Presenting with a PartnerWritten by Mike Faber
There are times when you’ll share "the stage" with a business or personal partner. Perhaps one of you has a better grasp of technical or other aspects of your subject. Perhaps you are quite good at facilitating questions from audience, or recording input on a flip chart for later use. However you choose to share presenting duties, resist temptation to "just wing it." While sometimes these situations are impromptu, even five minutes to prepare will aid both your presentation and audience. Here are some steps to insure that all members of a presentation group get chance to show their best work.1. Pinpoint why you’re sharing presentation duties. This should include a brief summation of specific talents and knowledge that each presenter adds to make for a better audience experience. 2. Agree on how much time you’ll need for entire presentation. 3. Specify who will be doing what, and time allotted for each segment. This sounds simple but skipping this step can sink whole ship! You will want to know who is responsible for introduction of your topic, introduction of speakers, body of presentation, Q&A, summary and wrap-up. If you have supporting data, slides or handouts assign a person to manage distribution of that information.
| | Four Golden nuggets of Effective ListeningWritten by Eric Plantenberg
Why should I improve my listening skills?It's a great question. For simple reason that a person's listening skills are a central component to most of activities people care about. Your ability to understand what others are trying to tell you, to grasp details about projects, to learn information about a customer's needs, or to understand what is going on in your family's life all depend on your ability to effectively listen. While most people possess ability to hear, many have never taken time to consciously develop ability to listen. Here are four golden nuggets to help you improve your listening skills: Slow down and relax. The fact that your mind can think at least 7 times faster than people can talk identifies much of problem right from start. To maximize amount of information you are receiving from a conversation, you must minimize number of thoughts that are racing through your mind. To help you slow down and relax, you might try taking slow deep breaths or sitting down. Both can often help slow your pace if you are feeling rushed. Focus on what is being said. That means no multi-tasking! Splitting your attention between something other than what is being said, whether that is reading, typing in your computer, or even taking notes, are all significant distractions to you ability to listen. It is also frequently annoying or even disrespectful to person who is speaking.
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