The conclusion of our conversation on Audio Visual Equipment Use.

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Presentations are just like management – everybody has to know how to do them well ... but nobody is getting taught the right way. It's as if Kafka invented both of them, and we are left with only the dread. Even Toastmasters doesn't do a great job on slide use in presentations.

Because there is so much to cover about presentations, this is one in a series of many casts. In this one, we're simply going to describe how to use the two most common audio-visual tools: slides and flip charts.

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This cast describes the second part in our series how to think about being persuasive in a presentation.

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This cast describes a way to prepare for meetings or presentations where you need to persuade.

You have a meeting coming up. Not only do you need to make a presentation, you need to make the presentation to your bosses boss. Perhaps you need to present to your bosses boss, but also all her directs at her next staff meeting. How do you prepare for that? How do you ensure that you don't walk across any land-mines during the presentation? What can you do NOW to make that presentation a slam-dunk?

Listen up ... in this members-only cast, with obvious links to our weekly podcast discussion on persuasion, we're going to show you!

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This cast describes how to think about being persuasive in a presentation.

One of the most maligned arts in professional life today is persuasion. The classic case of persuasion falling out of favor is how often professional sales people are viewed as golfers with big expense accounts. Or, perhaps even more perniciously, why is it that all of the sales roles in technology firms are called "Business Development"? Sales is associated with persuasion, and that taint keeps far too many managers from embracing the real value of persuasion.

But we all know that we have to do it, right? Admit it: you know that you're going to be called upon to persuade others. Just because you wish you could just MAKE people do what you want, or that they would "just see it my way!" doesn't change the fact that every manager is expected to be persuasive.

Here's how to begin to think about it.

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This cast is the second in our series on how to prepare and deliver an agenda for a large meeting or training. If you haven't listened to the first cast on the topic, we'd encourage you to do that first. You can find it here: http://www.manager-tools.com/2007/08/how-to-handle-agendas-in-a-meeting-...

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This cast walks through how to prepare and deliver an agenda for a large meeting or training.

Agenda preparation is a lost art. We think of agendas as the skeleton of a good meeting. Sadly, too many meetings suffer from a lack of the structure that agendas provide. Meetings without agendas are usually terribly inefficient. Because they are [somewhat ;-)] time-bound, that inefficiency means ineffectiveness. And ineffectiveness is anathema to Manager Tools managers.

In this cast, we tell you what to do once you’ve prepared your agenda. (There’s a separate cast for the details and rules around preparation).

Be a management artist: use agendas.

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In this podcast, we finish our conversation on answering questions during a presentation.

Four easy steps:

1. Your initial response when you first hear the question
2. PHYSICALLY catching the Medicine Ball
3. VERBALLY catching the medicine ball
4. And how to finish up once you've answered the question

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If you've ever given a presentation, you've probably been asked to leave time for questions. You may have even gone the extra step of thinking about what questions might you get. However, in our experience, 80% of the managers we've coached haven't, but maybe you're in the 20% category.

But have you ever thought not about the content of the questions, but rather the delivery of your answer? Even if you have a perfect answer, if the question is even slightly confrontational, your delivery could doom you from the start. Most presenters give away their fear and lack of preparation by behaving in ways that actually INCREASE the conflict inherent in a challenging question. In this podcast, the first of a two-part series, we discuss how to answer questions in a manner that leaves you, the presenter, in the best possible position.

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It's been over a year since we first talked about presentations, and we only talked about one very narrow aspect of presentations: the use and mis-use of PowerPoint. Sure, PowerPoint is important, but even if you master it, your presentations can still be terrible. (Whether you read your slides to your audience or not.)

Presentations are a core skill for managers. If, right now, you don't consider yourself exceptional at presenting, we believe you're at a disadvantage in your career. We feel strongly that presenting skills are an under-invested in skillset, and smart managers know that small improvements in this area can make a big difference. It's so important, in fact, that we'll probably have at least 20 casts on presentations in the coming years. Part of this is because Mark is a professional speaker, has been a speechwriter, coaches executives on presentations both broadly and on specific speeches, and partly because BOTH of us have had to sit through many presentations whose ideas die an early death unrelated to their own merits. We've actually seen it happen to our own members. LIVE.

In this cast, we BARELY scratch the surface, but share just ONE basic principle of great speakers that apply to business presentations. You're not going to become great with just this one cast, but you ARE going to look better than your peers. We look forward to the first member sending us a note describing the unexpectedly great response they got when they put our recommendations to work for them and their ideas.

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