Pausing to Pause in Presentations
Behind effective presenting lies a world of tools and techniques, not to mention a range of complex human mindsets that may help or hinder the process. However, one technique that I…
Why is it so hard to produce simple presentations?
Why is it so hard to produce simple presentations?
“This is the way we’ve always done it.” In the context of presentations, nobody ever says this to me, but time and time again, when I go into companies to give…
How to build excellent relationships
How to build excellent relationships
I recently gave a training course on managing relationships at work and thought it would be nice to adapt the section on the actions we can take to build relationships for this blog post.
It seems so obvious that having good working relationships leads to higher productivity yet many people don’t make this direct link. Good relationships lead to more innovation and creativity at work as people feel confident enough to express themselves, time consuming, energy draining obstacles such as office politics and back stabbing are removed and of course, if you want to progress in your career, a good relationship with your boss is fundamental.
So what can we do to build better relationships at work? Here are some ideas. (more…)
The essentials of an effective meeting
The essentials of an effective meeting
We hear so much about the desirability of effective meetings. But how many meetings are truly effective and what do we mean be effective? Effective meetings leave you energised and…
How to Connect with your Audience when Presenting
How to Connect with your Audience when Presenting
The public speaking world is awash with hundreds of techniques to make your presentation/speech ‘effective’ ‘have impact’ ‘be persuasive’, ‘entertaining’ … the list goes on.
But what purpose underlies all these techniques? It is to CONNECT.
Presenting is communicating and communicating is about connecting with the person/people in front of you.
That’s all very well you might say, but how do I connect?
Let’s start with 10 things we don’t do to connect when presenting: (more…)
Leadership and that ‘vision thing’
Leadership and that ‘vision thing’
It goes without saying that having a vision is a necessary quality of an effective leader or leadership team; followers can’t follow without a vision to follow!
But the best visions that work are the simple ones. They work because they demonstrate three things:
- Where we are going and why that is relevent to each individual.
- How exactly we will get there and that getting there is possible.
- What the vision means to each person and this is communicated well.
Business learning solution presenting negotiating in English
Where does communication go wrong?
There's no doubt - we all tend to take communication for granted. But as George Bernard Shaw pointed out, "The problem with communication... is the illusion that it has been…
A simple way to make your presentation more professional
A simple way to make your presentation more professional
Here at Business Learning Solutions we are getting asked more and more to do presentations training and coaching in multinational companies. And I see managers and directors who have been giving presentations for years making the same mistake over and over again.
What is the common mistake most of them make? – There is no structure to their presentations. And no structure to a presentation means that the audience soon becomes bored and switches off. (more…)
How to get genuine feedback
How to get genuine feedback
Sometimes as a manager it’s difficult to get honest, genuine feedback on how you are performing from a member of your team. We know that if we are to get the most out of our team we must listen to their view on how we can improve but many people are reluctant to tell their boss ‘the honest truth’. (more…)