Always tell your audience how long you’ll be speaking for – and stick to it!

I was at a presentation a few weeks back. I was invited to attend by a client. There was no agenda for the function.

The first speaker opened her presentation. The speaker said, a few minutes into the presentation rather casually, as if she wan’t going to present for too long – that she would talk for about 20 minutes.

At the 20 minute mark I was expecting her wrap up. But that didn’t happen. The presentation went for about 40 minutes.

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34 MISTAKES I see EXECUTIVES make

After chatting with a coach of mine, I came up with an in-depth list of mistakes I see executives make in their leadership communication.

In no particular order, here’s the list:

  1. Entering a room (Virtual or In-person) with no radiation of warmth and energy and calm enthusiasm.
  2. Rushing/lack of knowing how to own time, in either movement, gesturing and speaking. Doesn’t know how to own time.
  3. Lack of awareness in what is open and encouraging body language.
  4. Lack of awareness of how they’re perceived when under pressure.
  5. Not knowing how to pair gestures with a word or phrase.
  6. Not knowing how to determine their key message(s) for a presentation and frame it in a simple way.
  7. Not having key questions to understand what senior leaders want from them in presentations.
  8. Unsure of the real reason they’ve been invited to present to Leadership team and boardroom meetings.
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