The importance of effective communication

The need to present effectively is a rudimentary skill of all business managers.The purpose of all presentations is to communicate, albeit in many different guises:

• Business Presentation - the most common public speaking situation either as part of a conference or a seminar on a specific subject. Business presentations can take the form of a speech, a lecture or more commonly, an intimate, informal approach with the audience.
• One to one – most people don’t consider these conversations to be presentations and hence, don’t associate the same level of anxiety as in a formal business presentation. Yet, the same rules of planning apply, however, due to the interactive nature of the presentation, the presenter has to listen and react in a normal conversational style for maximum effect.
• Briefings – as the name suggests, briefings are intended to convey a process or activity where the role of the audience is to ensure that the action is carried out. Unlike business presentations, briefings are much more interactive to ensure clarity of understanding.
• Workshop – the key word here is facilitation, with the audience expected to participate and contribute as much to the proceedings as the speaker. Due to the interactive nature of the situation, the facilitator must act as much as a chairman and as a catalyst for ideas.
• Meetings – the most frequently occurring presentation, yet the least planned. Meetings should follow the same planning patterns to ensure structure, clarity and include an objective.
• Telephone – possibly one of the hardest types of presentation because you lose the ability to use one of your key senses, sight. Telephone presentations need to accentuate the use of structure, and attenuation.
• Video conferencing – the technology has moved a long way since the jittery images of the early 90’s.Shock and anxiety are caused for many people not used to seeing themselves on video, but can easily be eradicated through structure and careful management.
• Entertainment – although this website is primarily aimed at business presentations, it is worth discussing that not all presentations are business related. To inject some light humour in any presentation is dependant on the audience and the subject being discussed.

All presentations can be done on a formal, informal, interactive or removed basis. They all, however, have one thing in common, to communicate clearly with the audience in order to reach the stated objective, yet, the majority of presentations fail before they begin.

The objective is not only to communicate, but to clarify and convince the audience to take an action, be it to purchase, sell, acquire or change their current working practices. I often ask colleagues, if they liked or disliked the presentation they have just seen and how many salient points they can recall at the end. Given that the objective of a business presentation is to communicate, clarify and possibly take action, this is the fundamental test that I seek when addressing the success of presentations. Many will argue that success is subjective. They would be right to a degree, although flaws in style, structure or visual aids are easily spotted, and whilst they may be small, someone in the audience will be distracted from the key message and hence, will fail to appreciate the points being communicated. To begin, I’d like to define what I mean by a bad, mediocre, good and great presentation

• Bad presentation- one that is spoken of in a derogatory tone
• Mediocre presentation – one that people only recall a few of the salient points
• Good presentation – one that people can recall several of the points when questioned
• Great presentation – one that people will actively talk about and discuss when asked to recall their most memorable presentations, and take action if required from the presentation.

The need to present effectively is a rudimentary skill of all business managers. We live in an age where communication is key, yet, industry as a whole, continuously fails in its ability to deliver competent presentations. We all should aspire to be great presenters, but to be merely good will put you in the upper quartile as most presentations even fail to make this mark. We insist on a qualified Architect to build our homes, a qualified Surgeon to operate on us, yet, the one skill that embodies what businesses is all about, that is to persuade and distil information, is largely left to chance.