Top communicators master these 10 types of interactions

In business, the 10 most important interaction/presentation types to master fall into three categories: Face to face, standing; Face to face, sitting; and Phone interactions/presentations.

The best executives I know can (with minimal preparation time) shift between any of the interaction/presentation types and enter into and ‘perform’ in them at a high level. The types are:

Face to face, standing

1. One on one (eg. in a senior executive, chance encounter)

2. One on one, two, three or four people (eg. in a networking environment)

3. Small group meeting (eg. with 10 – 20 people at a board table)

4. Large group presentation (eg. to 25+ people at a conference)

Face to face, sitting

1. One on one (eg. with your boss, direct report or A class customer)

2. One to 20 people (eg. a sales presentation at a board table)

Phone

1. Live phone call (eg. with a senior executive/customer to book a time to meet)

2. Leaving a voicemail message.

3. Your own voicemail greeting.

4. Teleconference (eg. where you are the presenter or participant)

In prior posts I’ve suggested how to perform in some of these interaction/presentation types. In future posts I’ll elaborate more on how to perform in the others.

The ‘how to apply’ for this post is this: Rate yourself on a 1-10 scale (1 = lowest score; 10 = highest) on how well you enter into and perform in the above types. Then choose one type to focus on and improve. Periodically re-rate yourself to gauge your improvement.