Today as part of a leadership development program I helped conduct we had teams of students present their findings from a case study. They did OK. Noe of the 25 students was spectacular. A few need alot of work. All of them need some work.

I am not being critical. This was training, after all, and this is where they are supposed to step out and learn but what will they do next to improve this skill. We KNOW that people who speak more effectively in public generally have higher success and promotion rates than equally talented but less eloquent peers. So, knowing this why would you not work on it?

A few weeks ago I witnessed some people present to the Chairman of their company. This is the big time, a chance to shine. Several did, a few didn’t – they were bad.

The biggest mistake people make in this arena is winging it. They do not practice, at all. The groups that presented today probably ran thru their presentations three or four times to rehearse. A good start and something we wanted them to learn but what about you?

Are you a good public speaker? How do you know? Do you wing it? What are you doing to get better? Tiger Woods has a golf coach…why not you some coaching on presentation skills.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 13th, 2009 at 3:09 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.