The Secret to Successful Presenting: Competence

Over the years, we’ve had the privilege of training and coaching thousands of executives to deliver successful presentations. Over and over, we see people trying to avoid making presentations or presenting below their peak capabilities because they lack confidence in their skills to deliver a compelling presentation.

The solution is being competent at three presentation components:

• Master the content of the presentation; otherwise, the fear of being asked something you don’t know undermines your self-confidence, and weakens your persuasiveness
• Use an organization structure in which information is structured to guide decision-making and  flows to the compelling conclusion you want – to buy, act or learn
• Connect with the audience at both a logical and emotional level, so as to create trust, which is the fundamental first step for action.

Brian Tracy says that selling is the transfer of enthusiasm. Powerful presentations are generated when you feel confident that you are competent at these three components. That’s why Presentation Excellence uniquely addresses all of them, because it’s the individual and collective contribution of each that destroys a potentially powerful presentation. And as business gets more and more competitive, confidence through competence becomes even more critical.

Are you a Leader or Manager?  Some Useful Distinctions

As part of our Executive Coaching, we often spent some time differentiating the responsibilities that they have as “leaders” vs. “managers”. Here are five helpful distinctions.

• Leaders’ primary focus is on creating change. That’s why creativity and perspective is so critical. Managers in contract are primarily concerned with stability and you’ll feel more comfortable.
• Leaders focus on the environment outside the organization to identify what changes are needed to guide the company, department or team. Managers take this input and channel them into processes and structures that will produce effective internal execution of the new direction.
• Leaders focus on effectiveness – what’s the best thing to do? Managers focus on efficiency – what’s the best way to do it?
• Leaders focus the team or followers on the future. Managers focus on the present and near future, with the goal of making it better than past performance.
• Leaders focus on creating reinforcing systems, so the organization can cost-effectively achieve results. Managers tend to focus more on reinforcing individuals’ behaviors.

Client News

VUANCE, Ltd. (VUNC) – This leading provider of Radio Frequency Verification Solutions, presented in February at the Roth 20th Annual Growth Conference. It also will be holding its 4th Quarterly conference call on March 13. See www.vuance.com

SPO Medical (SPOM) – This leading developer of biosensor & microprocessor technologies for use in portable monitoring devices, began shipping its new professional pulse oximeters: PulseOx 6000™ & PulseOx 6100™. See www.spomedical.com.

Public companies seeking new investors should consider live, Virtual Investor Presentations – the most cost-effective IR tool to reach prospects. InterCall and Wall Street VIPs have teamed up to provide this FREE webinar.

On April 9th, 1PM EDT, learn how to deliver compelling online presentations. In this case, the medium is the message!

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