How do you show up?.....power of engaging presentations.

Hello Everyone,
Welcome to the Lion's den once again. Hope you all had a great weekend. In the past couple of weeks, I have written about the importance of  communication in everyday life and how this skill is the engine oil of life in general and the corporate world in particular. This week, I am making this more personal by focusing on how we show up by the way we communicate. In the business world, there are lots of meetings to sell ideas, make decisions, secure alignment to plans. During these meetings, one of the commons forms of business communication, presentations are used.

Whilst the focus is on achieving the purpose of the meeting, a lot of us do not think about how we show up. What is not always so obvious is also the fact that the presenter is being assessed especially when you have senior leaders are in the room. You can either show up as assertive, competent, leadership potential or show up as weak, incompetent or good technically with limited leadership potential.

 I have been in a number of performance reviews and people calibrations  where other senior leaders views about candidates have come from their experience of the individuals during presentations. What consistently showed up was that it was easier to endorse the recommendation of the boss if the candidates under review showed up great during the presentation. Where the perception was bad, it was always tough and the boss needed to have a ton of evidence to convince their peers that the presentation was not a complete reflection of the candidate.

 I have also seen a lot of sales, technical  people say it's for marketing people and all I need is to sell my target or hit my production or numbers and that's all. The reality is we are all personal brands and like brands in the marketing world,  the brands that command the best value deliver clear tangible benefits and also sentimental/emotional value. How you make your leaders, peers, surbordinates feel is as important as what you do for them especially if you have leadership aspirations. The following  are a couple of tips which have helped me build this skill in my career.

Understand that it's both about the result you deliver and how you show up. This allows you to do the preparation required to ensure you are confident and able to make your audience feel good about your performance and competence. Preparation preparation preparation is key. You howver don't prepare just before the presentations, you prepare by the way you go about your daily work. Are you outcome focused/ Do you review your work to understand the key drivers and have clarity of what key issues are and how to solve them. Do you have a mindset of excellence and and always wanting to give the best? In my experience, most people are floored by questions linked to work and outside of the slides they have presented.

Do you understand your audience and what they want?Having a customer service mindset always helps you to focus on their needs to meet your objectives. Learn the art of persuasive selling. People say yes to your proposals and feel good when you demonstrate that you understand their needs, know their limitations and offer them a proposal to take advantage of the opportunities before them.Always apply the grand rule in communications" seek ye first to understand and then to be understood".

Always speak with authenticity. You have to demonstrate you can stand for what you believe is right and important. I have seen people falter and shift position because the boss has said something even if they are sure the boss is wrong. Sometimes that's a test by the boss to see if you truly believe what you are saying. Learn to communicate your beliefs without being dogmatic .Some meetings become very testy when it feels like a show of wills with your boss. Learn the difference between responsibility and accountability and build the sense of judgment to know when to give up. Accepting your boss's authority doesn't mean giving up on your ideals. Authenticity backed by clear thinking and a sense of judgement is what makes people start thinking maybe this person has some leadership potential

Learn how to deliver engaging presentations. Enrol for a persuasive selling and effective presention skills course if your organization offers one or look outside for one. There are also clubs like Toastmasters International that help you to build good presentation and public speaking skills. Ask a colleague to always give you feedback, use your boss as a coach and where he can't, find someone who is good and neutral to give you feedback.  Being very good at technical skills is not enough to propel you to the top. Remember that organizations want people who know to deliver results  and at the same time inspire others. Leadership is about inspiring others and good delivery helps!!

How you show up helps you build equity within the work place and beyond and propel your career . Good presenters are not born but made. As you go through this week, let your light shine so all can see the quality and goodness that sits inside of you.
Have a great week.

Kind regards,
Alex Goma aka Teranga Lion.