From: http://www.bizjournals.com/
I’ve seen it hundreds of times over the last 20 years. A very confident and capable employee gets a promotion. And it makes sense on the surface.
They’re smart. They have a ton of experience, and all the employees seem to like them.
Then it happens: The new manager soon comes to realize that it’s no longer their personal performance that’s determining things like raises and glowing evaluations. It’s their ability to accomplish important things through others.
Their old friends don’t look at them quite the same way. They’re management now.
And this new role means having to stand in front of those familiar faces and communicate to them as a confident leader.
Here are three reasons presentation skills can make or break your career:
1. People are watching those who lead them closer than ever
Do they pick up on your discomfort in your new role because of eyes that seem to dart around the room — looking for the right words? Perhaps stumbling over top-down messages they’ve been told to communicate from upper management.
Make no mistake about it, a lack of perceived confidence in your role will only embolden voices of dissent or create uncertainty.
The good news is, there are specific learned skills that can help you seem more comfortable in communicating under this new career pressure.
2. Our lives are full of unplanned presentation moments, we need to be ready.
Often in our coaching workshops, we hear the story of an unplanned presentation that had to be given. The employee was just going to be watching their manager. Then, with no preparation or notice, they hear those heart pounding words… “ I need for you to take this morning’s presentation.”
Feeling unprepared is a horrible experience. Our heart rate accelerates to the stratosphere as our minds try to wrap themselves around what just happened. And if we’re not completely comfortable with the content, this trifecta of uncertainty has caused many an presenter to deliver the worst presentation of their lives in what is often a pivotal moment in their careers.
Situations like these will always be uncomfortable. But much like emergency personnel fall back on their training in the face of disaster, so must presenters fall back on theirs . What’s your game plan? Do you even have one?
Videotaped coaching allows you to build a meaningful toolkit of skills that you can fall back on when you haven’t had time to plan or prepare. And those times will and do happen.
3. Personal communication skills are the ultimate tie breaker
Interested in elevating that next performance evaluation? Maybe get a shot at that new position that just opened up?
Being a reasonably good presenter is no longer just a nice skill to work on if you have a little time — it will always be the most powerful tie-breaker you will experience in your career.
Years back, we had a coach on our team that had been a mid-level manager at adidas. And in her role there, she was constantly presenting to other teams and was very, very good at it.
One day she mentioned how surprised she always was when she would receive job offers for roles she was clearly not qualified for.
Why was that happening? Because her powerfully confident and credible communication style sent messages way beyond just her words.
You should probably be asking an important question right about now. Since you guys are in the business, aren’t you just drinking your own Kool-aid around the importance of being a good presenter?
When you meet as many employees, managers and executives as we do over the course of the year, you see these principles played out time and time again. Bright new stars rise in organizations because they communicate so well.
We’ve seen careers falter because of the fear of presenting and heard first-hand the results of someone nailing an important presentation under pressure and the impact it had.
Maybe it’s time for all of us to do a little skill inventory. What are nice-to have-skills and which ones can make the most impact over the course of a lifetime?
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