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Yahoo! You get
the unmitigated pleasure of pulling together just the right
amount of information for the purpose of sharing it with
your staff, another department, for a sales call with a
potential client, or as part of a workshop/seminar you agreed
to participate in. Yep, that’s right – you said,
“yes” when they caught you in the hall five
weeks ago.
Now
that it is Monday afternoon and you’ve just barely
got your head above water having been in meetings most of
the day and spent your lunch hour organizing your work for
the rest of the week, you realize that the “time is
now” for pulling that presentation together …
because you’re on deck as we speak and up to bat Wednesday
morning.
This
is not an uncommon scenario, it happens to the best of us.
What can you do about it? Gather your thoughts, quickly
and succinctly, by using the following format to capture
the information.
FIRST
THINGS FIRST – briefly answer the following questions
before you begin:
- What is the goal or what are you trying to achieve with
this presentation?
- Do you have all the necessary information available?
Stats, graphs, etc.
- Who is your audience?
- How much time will you have to speak?
PRESENTATION FORMAT – when you have the “raw”
material at your finger tips, fill in as follows: (this
example is based on a 30+ minute time allowance, adjust
as per your time allotment)
| Opening Comments |
4 minutes |
|
1 minute |
- Explain your role (why are you presenting this?)
|
1 minute |
- Introduce your subject/topic, state your goal
|
2 minutes |
| Key Point One |
8 minutes |
- Opening statement for key point #1
|
1 minute |
|
2 minutes |
|
2 minutes |
|
2 minutes |
|
1 minute |
| Key Point Two |
8 minutes |
- Opening statement for key point #2
|
1 minute |
|
2 minutes |
|
2 minutes |
|
2 minutes |
|
1 minute |
| Key Point Three |
8 minutes |
- Opening statement for key point #3
|
1 minute |
|
2 minutes |
|
2 minutes |
|
2 minutes |
|
1 minute |
| Concluding Comments |
5 minutes |
|
1 minute |
- Overview of key point one
|
1 minute |
- Overview of key point two
|
1 minute |
- Overview of key point three
|
1 minute |
- Wrap up and thank your audience 1 minute
|
1 minute |
Questions & Answers
… Add appropriate time, depending on audience expectations
of Q&A plus expectations of ending on time
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that you can produce
your 30 minute presentation in 30 minutes. But using a guideline
will help you pull it together in less time than you likely
would have spent. For those of you who are Power Point users,
I can drop you a ready made presentation outline that follows
the format above. Contact us for a copy at info@managementsignature.com
| The
Manager's Chair |
Keeping
an eye on your people |
"Managing
only for profit is like playing tennis with your eye
on the scoreboard and not on the ball.” Does
this quote from Ichek Adizes ring any bells with you?
Often times our focus of trying to keep the ball rolling
(or in this case in the air and within bounds) is
so keen that we forget to look at the people with
the racquet in their hands.
The popular
morning program, the Today Show, recently had a guest
who mentioned that our country has been through 10
economic downtowns in the last 55 years. And each
time we’ve battled back successfully. The fact
that we are currently in the midst of a struggling
economy doesn’t mean we get to abandon solid
management practices to spend more time looking at
the bottom line. In fact, quite the opposite should
take precedence. Spend more time looking at your people
who, in turn, are the ones who can and will continue
to impact that bottom line.
So how do
you do that, keep an eye on your people that is, in
a way that will enhance operations and thus positively
impact the bottom line. The best way and the number
one rule of solid management practices, is stay in
continual communication with them. Become a “talking
head” with all of your direct reports and require
they do the same for their direct reports. Develop
a process to communicate your business strategy to
your people by helping them see how they connect to
that strategy. Create a visual that depicts the company
strategy in the center, goals and objectives surrounding
the strategy center, individual department targets
plugging in to the goals and objectives, and finally
(and most importantly) the employee tasks and action
items that focus on the department targets.
Your visual
might look something like this: |
| |
 |
 |
Your goal
is to provide the connection, keep your people focused
on that connection, report progress to them on all
levels – from tasks to corporate strategy, make
adjustments when needed and continue the movement.
While this
description seems fairly basic and straight forward,
making it real is not so simple. It’s complex
and can often be tedious. That’s when you call
for help. Our Management Signature number is 952-997-2285.
We’ll help get your “corporate eyes”
in focus.
|
Quick Source
- Barb Minkel-Dusek, Management
Signature, 952-997-2285
- Curt Levang, Levang
& Associates, 952-541-4799
- Mary Jo Faustgen, Midwest
Center, 651-647-1900 ext. 12
|
LEADERMENT
Intersecting leadership qualities with management tasks.
“It’s surprising how much you can accomplish
when you don’t care who gets the credit.”
- Abraham Lincoln |
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