Powerful Presentations - For Business

Would you like to deliver impactful business presentations that get your message across clearly and in an inspirational way?

How about feeling a sense of inner confidence each time you walk up to the stage?

If you are saying ‘yes’ to the above questions then welcome to ‘Powerful Presentations – For Business.’

We are about to explore some simple but highly effective strategies for you to not just handle your nerves a little better, but to create an empowered state of mind for you to feel nothing less than the best you can feel when delivering a presentation in a business environment.

Handle nerves and deliver presentations with impact

Predictions for Learning & Development in 2014

With the recovery of the recession in full swing, training is on the rise again.  With that said, we have a prediction for Learning & Development moving into 2014 which might just surprise you.

Before we press on with today’s article, here are a few questions you may wish to consider for your business heading into next year:

“How could Learning & Development help your staff members both individually and as a team in 2014?”

“What specific skills would help your business deliver an even greater service to your customers?

“What are the 3 main areas you would like to see up skilled within your team by the end of next year?”

“Combining all of the above, how could Learning & Development help your business rise to the next level?”

Training Predictions for 2014

You do not need to answer these questions in detail right now, however once you have read today’s predictions for Learning & Development you may wish to revisit these questions and see how closely they link to your business and aims for next year and beyond.

The prediction relates to an area which even just 10 years ago didn’t really exist in the Learning & Development world but in contrast, over the last 12 months has been bubbling up and by next year will be ready to explode. This area is called Intrapersonal Skills (relationship with yourself), this includes courses like Emotional Intelligence Training Course, Presenting Skills Training Course, Building Personal Resilience Training Course and Leadership Training Courses.

Presenting skills and leadership courses also relate to Interpersonal Skills (your relationship with others), which no doubt these courses are about that, yet we are realising more and more now that in order to influence others and communicate effectively, we must first own a confident and good relationship with ourselves, especially in the business world. 

Emotional Intelligence takes this one step further and delves into the depths of the subconscious mind, being present and understanding that we can control our emotions or at least manage them, something that is essential when working in a busy and high demanding office environment.

Why are these types of courses becoming so popular in the business world?

• Intrapersonal Skills courses are no longer considered fluffy or non measurable.  This is greatly due to training companies ensuring they are delivering to a higher standard but also because of the growth of the personal development industry over the last 5 years and the direct impact it is continually having on people’s lives for the better.  How many people do you know who have read at least one personal development book at your office?  Perhaps you have read one or more yourself?
  
• Stress costs the UK economy up to 12 billion per year - a recent study done by mental health charity MIND revealed that work is the most stressful factor in peoples’ lives, with one in three people (34 percent,) saying their work life was either very or quite stressful.  Therefore, companies are now being very proactive by investing in their staff members’ health and wellbeing.  Businesses are achieving this by offering staff courses such as some already mentioned in this article.  After all  ‘Prevention is always better than cure.’
  
• With technology making such dramatic advances over the last decade, the focus and emphasis has now been put back on ensuring team members are up to date on these technological advances.  This ‘change’ within a business can also come with a lot of resistance so once again this is where Intrapersonal skills play a vital role in staff members being able to be adaptable and open minded to change.
  
• The above point also relates to companies being fully aware of the uncertainty felt by many working Britons about their job security so by offering staff a variety of training courses team members can feel the company is investing in them and more so than this, the staff member can keep their skills sharp and even be up for promotion internally when the opportunity arises.

Overall, Learning & Development has the ability to bring staff members together in a fun but professional environment, it allows people to speak their mind about their views and vision with their current company. It can also work as a great motivator even if each staff member takes 2 or 3 skills or tips back to the office with them after a training day and finally, the one thing that is constant is change, training will always work as a facilitator to assist with that change.

Now could be a good time to return back to the questions at the beginning of this article.  However, this time when asking each question, have a pen & note pad ready and consider how Learning & Development could impact the mindset, skills and emotions of staff members within your business and even yourself.

‘All change starts on the inside.’ 

To train your team, have a look at what courses Capita Learning & Development offers in 2014. If you need any tailored courses please call 0800 022 3410.

Written by Pete Scott, a learning consultant at Capita Learning & Development.

Improving your business presentation and speaking skills

Being able to present confidently and effectively in business is probably one of the most underrated skills in the working world today.

If you cast your mind back to a great business presentation you have attended, there will be a number of reasons of why it was great.  Let’s find out some of these reasons now by asking some questions:

“Was the speaker organised and kept to time commitments?”

“Were they knowledgeable and passionate about their topic?”

“Were they confident?”

“Were they able to build a relationship with the audience?”

“Did they have a clear message that was easy to understand?”

Business Presentation and Speaking Skills

By even asking these questions we can start to draw out some of the strategies and behaviours of a great speaker versus an average one and it is vitally important that when preparing your own presentations, you think about these factors and not just the content which needs to be delivered.

Over the years, we have started to understand this science behind great presentations and the good news is that these skills can be shared with more and more people so they too can feel confident when delivering a presentation.

The first thing to know is that at work, you are presenting all of the time.  From meetings, staff training sessions, one to one coaching to that twenty-minute presentation you will be doing next month in front of 200 staff.  Hence, another strong reason for understanding and practicing becoming the best speaker you can possibly be.

With knowing that you are presenting and speaking in a business environment regularly, let’s share some areas to consider before your next presentation.

Great speakers have the ability to contextualise their presentations or in other words, they are fantastic storytellers. This helps to even turn the driest topic into something interesting.

Although the benefit of adding context to our presentations makes sense, most people still avoid it at all costs to purely focus on content and by doing so the belief is that with enough content the presentation will go smoothly.  This is rarely the case.

As already discussed, you may have the best content in the world for your presentation or speaking engagement, but the question still lies in ‘how can you bring that content to life?’

Contextualising your presentation can be through metaphors, personal stories, example stories or even complete make believe stories (so long as they relate back to the content!)  Yet, the human mind remembers far better when a story is told, it gives clear links, it evokes emotion and months, even years later we always remember a good story.

Perhaps take sometime out today to think of how you can start bringing your presentations to life through adding context.  A great way of checking you are organised for an effective presentation is by checking you have the three C’s.

• Content
• Concept
• Context

Concept so people understand why they are there in the first place, content for the science and logical approach and context to win the hearts of the audience.

Written by Pete Scott, a learning consultant at Capita Learning & Development.