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Diane

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Diane

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The audience was dumbfounded to learn that the speaker had waited until her start time to discover that she could not get her computer to connect with the room’s projector. The room fell silent as the speaker and meeting planner struggled to get her presentation visible to an audience that was growing restless. Needless to say, this first mishap set the stage for a number of presentation blunders that would be made throughout the rest of  the workshop. It quickly became evident that the speaker did not know some of the basic fundamentals of a great presentation and that audience would experience a less than exciting presentation.

While there are hundreds of ideas for delivering a great presentation, here are a few tips that you can implement immediately:

1.  Know Your audience: This is the most important step before accepting to speak in front of a group of people. Simply stated, if you do not know what your audience wants to hear, how will you meet their needs?  Having a topic that is relevant to your audience’s needs and is a topic that you are knowledgeable in, is the magic equation that will add to the likeliness of being invited back. This was not the case with the speaker mentioned above. This speaker asked questions of the audience that should have been addressed to the event planner in the form of a pre-conference questionnaire. Instead, the presenter asked for a show of hands as to how many audience members were employees of companies with less than fifty employees. When half of the audience raised their hands, she realized that the remaining companies had no use for her employee health benefits software system because it could not protect the identities of companies with fewer than fifty employees.  She essentially wasted the time of twenty five very busy Human Resource managers. During your presentation is not the time to find out that half of your audience does not pertain to your topic.

 2.  Know Your Equipment: Knowing how to operate your audio and video equipment can make or break a successful presentation. This includes your microphone, your PowerPoint slides, your handouts and any other extras needed. It is so frustrating for the audience when a presenter is not familiar with the technology that they supposedly work with every day. This amateur speaker was relying on the words on the screen to guide her in the order of discussion points, but not only that, she read each slide word- for- word to the audience that could read these same words in their handout. In addition, her handouts were in a font size that could not be read by an audience in their 40’s and 50’s. The rule of thumb here is to anticipate the age of the oldest member of your audience and use a font size that is half that person’s age.  For example, if you know there will be people in the audience in their 60’s you will need to have your presentation font in size 32.) The speaker then chose to speak away from the microphone every time she glanced at her PowerPoint to read her slides. When possible, ask for a lavaliere or hand-held microphone so your voice does not weave in and out based on the direction of your head.  The audience wants to feel connected to you and you must give them eye contact ninety percent of the time you are talking to them. Ditch the podium as it creates a barrier between you and your audience which keeps you from connecting with them.

 3.  Become an Expert of PowerPoint: This is absolutely essential if you are planning on using PowerPoint in any of your presentations. Nothing wastes more of the audience’s time than a speaker who does not know how to use their own PowerPoint presentation. It shows the speaker’s lack of competence, preparedness and professionalism. After ten long minutes the hostess of the meeting found a way to help the speaker find her PowerPoint presentation on the laptop that the speaker uses every day. It is okay and smart to have a tech support person stand by to help with any projector or sound issues, but if the laptop is yours, but you need to be able to operate it better than the person hosting the event!

 4.  Know Your Time Allotment: In the world of business, time is everything. Your audience has decided to take precious time away from their urgent tasks in order to hear your message.  This speaker ended her presentation forty-five minutes before she was scheduled to finish because she had a topic that half of her audience did not care about. Because most of the audience was uninterested in her topic, she did not receive any questions from them when prompted, and therefore, finished early.  While this speaker was not being paid, it still left a poor impression on the company that she represented. If she had been paid, her client would not seen much return on their investment. While it is unprofessional as a speaker to go over your allotted time, finishing a presentation a few minutes early is usually appreciated by audiences as they have a chance to visit at their tables or with partners before leaving the meeting or conference.

 5.  Get Feedback to Continually Improve: Last, but certainly not least, is having a process for audience feedback.  What is most frustrating about not having an evaluation process is the uncertainty by the speaker and meeting planner as to how the audience reacted to the presentation. So, the uninformed speaker will likely repeat the same mistakes again with a different audience. Evaluation responses can be brutal to read as a speaker but they are absolutely essential for improvement. A speaker must make sure that a paper or online evaluation will be used for quick feedback.  This speaker had a sense that her presentation was not well received but she will never know the specific reasons because there was no evaluation process.

There are hundreds of other tips for  delivering a successful presentation but if you start with these five easily applied steps, you will find yourself making a difference with your audience and ultimately being invited back which is really the best indicator of success.

About the Author

Diane Amundson is a speaker, trainer and author of Success Strategies:  A High Achievers Guide to Success.  She helps companies improve their interpersonal communication with employees allowing them to be more  productive. Diane  has helped hundreds of organizations over her sixteen years of speaking, training and consulting.  She  served as Adjunct Professor of Organizational Behavior at Winona State University and has traveled the world with Rotary on humanitarian projects in Mongolia, India and Brazil. To find out more about her speaking and consulting, please visit her website at www.dianeamundson.com or call her directly at  Diane Amundson & Associates 507-452-2232.  You can also find her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/dianeamundson or become a fan on Facebook.

4.  Identify Strengths and Weaknesses: As Jim Collins wrote in his best selling business book Good to Great, you need to make sure the right employees are on the right bus in the right seat.  Could it be that a fairly new employee is not in the right seat?  While you may not have the right seat, it is a benefit for the employer to try and match the strengths of the employee with the position for maximum results.  There are many tools available to help discover the employee’s strengths.  One way would be to have them read and complete the “Strengthsfinders 2.0” survey found at the back of this book.  It will identify the top five strengths of an individual and how to best manage that type of strength.  According to Marcus Buckingham in his book Now Discover Your Strengths, fifty four percent of workers are in the wrong job. I would also recommend using the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument or HBDI that identifies the preferred thinking style of workers and the type of work that would best be suited for that thinking style. 

So what happens if you have set clear expectations, given proper frequent feedback, offered more challenging work to your competent workers and they still choose to coast?  Now is your opportunity to help them coast to a different job.  You will need to begin the proper documentation process that will help you successfully terminate their employment with you.  This would include having copies of their performance evaluations showing the improvements needed, ways in which you coached and offered training to improve their performance and any “fair but firm” letters stating that their behaviors must change or termination of the position may follow.While these activities are not a manager’s favorite thing to do, you are doing a disservice to your organization and employee when you keep them in a position for which they are no longer suited to do.  You need to set the stage by writing clear expectations of their job performance so they can choose to conform or exit themselves.  Follow your organizations policies and procedures and make sure you have given that employee the chance to correct the behavior that is keeping them from being successful.

About the Author

Diane Amundson is a speaker, trainer and author of Success Strategies:  A High Achievers Guide to Success.  She works with people that want to become more effective and see better results through improved communication skills. She has worked with hundreds of organizations over her sixteen years of speaking, training and consulting.  She has served as Adjunct Professor of Organizational Behavior at Winona State University and has traveled the world with Rotary on humanitarian projects in Mongolia, India and Brazil. To find out more about her speaking and consulting, please visit her website at www.dianeamundson.com or call her directly at  Diane Amundson & Associates 507-453-2232.  You can also find her on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/dianeamundson or become a fan on Facebook.

I believe there are many factors that contribute to this coasting mentality. After months and even years on a job, employees lose sight of those tasks that yield the greatest outcomes for their unit or departments.  They often take on the work that is easiest for them to complete but not necessarily most relevant.  Because they have not received the right amount of feedback from their bosses, they continue doing the minimal amount of work just to get by.

 The Top 4 Activities Which Will Yield the Most Results

1. Keep Score: They may need to find a way to measure their outcomes each day.  This measurement should show the employee their relevance to the company and customer.    In the example above, Mark could measure sales revenue brought into the radio station along with the number of new customers walking into his client’s businesses.  Whatever numbers or data are being used, the employee should be able to gather the information on their own.  Employees often need to know the score and how to keep score in order  to stay focused and motivated in their jobs.
2. Recognize Effort: Another reason they may lack energy and enthusiasm for taking on more work is the lack of recognition for going above and beyond.  When an employee is new, they want to prove themselves worthy of the position and so they may try to show visibly their competence by taking on projects that no one wants or putting in extra effort to impress their boss and co-workers.  More seasoned workers have seen little return on this effort and therefore do just the bare minimum to get by.  They may have spurts of extra activity but it is no longer used to impress anyone.  Are you recognizing the extra effort your employees put forth?  Do you have processes to show your appreciation?  If you give your praise verbally, make sure it is very specific and not simply “thanks for everything you do”. 

Why is it that once productive, engaged, highly motivated employees begin to coast in their jobs?   What was the critical turning point that made them decide to work less enthusiastically?  While we may not know the exact moment this happens, we do know that the decline occurs over a period of time and the coaster may not even be aware it is happening. While it is hard to put a price on an employee ‘checking out” mentally, it would be safe to say the costs are staggering.   

 To begin our discussion on management processes, I would like to introduce or reintroduce Douglas McGregor’s employee motivation theories X and Y.

• Theory X states that employees need to be looked after because at any chance they will screw up.  According to Theory X, a manager must watch their employees closely because they do not have good intentions, especially when left alone.
• Theory Y states that employees wake up in the morning and head to work with the mindset of doing a good job while at work. People will seek out higher responsibility without the threat of punishment.

An effective manager must embrace Theory Y with their employees because Theory X creates systems of distrust and the self-fulfilling prophecy may take hold that says, “if you don’t trust us, we will live up to that”. A manager should not blindly accept that everyone is working to their full potential.  As the old adage says, you need to inspect what you expect, not because you distrust, but rather, to offer the right amount of direction and support necessary for the employee to succeed.