Nothing says more about your credibility, power and confidence as a presenter than what you do – and don’t do – with your eyes. Here’ are my responses to two very interesting recent reader questions about eye contact.
Question – ‘What if I look at someone in the audience who isn’t looking back at me? Then what do I do?’
A workplace meeting can be an effective and efficient tool for dealing with information problems or communication issues. It can also be a frustrating, unproductive and expensive waste of time. How organizations plan, facilitate and manage the meeting process will make all the difference between success and failure. Here’s a summary of some key points I shared with a client during a recent workshop on Meeting Management Best Practices.
You know that old adage, ‘There’s no such thing as a dumb question’? Sorry to spoil your fantasy, but that’s wrong. There are plenty of dumb questions. Three of my faves are:
1. Excuse me, do you know what time it is? 2. Hey Mister, got any spare change? 3. Honey, do you want to take out the trash?
What’s your point? Really – what’s the key message you’ll be delivering that you want the audience to understand, remember and agree with after the presentation? Your Main Point (MP) is the essence of your message, boiled down to one concise, specific, positive sentence. You should be able to write it on the back of your business card.
How do you get to the Presenters’ Hall of Fame? Before you all chime in with ‘Practice, man … practice‘, consider this – practice doesn’t make perfect, it only makes permanent. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
So, Best-in-Class Presenters got in the Hall of Fame by perfect practice. They also got in there by harnessing the power of Audience-Centricity, the art and science of crafting and delivering audience-centered messages. What follows is a brief summary of Best Practices learned from those presentation pros.
Here’s this month’s addition to the ‘Mechanics’ section of your Written Communication Tool Kit – Capitalization:
Capitalize
How you practice is often more important than how much. Last month’s ‘Communicate Confidently’ eLetter article on practicing presentations generated several reader questions. Here’s a summary of some of the comments I offered in my email responses:
Some masterful Listening Tips from ‘Communicate or Die’:
Regular readers realize the mission-critical value of effective, efficient and compelling networking. Properly done, it can result in easily learning important information to help you do your jobs better or find better jobs or grow your businesses. It can sometimes even lead to creating new mutually beneficial business relationships.
Last month’s ‘Communicate Confidently’ eLetter article on practicing presentations generated several reader questions. Here’s a summary of some of the comments I offered in my email responses: