhancing their lives, and holding one another accountable for turning intentions into results.

Learn more about it at www.vistagenewyork.com. If you're not in NYC, but want to join another Vistage group in the US, contact us for an introduction at jerry.cahn@vistage.com or 646-290-7664.