The Cranky Middle Manager #60 Present Like a Pro- Cyndi Maxey
The Cranky Middle Manager Show #60 (MP3 12.0MB 35:04Min)
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Okay, kids. You know it was going to happen at some point. We’re going to talk about presenting and presentation skills. Yeah, I know a lot of you hate it but it’s one of the most important things you’ll do as a manager so suck it up. We’re talking to Cyndi Maxey about the book she’s co-authored with Kevin O’Connor, “Present Like a Pro”
While you’re buying books, you might want to check out my new e-book, “Meet Like You Mean It- a Cranky Middle Manager’s Guide to Productive and Painless Meetings”.
Show Notes
0:00 Welcome gang, today we talk presentation skills with a solid speaker and teacher, Cyndi Maxey. Communication skills is one of the “4 Disciplines of Management”- Communication Skills, Leadership, Business Acumen and Project/Process Management.
Today’s show is dedicated to Chief Canassatego chief of the 6 Nations in the early days of the colony- Yes, people do judge you by how well you communicate-especially people who underestimate you at the beginning…..
3:45 The quote of the week is from Aristotle - trainers take heart…educating anyone is a noble cause.
4:30 Welcome Cyndi Maxey. Of course, teaching presentation skills is my day job at Communispond so this is a chance to talk about the craft of presenting and why managers should care. I know a lot of you aren’t crazy about it… I think more of you like it than you’ll admit. I admit I talk too much at the beginning of this interview and my apologies to Cyndi, but get over it, it’s done from love and I do shut up eventually…..
9:30 Most presenters don’t really think about their audience- especially when they’re presenting up the food chain. They want it short, sweet and easy to pass on to whoever will do the real work. Take your first draft and edit the heck out of it- you’ll be impressed with the results.
12:15 Beware the zinger… not putting detail into the presentation is NOT the same as not being prepared or knowing your stuff. You know your stuff, you know what you’re doing so don’t be afraid….
16:40 I hate to say this but…. stop being so apologetic. Jump in and get to the point. It’s preparation that will save you in the end.
22:43 Tips for presenters from the book….what do you do if you’re the poor person going on after lunch?
24:00 Do you want to hold questions til the end? She doesn’t think so and neither do I, but it takes cajones to do that.
27:00 We now praise the low-tech flip chart. Use it wisely but do use it.
30:00 Cyndi’s Resources:
Speaking Channel (Note, the information in the podcast is wrong, this is the right url. My fault)
National Speaker’s Association
That’s it, drop us a line, join our frappr map, let us know what you think.
Don’t let the weasels get you down.
August 31st, 2006 at 4:07 am
Wayne, you are a great conversationalist and a fabulous interviewer. You got some of my best teaching points in 30 minutes or less. It was a pleasure and I hope your Cranky listeners got a few keepers for their next presenatation. The Aristotle and Indian quotes were very creative at the beginning! I encourage everyone to start strong, not with an apology - tell a good story or example pretty quickly and use the flipchart in place of the powerpoint now and then. cam
September 2nd, 2006 at 4:20 am
One of the best shows in the series. You were both enjoying it.
Whenever using powerpoint, I always request/have a flip chart or white board handy for “impromtu” stuff from my hip pocket.
Also, one of my presentations that was most fun for me kept the projector, but eschewed Powerpoint. Instead I used a flow-charting tool (Inspiration), with a bunch of pre-prepared pages all interlinked and with one index page “to rule them all.” The topic did not have to be presented in a particular linear order, and I felt a bit constrained by time, so I showed my sub-topic index to the audience, and let them choose the order of the sub-topics so I was sure to be able to cover what was most important to them.
“Customer-centric agility”, if I dare use cliched jargo to describe the process.
September 19th, 2006 at 2:39 pm
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