This cast concludes our guidance on how to run a Routine Town Hall Meeting for your organization.

We've talked many times about the importance of managerial communications. Our sample communications plan is one of the more requested documents from us. It shows what we recommend a typical manager do in terms of regular comms with her team, using different media and different frequencies and covering different topics.

And, we've mentioned many times Horstman's Law of Organizational Communications: Say something 7 times and half of your people will say they've heard it once. Every organization has its own sandpaper, rubbing away at your meaning.

One way to reach further down and have more control of your message is to conduct a Town Hall meeting. This is the final meeting that Manager Tools would consider "routine", though it's certainly not frequent. It's in the line of Weekly One on Ones, Weekly Staff Meetings, and periodic Skip Levels.

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This guidance describes how to run a Routine Town Hall Meeting for your organization.

We've talked many times about the importance of managerial communications. Our sample communications plan is one of the more requested documents from us. It shows what we recommend a typical manager do in terms of regular comms with her team, using different media and different frequencies and covering different topics.

And, we've mentioned many times Horstman's Law of Organizational Communications: Say something 7 times and half of your people will say they've heard it once. Every organization has its own sandpaper, rubbing away at your meaning.

One way to reach further down and have more control of your message is to conduct a Town Hall meeting. This is the final meeting that Manager Tools would consider "routine", though it's certainly not frequent. It's in the line of Weekly One on Ones, Weekly Staff Meetings, and periodic Skip Levels.

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This guidance recommends having any of your directs who present, and maybe even yourself, join and attend a Toastmasters Chapter.

We don't often recommend external sources for managerial development, but it's hard not to just bow low to an organization as effective a tool for managers as Toastmasters is. Toastmasters is probably the most effective quasi-professional member-driven voluntary organization we know of.

And why Toastmasters? Because presenting matters, and most of us just aren't very good at it. That said, it's not as if we're all naturally born with the skill, or that we're taught it well. Some schools in the US have started students presenting more…but there's very little instruction on it. (To be fair, though, let's not go the other way and just teach it without having young people do lots of presenting.)

A brief definition for those of you unfamiliar with Toastmasters International: TI is an international organization dedicated to helping people become effective presenters and communicators. There are over a quarter of a million active members all over the world, who generally meet in weekly or bi-weekly meetings. There are HUNDREDS of chapters in most of the major cities in the US. Over 200 in Chicago. There are 12 in Paris, and 25 in London. It's an incredibly LOCAL organization – local chapters meet and practice speaking, and that's about it. You go to TI to become a better presenter and communicator. There aren't service projects which are a big push for you to be "more involved." There are some small fees, and it's unlikely that you as a manager couldn't afford paying yourself for your team, let alone having your company do so.

The modern workplace has become much less vertical and formal than it used to be. More folks are expected to be able to present at all levels. (It used to be 95% of all presenters were managers). More folks know that they have to manage their own careers. Not as many know that results are where their career marketing starts…but surely folks know that others' impressions of them matter a great deal.

If you have directs who present, it's your job as a manager to help those directs be effective when they do it.


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This cast gives our guidance on introducing people.

A while ago, Mark and Wendii traveled to an organization where Mark gave a presentation on career skills. Before Mark arrived, Wendii and the organizer had a long chat about Mark, his background and what qualified him to give this type of presentation. They also discussed his current work at Manager Tools.

When the organizer stood up to into introduce Mark, they both cringed. He was obviously uncomfortable speaking in public and either couldn't read or remember his notes. The event started with a fizzle rather than the bang we'd rather have seen. If you're asked to make this kind of introduction, what can you do to avoid the fizzle?

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This cast helps you start to plan to create a presentation.

We've covered a number of aspects of presentations in both Career Tools and Manager Tools, but we've never really told you where to start. A great presentation doesn't start when you stand still in front of the room (Presentation Basics - Principle 1). It doesn't start when you send the invites out. It starts way, way before that. At least, it does if you want to be successful.

It's human nature to wait until a few days before a deadline (or the night before) before starting anything, and yet we all know the sooner we start, the easier it is and the more successful we'll be. So, if you hear nothing else in this cast, hear START EARLY.

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This cast concludes the discussion of our recommendations on what to do when preparing logistically for a presentation at hotel or offsite location.

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This cast continues the discussion of our recommendations on what to do when preparing logistically for a presentation at hotel or offsite location.

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This cast recommends what to do when preparing logistically for a presentation at hotel or offsite location.

Presenting at an offsite location, often a hotel, seems to be a rite of passage for most professionals. If you haven’t done it before, we promise that you will underestimate the amount of logistical thinking required to do it right. We are routinely amazed – think about that for a second – by smart people thinking that all they have to do is know their content, and they will do well.

But an effective offsite presentation happens much like effective briefings at meetings – way before the presentation actually begins. Here are just the basics on how to be well prepared – at least logistically – for an offsite presentation.

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In this cast, we conclude our conversation on giving a decision briefing to your manager.

1. Use The Career Tools Decision Brief Model: SOCRR
2. Situation
3. Options
4. Comparison
5. Recommendation
6. Request
7. Always Consider Two Hidden Factors: Time and Risk
8. Use SOCRR Always – Longer or Shorter, Versus Important Enough or Not
9. Effective Decision Briefs Are Virtually ALWAYS Pre-Wired

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This cast describes how to give a decision briefing to your manager.

We need a decision from our boss, and we can't get one. What do most of us do? Complain to our peers. This is not a recipe for success, nor changed behavior on your boss's part.

Usually, bosses don't make decisions because there's less pain associated with not making it than there is in making it. Once a boss makes a decision, she has the risk of being wrong. But until she makes the decision, very possibly the negative is that we get less time to take action because we're waiting on the decision. In other words, "no" pain for the boss.

How do we get our bosses to make a decision? How can we present a chance to take a decision in a way that maximizes our chances of getting one?

1. Use The Career Tools Decision Brief Model: SOCRR
2. Situation
3. Options
4. Comparison
5. Recommendation
6. Request
7. Always Consider Two Hidden Factors: Time and Risk
8. Use SOCRR Always – Longer or Shorter, Versus Important Enough or Not
9. Effective Decision Briefs Are Virtually ALWAYS Pre-Wired

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