Taking the trauma out of the talk: records and information management professionals need not fear speaking before an audience if they put planning and thought into their presentations.

• Author: Weinholdt, Rick
• Position: CareerPath

High-visibility tasks, performed well, serve to establish a person's credibility and competence. Few endeavors offer opportunities to attain greater visibility as much as business presentations do. Visibility is the watchword of success. It is essential for individual career advancement, and it can provide the records and information management (RIM) professional a leading edge. When effective, presentations are a proven means for people to distinguish themselves from the norm.

Right or wrong, how people stand and speak shape the opinion that others form about their competence. When someone stands and says what they want to say, in the way that they want to say it, they are doing what 95 percent of the people in the audience wish they could do. A person who is confident in front of a group gives off an air of competence, whereas a person who fumbles leaves a negative impression.

Following the three P's of powerful presentations--preparation, practice and performance--can provide the RIM professional improved skills to create winning presentations.

Preparation

Few people prepare adequately for a presentation. The problem is exacerbated in the workplace because managers expect employees to be working, and they may consider fine tuning presentations to be play rather than work. Preparation means more than just throwing together a bunch of slides in PowerPoint. Planning is an important investment of time; good initial planning helps ensure that preparation is wisely directed.

An effective presentation is defined as one that produces the desired results. Military strategists, coaches, organizational leaders, and salespeople know that their efforts are more likely to succeed when they are guided by a plan. Effective presenters know this, too.

There are three major steps in the planning process:

* Defining the goal and message

* Conducting audience analysis

* Developing the approach and strategies

Defining the Goal and Message

In their book Structuring Speech, Gerald Phillips and Jerome Zolten call this step the critical one in speech preparation. They write, "Figure out exactly what you want to communicate to your audience. Whether spoken or written, formal or informal, the fate of a message depends on two things: the ability of the communicator to isolate his purpose clearly, and the ability to coordinate personal resources to achieve his purpose."

A presentation's basic purpose will fall into one of the following categories:

* To persuade or convince. This type of presentation is seeking approval or support for a new program or idea.

* To inform. This could be an orientation to a new program or procedure, a classroom lecture, or a status report.

* To inspire. The primary purpose of this type of presentation is to "fire up the troops." This could also fall under the heading of persuasion.

* To entertain. An example is welcoming new employees or making a presentation at a retirement party.

Do not to lose sight of the presentation's purpose or neglect to think it through thoroughly enough. How material is organized and the type of material used will differ significantly if the purpose is to inform rather than to persuade or to entertain.

Decide what will be the end product of the presentation, what outcome is desired from the audience in specific terms that help determine success. Write it down to maintain that focus during the preparation phase. Here are some questions to ask to help in determining the end product.

* Is it achievable? Is the plan to ask the company to invest $100,000 just after announced cutbacks and budget cuts? Can the people in the audience actually approve such a project or are they a stepping stone to the next level?

* Is it a present or ultimate objective? Will the desired result likely occur at this specific presentation? If not, then what is possible with this presentation?

* Is it measurable? Although this criterion may not fit all objectives, in determining whether the presentation was a winner, a well-defined end...