JWI 505 Business Communications And Executive Presenc 790566

Jwi 505 Business Communications And Executive Presence Lecture

JWI 505: Business Communications and Executive Presence Lecture Notes © Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University confidential and proprietary information and may not be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed, in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University. JWI 505 – Lecture Notes (1194) Page 1 of 5 WEEK 9: THE PRESENTATION The Stage: Speaking Before an Audience People fear public speaking more than they fear dying … That's right: we actually fear speaking in front of other people, on average, more than we fear being killed. This may be a primal instinct born of centuries of tribal conduct.

“When faced with standing up in front of a group, we break into a sweat because we are afraid of rejection,” writes Glenn Croston, Ph.D., in Psychology Today. “And at a primal level, the fear is so great because we are not merely afraid of being embarrassed or judged. We are afraid of being rejected from the social group, ostracized, and left to defend ourselves all on our own. We fear ostracism so much today, it seems, fearing it more than death because, in ancient times, getting kicked out of the group probably really was a death sentence.”

There’s a simple question you have to ask yourself both before and during any presentation: “Am I being a bore?” Boredom is the cardinal sin of presentations.

If you bore your audience, you will lose them. If you lose them, they will disengage. You will seem less authentic, and they will not give you their attention or their buy-in. You need them to be interested. You need them to care.

Who will care about your presentation if you don't first? You must have passion. You must also focus on the output, never the inputs. Don’t tell your audience how hard you worked putting together the presentation. That effort will speak for itself when you present.

Nobody wants to hear how difficult the speaker found preparing the speech. Don’t be afraid to practice your presentation, either. Business leaders spend a lot of time and effort learning the facts, understanding the technical data, and practicing the content of their presentations – sometimes up to the very moment they address the audience. But memorizing your presentation is not enough to communicate and engage effectively and authentically. In fact, it may even raise your anxiety levels to practice feverishly up to the last minute.

This can raise your heart rate and tighten your muscles while making you sweat. Your voice will quiver. You will look and sound nervous. This will undercut your credibility with the audience and could even kill your presentation. This is because the words and content that you use, while important, are far less important than nonverbal traits you exhibit. Especially in the first few minutes of a presentation, you must capture the audience’s attention. Your audience will decide in those first few moments how attentive they will be, and for how long, based on how you look, how expressive you are, and how you sound.

Offend them, bore them, or lose them in those critical opening moments, and they will tune you out. Consider an actor just before they go on stage. You will never see professional actors practicing their lines just before they do a scene or walk on stage for a play. Instead, they engage in a variety of exercises intended to relax their minds and bodies. Athletes, likewise, stretch or even listen to music to “psych themselves up” and help get their bodies ready. They do not sit or stand on the sidelines reading the playbook right before the game.

Reframing Anxiety: Do you frequently become anxious when you present? One very potent way to deal with this problem is reframing. Reframing is a means of changing your perspective to make the scenario less intimidating. It is arguably an aspect of neuro-linguistic programming, an alternative therapy that teaches effective communication and stresses the link between how you think about a problem and how that problem makes you feel.

The idea is that, if you use language that reinforces positivity and a can-do attitude, you can better prepare yourself mentally to succeed. For example, good leaders may reframe a problem by refusing to call it a problem. Labeling a situation a problem immediately makes it a negative in the minds of your colleagues and in your own mind. Instead, good leaders will label that situation an opportunity for growth or process improvement. This makes a collaborative, constructive solution much easier to achieve because those working toward an opportunity have a much more positive attitude than those working to find a way out of a problem.

When you feel anxious before a presentation, try reframing your anxiety as feelings of excitement. After all, you are worked up about the opportunity before you, and reframing your feelings is much easier and more productive than suppressing them. Your natural physiological response to public speaking, which also negatively impacts much of the population, will likely not be that you are calm. Use the surge of adrenaline to your advantage to communicate with passionate presence.

Expressiveness, Tone, Confidence, and Connection: Many people falsely believe that the workplace is not somewhere you should be expressive. Expression has gotten a bad rap because some associate it with being dramatic and emotional or unprofessional. In other words, many in the business world associate being expressive with taking your work too seriously – or not.

You don’t want to be flamboyant or melodramatic, but you do want to be confident, lively, and vibrant. Don’t be afraid to be expressive in this context. If you can connect with your audience before a presentation, you should do so. Working your way through the audience, introducing yourself, shaking hands, smiling, and thanking people for their time and attention can help you connect to that audience before you’ve begun to speak. This will also loosen you up and make you more comfortable with the audience you are about to address.

Every presentation is a conversation. Only the size of the audience changes. Approach that presentation just as you would talk to another person: build that relationship, making eye contact with audience member after audience member. Speak to them conversationally, as you would a single colleague. Make each audience member believe you are speaking to them individually. The key to establishing this individual connection, even with a massive audience, is to bring your confident, passionate, professional self to the conversation. Move around a little on stage. Don’t pace maniacally, but don’t stand stock-still behind the podium, either. Look for opportunities to incorporate something you learned from the audience, when you introduced yourself before the presentation or during the presentation itself. This could be something as simple as addressing one of the participants by name.

Always connect with your audience. Tell a story, be humble and vulnerable, vary your tone to keep the presentation from becoming a monotonous monologue, and above all, ask questions. Asking the audience questions, and listening well to their questions of you, is the best way to keep the audience engaged. When they feel the presentation is a two-way conversation, they will be more likely to stay with you throughout. Finally, remember to keep your tone and your energy level appropriate to the situation.

When delivering bad news, for example, you need to look and sound more sober than when delivering celebratory news. In method acting, actors set out to convey the truth. They build a cognitive and emotional understanding of the role. This enables them to internalize the feelings of the situation, which, in turn, makes them come across authentically. As discussed in the first weeks of the course, you have to connect with your true self, your real feelings, through reflection.

You must then share your authentic self with the audience. When you are authentic, your messages will convey the appropriate tone and body language. Always remember that truth resonates. Leveraging Your Messages: At every stage of a presentation – before, during, and after – your executive presence and your business communication skills will help you leverage the messages needed to achieve your goals. By getting everyone participating toward a collaborative solution, and by positioning all participants for a win-win scenario, you can tie any presentation to the mission and values of the organization.

Using stats and stories, in conjunction with fully present answers to audience questions and necessary follow-up, will allow you to connect the dots at every point along the way. Setting objectives and getting aligned buy-in raises the effectiveness of the organization and gives meaning to the work.

Questions and Answers: A presentation is not a monologue. At least, it shouldn’t be. You’ve got to be prepared for questions before, during, and after the presentation. Questions can happen at any time. Asking that the audience hold questions until the end may not be enough to stop them from interrupting. And refusing to answer a question, once asked, may risk losing the goodwill and empathy you’ve built up with the audience to that point.

Be ready to stay true to your objectives, even when the path is not a straight line. You’ve got to roll with questions as they come, while still staying on message in the long run. But what about the questions you can’t answer? Nobody can be prepared for everything. If you flounder, this will also undercut your credibility. Your discomfort will affect the audience and damage your rapport with them. • Always acknowledge the question and the questioner. You can’t ignore it and you can’t afford to put it off. • If you don’t know the answer, don’t lie. Admit that you don’t know, but do it professionally and diplomatically. In other words, don’t hem and haw. Just state directly that you don’t have that answer yet, but that you will get it. • Ask the questioner for their contact information and ask them if you can get back to them within a specific timeframe. Then, be sure to follow up and do just that. When the time comes for questions, be sure to welcome them. Listen to others’ perspectives whenever possible. Ask the audience directly for their participation. Acknowledge the value in their questions, agree whenever you genuinely do, and share your thoughts in a way that is authentic and earnest. Never be defensive or argumentative. By listening well, you can identify opportunities in which your audience makes the point for you.

Following Up: A presentation may end abruptly. Even when you have made all your points, questions have been asked and answered, and the next steps have been acknowledged, it may be the case that time ends before the needed commitment, buy-in, or decision has been achieved. When this happens, it may be possible to push for a response. Ask for the answer. If one can’t be provided, ask what obstacles stand in the way of getting that answer, and then follow up. Follow-up can come in the form of one-on-one conversations to get closure or buy-in, or to communicate decisions made. It can also mean circling back to detractors or holdouts. This will help you see if you can bring them along individually or mitigate their concerns, so the project can move forward. Every Presentation Matters: Whenever presenting, whether to a single person or a thousand people, be yourself. Be authentic. Be present. Inspire and engage others with your authentic passion. Match your expressiveness and your tone to the confidence and inspiration the situation requires by reflecting on the feeling of the situation. Human beings are transparent creatures.

When our words and our expressions are matched by our truth, then our confidence, the appropriate tone, and the necessary energy will emerge naturally. When we follow up appropriately while leveraging our messages against our leadership presence, we are better able to engage with our fellow humans. When you engage with others, you more effectively build relationships with them. This builds opportunities for collaborative problem solving, which, in turn, positions both you and your organization to win.

References

1. Croston, G. (Year). Title of article. Psychology Today. [URL or DOI]
2. Carnegie, D. (1936). How to Win Friends and Influence People. Simon & Schuster.
3. Gallo, C. (2014). Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds. St. Martin’s Press.
4. Delgado, F. (2020). The Art of Public Speaking. Routledge.
5. Reynolds, G. (2012). Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery. New Riders.
6. Goman, C. K. (2011). The Silent Language of Leaders: How Body Language Can Help—or Hurt—How You Lead. Jossey-Bass.
7. Meyer, B. (2014). The Charisma Myth: How Anyone Can Master the Art and Science of Personal Magnetism. Portfolio/Penguin.
8. Thill, J. V., & Bovee, C. L. (2010). Business Communication Today. Pearson Education.
9. Gallo, C. (2010). The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs. McGraw-Hill Education.
10. Hollingshead, A. B. (2015). Effective Business Communication. McGraw-Hill Education.