The Situation: Presenting with Impact
Jane has been in the organization for most of her career. She is well respected and has earned tremendous capital with the board of directors. However, she has limited skills in presenting to the board and audiences. Her new role will require her to travel and present to the subsidiaries across the United States.
The Solution:
In working with Jane, our first action was to videotape her in natural settings and while presenting. Jane struggled to find time to prepare or practice for a presentation. She also relied heavily on PowerPoints. We developed guidelines to organize her presentations. Secondly, we found Jane was much more natural without using PowerPoint. She focused better on what the audiences really wanted to know. Jane answered the “why” question and began to use some facts from the audiences to shape her presentations. Jane also learned to have fun speaking to groups. Most of the time, the audiences wanted to get to know her along with discovering how the information presented would impact them.
The Outcome:
Jane receives e-mail “wow” comments from her audiences on the positive difference in her presentations of today versus two years ago. Senior leaders now look at her to chair the board of directors.
“I was smiling yesterday, I am smiling today and I will smile tomorrow. Simply because life is too short to cry for anything.”
Santosh Kalwar