Presentations

How many presentations have you observed that were poor presentations?  Good presentations that have impact and meaning don’t just happen by accident.  All too often presenters spend 10% of their time preparing for a presentation and 90% giving the presentation.

If you want to present quality presentations that leave an impact spend your time like this:

Outline/Research 30%

Develop Content 30%

Rehearse/Practice 30%

Present 10%

 Start by developing a good outline for the content and researching it.  Consider who will be receiving your presentation and ensure it will connect with them.  Spend your next 30% developing content for the presentation.  We have all experienced “death by PowerPoint”.  By spending time developing content you can share impactful information from your outline and research data.  There are many tools available to create meaningful presentations.  What gets overlooked too often is spending time rehearsing and practicing the presentation.  Anticipate how the presentation will go.  Make sure you can present in the time parameters.  Ensure you will engage your audience.  By using these steps it is time to present.

 90% of a strong presentation happens before you ever present.  Let me know what your tips are for a good presentation with impact.

Lessons Learned

Mistakes happen! When a mistake is made a supervisor will work with the staff member to correct the mistake.  However, that is only half of what a good supervisor needs to do.  A good supervisor will help the staff member to reflect on what they have learned from the mistake.  Supervisors often spend a great deal of effort to correct a mistake.  If they spent as much effort to help the staff member learn the lesson from their mistake, there would be fewer mistakes in the future.  Helping staff reflect on mistakes allows them to enhance their knowledge and skill application.  That is what learning organizations do.  So, the next time there is a mistake consider what can be learned from it first, then correct the mistake.

Your calling

The notion of pursuing your passion through your work is incorrect.  Work is an avenue to fulfill your purpose.  Your passion may or may not be what your work provides.  If you pursue your purpose (or your calling) through work, then your passion will be cultivated.  

Pursuing your purpose in work comes when you are doing something you are good at, feeling appreciated, and making people’s lives better.  Pursuing your calling (or purpose) at work will allow you to feel a part of something greater than yourself. When work aligns with your purpose, you are driven by your heart, rather than money or someone else’s expectations.

Politics

It's not enough to come up with good ideas and new innovations. Most organizations have hundreds, if not thousands, of good ideas and new innovations. That's why leaders need to know how to take innovations, ideas, or agendas and turn them into realities. Leaders need to learn that it's not enough to simply have a good idea or have a mandate from higher up; they need to anticipate resistance, create effective coalitions, map the political terrain, and get buy-in. They need to understand the politics of the organization every day to implement agendas and achieve results.