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

What challenges do Internal Communication professionals face in 2014?

A recent study, State of the Sector, by Gatehouse asked Internal Communication professionals what their priorities were in 2014.

"The four top answers were similar to 2013: improving electronic channels (61%), leadership communication (61%), developing/refreshing an IC strategy (60%), and improving communication planning (52%). Enhancing line manager communication, building the IC team / capability and restructuring the IC function appear to have lost ground over the past 12 months."

Clearly more progress needs to be made in 2014 in areas such as improving electronic communication channels, leadership communication, developing an Internal Communication strategy, and improving communication planning.  But how do you develop your Internal Communication strategy?  Or how to you improve your electronic communication channels?

Capita Learning and Development offers a Diploma and Masters degree in Internal Communication accredited by Kingston University, designed to help Internal Communication professionals face these challenges. The Diploma and Masters programmes equip students with a depth of knowledge about communication, people and organisations, providing the knowledge and gravitas to operate at a senior level.

Click to watch video

Meet Rachel Miller, an Internal Communications Diploma attendee, and Director of All Things IC. Rachel tells us more about what she learned on the course,  the advantages of taking an Internal Communication qualification and how it helped her start her own Internal Communication consultancy.

How to Lead a Team and Gain Respect After Internal Promotion

Most of us start at the bottom of the career ladder and work our way up. We become so proficient at our job, earning respect of the management and becoming a valued member of the team. Eventually promotion is offered, usually within the same team and we can find ourselves leader of the team we were once part of. This does have its advantages, however, doesn't come without its problems.

New to Team Leadership

There is nothing that can gain respect more than people knowing that you have been there and done the job for yourself. You know the systems and procedures, what is expected and the problems that your team may encounter. You can see things from their point of view. This can be a great advantage when leading a team. You know when to cut the slack because of genuine difficulties, but you also know an excuse when you hear one.

The problems arise though when some of the team members may have been there much longer than you, may be older with more experience, or may feel that they were the ones that deserved the promotion. You may find it difficult to be assertive and to feel that you are taken seriously as a manager. Since you were once in their position, you will know how hard the job is and may feel guilty for enforcing deadlines.

So how can you gain respect from your team and get them to do what you need them to without them thinking that power has gone to your head?

Firstly, stop beating yourself up and congratulate yourself on your promotion. It is quite normal to feel this way when you have been used to working on the other side of the fence, as it were. The dynamics of your team have now changed so now you need to embrace this change and take control.

In order to gain respect, you have to give it. Show your team that you value them and support them by listening to how you can help them. Listen to any ideas that they may have. Think back to when you were in their position. If you had a problem, how would you have liked your leader to have handled it? Remember that the only way to get what you want is to ask for it. Never assume that anyone in your team knows exactly what is expected of them. When enforcing a deadline, explain to them when it has to be done by and why, then ask how they think they can achieve it, what do they need to make this happen, how can you best help them? Once they know that they have your full support, then they will do whatever they can for you.

Capita Learning & Development offers a training course in New to Team Leadership, which will help you develop and grow your leadership and management skills.

Yvonne Bleakley
Learning Consultant, 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.

What challenges do Internal Communication professionals face in 2013?

Internal communication is rising high on the management agenda.  The demands being placed on internal communication professionals are also increasing. 

Effective Internal Communication

While internal communication may have been seen historically as ‘nice to have’, senior leaders are increasingly aware of its importance in maintaining a healthy and robust organisation that is fit for the future.

More and more evidence backs up these expectations.  A Towers Watson study comparing communication and financial effectiveness found that organisations that ensure effective internal communications are 1.7 times more likely to outperform their peers financially. The same study found organisations with effective communication and change management processes outperformed peers without this focus by a factor of 2.5.  The ‘Engage for Success’ movement is amassing a significant volume of evidence to show the business value of providing an engaging workplace environment.  Their work also demonstrates how communication and employee voice is a vital strand at the heart of a strategic approach to engagement.

This changing landscape provides a new set of opportunities for the communication professional – but a whole set of fresh challenges too. While developing and managing a communication infrastructure remains important, leaders are increasingly likely to demand support from senior communication professionals with real clout – who can provide guidance on how to communicate in the trickiest situations, and have earned the respect and credibility to be listened to.

So what are some of the challenges facing today’s internal communication professional?

• Developing an ability to ‘think business’:  at Executive and Board level.  Plus an understanding of how senior leaders think – and make decisions.  All important aspects of knowing how best to influence in a positive way. Understanding and navigating the political and power structure helps too
• Having the gravitas to promote communication strategies supporting business objectives – and the knowledge to explain why they make sense.  That means getting an understanding of what makes different people tick – the psychology of communication.  It also means having the listening and research skills to apply that knowledge with the various groups that make up the organisation, developing strategies that acknowledge their different world views. One approach doesn’t fit all.  
• Getting to grips with the culture (or cultures) of the organisation and identifying communication approaches that will work – and those that won’t.  As well as understanding the complexities involved in ‘changing culture’. 
• Responding to the opportunities of a more connected world.  Gone are the days where communication = telling. Digital communication can open up dialogue and sharing across – and beyond – the organisation.  It can also be the latest corporate toy to crash and burn. The internal communication professional can make all the difference here.
• Having the confidence and skill to coach leaders at all levels in their leadership communication style.  The way that leaders – from top to bottom of the organisation – promote dialogue is the foundation for an engaged and healthy organisation.
• Providing opportunities for the organisation to both communicate and to listen while avoiding communication overload.  And ensuring that measurement, evaluation, and continuous improvement  are part of ‘business as usual’.

Of course, the core craft skills of writing and creating compelling communication materials remain as important as ever. But the time is right for internal communication professionals to be raising our game.

What do you see as the core challenges facing communication professionals today?
Share your experiences below:

Liz Cochrane

Course Director, Masters in Internal Communication Management