- Jerry Sienfeld
Making effective presentation. A very important skill for a Product Manager/Product Marketing Manager.
While the content of a presentation is extremely important, how you deliver is equally, if not, more important (more about that later in this post). Mastering the behavioral aspects of effective presentation takes time and a lot of practice.
One great way to master non-verbal communication skills is by working with a communication expert who analyzes your presentation to provide feedback and helps put an action plan in place. Twice I had gone through that experience - once during a workshop while in business school and another time, few years ago, while attending a workshop in San Francisco conducted by Decker Communications. On both occasions I benefited immensely from the feedback and coaching.
I will talk about the experience with Decker workshop in this post.
At the start of the workshop Kelly Decker talked about a study done by Albert Mehrabian that measured the impact of non-verbal cues in the effectiveness of a presentation (you can find the book representing the actual study here ). Results? 7% verbal, 38% vocal, 55% visual. Although I won't read much into the accuracy of the actual numbers, the key take-away for me is that non-verbal communication (e.g., expressed through body language and voice projection) is at least as important as the actual content of your presentation.
During the course of the workshop you present on various topics (e.g., work related, improv, ..) in front of the group. All of these presentations are video-taped. You then have 1:1 sessions with Decker experts who provide you with feedback on those presentations. Feedbacks are grouped into "keeps" (things you do well) and areas to improve upon. Together you then put together an action plan to work on the areas you can improve upon.
Results from my participation in the workshop with Decker communications? Top three keeps - voice projection, humor, smile. Three areas to work on:
- "5 Second Contact": Although I was good at making eye contact while presenting, I used to scan the room. I was what Kelly called a "Darter". She told me about the importance of staying with a contact for 5 seconds. Here's a nice entry from Decker blog on that.
- Replace non words (e.g., ah, uh ..) with pause
- Remembering the "ready" position
Do yourself a favor. Sign up for one of the workshops (from Decker or a similar one). Or, if you are not willing to spend that money at this time, take out that handycam to make your own videos to analyze.
Either way, you will be on your way to be a more effective communicator.
Either way, you will be on your way to be a more effective communicator.
As you climb to the higher rungs of the corporate ladder the importance of effective public speaking magnifies exponentially. Generally B-School grads who are the budding CEOs, undergo communications workshop to assess one's performance during their coursework in the B-school.
ReplyDeleteI had attended a workshop for business communication while I was in B-school. And yes, it did help me a lot. We inadvertently use a lot of fillers( actually, like, hmm....) while speaking which make a negative appeal to the audience.
Such workshops are a great way to get rid of such subtle flaws in communication.
The alternative suggested by Bhaskar is also one of the best solutions to improve one's public speaking and it is followed by most of the top B-schools.