The manager that doesn’t have to make at least one presentation each week is fairly rare. Today, we begin the discussion on making effective presentations, beginning with some general guidelines governing the use of tools like Microsoft PowerPoint.

During the podcast, we make reference to a great book by Barbara Minto, “The Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing and Thinking”. Here’s a link to her book on Amazon. It’s one of our favorite books on management communications and you simply can’t go wrong by purchasing copies for both you and your subordinates.

As we note during the show, Mike will be traveling to Europe this week. Most likely we will not be publishing a podcast next week. And, if we do, it will be mid-week instead of Monday. We’ll be back on schedule the following week!

The Minto Pyramid Principle: Logic in Writing, Thinking and Problem Solving

Why We Like This Book:

The best book on business writing ever. Barbara Minto has given us a step by step process for producing clear, brilliant, simple writing that will persuade as well as inform. It is not cheap, nor easy - but neither is running a $100 million business. If you think you can do the latter, try the former first. Because we’ve read your writing, and it’s not very good. (Mike and Barbara are friends - she’s sharp and wonderful.)

Note: As Amazon doesn’t have the latest version of her book, the best way to get Barbara’s book is to order it direct from her (the links above will take you to her site for ordering information). Let her know you heard about her from Manager Tools!

Winning ‘em Over by Jay A. Conger

Why We Like This Book:

Jay Conger has written the best book about how to present to a corporate audience that we have ever read. This book is DETAILED. If you’ve ever thrown together some slides, Winning will make you feel silly. It lays out how to analyze your audience, how to organize your information, how to prep in advance… in such detail you’ll feel like you’re reading a textbook. GREAT book for managers.

Say It With Charts: The Executive’s Guide to Visual Communication by Gene Zelazny

Why We Like This Book:

Same reasons we like “Say It With Presentations”: Gene Zelazny used to be the charts guy for McKinsey, and this book shows why. He walks through how to present ANY type of information, bowing to the predominance of PowerPoint. You’ll learn when to use bar graphs and pie charts, and how NOT to distort your message. It’s simple, slim, and FULL of stuff you can use THIS WEEK.

Say It with Presentations: How to Design and Deliver Successful Business Presentations by Gene Zelazny

Why We Like This Book:

Gene Zelazny used to be the charts guy for McKinsey, and this book shows why. He walks through how to present ANY type of information, bowing to the predominance of PowerPoint. You’ll learn when to use bar graphs and pie charts, and how NOT to distort your message. It’s simple, slim, and FULL of stuff you can use THIS WEEK.

Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity by David Allen

Why We Like This Book:

This is the only personal productivity book you ever need to buy. If you even use this SIMPLE process half way, you will become 2-3 times more efficient. If you’ve ever felt like you have a million things to do rattling around in your head, this book is for you. Mike and Mark are both HUGE fans, and we’re BARELY scratching the surface. Buy this book.

It’s been over a year since we first talked about presentations, and we only talked about one very narrow aspect of presentations: the use and mis-use of PowerPoint. Sure, PowerPoint is important, but even if you master it, your presentations can still be terrible. (Whether you read your slides to your audience or not.)

Presentations are a core skill for managers. If, right now, you don’t consider yourself exceptional at presenting, we believe you’re at a disadvantage in your career. We feel strongly that presenting skills are an under-invested in skillset, and smart managers know that small improvements in this area can make a big difference. It’s so important, in fact, that we’ll probably have at least 20 casts on presentations in the coming years. Part of this is because Mark is a professional speaker, has been a speechwriter, coaches executives on presentations both broadly and on specific speeches, and partly because BOTH of us have had to sit through many presentations whose ideas die an early death unrelated to their own merits. We’ve actually seen it happen to our own members. LIVE.

In this cast, we BARELY scratch the surface, but share just ONE basic principle of great speakers that apply to business presentations. You’re not going to become great with just this one cast, but you ARE going to look better than your peers. We look forward to the first member sending us a note describing the unexpectedly great response they got when they put our recommendations to work for them and their ideas.

If you’ve ever given a presentation, you’ve probably been asked to leave time for questions. You may have even gone the extra step of thinking about what questions might you get. However, in our experience, 80% of the managers we’ve coached haven’t, but maybe you’re in the 20% category.

But have you ever thought not about the content of the questions, but rather the delivery of your answer? Even if you have a perfect answer, if the question is even slightly confrontational, your delivery could doom you from the start. Most presenters give away their fear and lack of preparation by behaving in ways that actually INCREASE the conflict inherent in a challenging question. In this podcast, the first of a two-part series, we discuss how to answer questions in a manner that leaves you, the presenter, in the best possible position.

In this podcast, we finish our conversation on answering questions during a presentation.

Four easy steps:

1. Your initial response when you first hear the question
2. PHYSICALLY catching the Medicine Ball
3. VERBALLY catching the medicine ball
4. And how to finish up once you’ve answered the question

This cast walks through how to prepare and deliver an agenda for a large meeting or training.

Agenda preparation is a lost art. We think of agendas as the skeleton of a good meeting. Sadly, too many meetings suffer from a lack of the structure that agendas provide. Meetings without agendas are usually terribly inefficient. Because they are [somewhat ] time-bound, that inefficiency means ineffectiveness. And ineffectiveness is anathema to Manager Tools managers.

In this cast, we tell you what to do once you’ve prepared your agenda. (There’s a separate cast for the details and rules around preparation).

Be a management artist: use agendas.