Tweet

Are You At Risk For Poor Scores?

Guest post by: Milly Sonneman

Article Overview: Working in global organizations, one thing is certain. You will get evaluated on your performance. Are your presentation skills putting you at risk for getting poor scores?

Are You At Risk For Poor Scores?

Working in global organizations, one thing is certain. You will get evaluated on your performance. Are your presentation skills putting you at risk for getting poor scores?

A few weeks ago, giving a presentation skills training for a new team in a world-class company, I noticed a few participants hovering at the side. Turns out, they were worried about how they would be graded. (From 1 = poor to 5 = excellent is a big range…and your scores make a huge difference in getting ahead.)

Presentation anxiety can put the best presenter on edge. But if you are also fretting about how you will be evaluated, and what this could mean to your career path, everything escalates.

Negative thinking about your evaluation score quickly triggers a sub-optimal state of mind. In other words, you’re nervous, jumpy and off your game.

What can you do to turn things around?

In working with top executives, top performing sales professionals, and public speakers who demand their personal best in every setting, I’ll share a few pointers I’ve seen work wonders.

1. Picture Success

Visualize yourself giving an outstanding presentation. Show your story with pictures, examples and evidence. Connect with your audience. Get very specific in your visualization. Imagine people smiling, talking, and getting engaged. Hear the applause. See the top scores on your evaluations.

The more vivid your picture, the more you connect with the emotions of winning. A positive mental picture triggers a positive emotional state, which in turns ignites optimal performance.

2. Stretch With Continuous Learning

Constantly stretch your skills. Learn new ways to structure your story. Expand your ability to show ideas with hand-drawn sketches, whiteboard selling techniques, and effective slide design.

Rather than doing what you are familiar with all the time, grow your skills by learning something new. If time is short, learn new skills in online training. You are in charge of what you learn, and when you learn. This is the most convenient and effective way to build new presentation skills.

3. Speak To Friends

Picture your audience as a group of friends. Speak openly and conversationally, as you would to people you already know. If you don’t know a single person, just imagine that these are friends you are about to meet.

By speaking directly and openly, you’ll shift formal situations into open conversations. This is very effective and highly welcome in business settings.

Most people would much rather have an interesting and informative conversation, than sit through a dull, formal recitation.

4. Focus On Performance

Do your personal best every time you speak to individuals and groups. If you are speaking to a small group, ask for on-the-spot feedback and interaction. If addressing an audience in a conference or auditorium, simulate a conversation with a few key people in the group.

Focus on your performance in real time. Look for feedback so you can make adjustments to match your delivery to audience interest. If everyone wants to know about the latest technology advances, spend your time on this. Don’t go into the details of how you created the technology—focus on real-time performance.

By directing your attention on creating a lively presentation, you won’t distract yourself worrying about evaluation scores.

5. Get Personal Feedback

The best, world-class presenters started out with wobbly knees and a healthy dose of stage fright. But they got over it. How? Work with an executive coach to get candid, personal feedback. If you are serious about giving exceptional presentations and getting terrific scores, working with a coach should be at the top of your list.

The good news? Getting personal coaching is now much more affordable and convenient than ever before. With virtual coaching, you will get one-on-one complete attention and candid advice.

Bottom line? Focus on actions that will get you top scores. As we’ve just seen you can count them on your hand: positive attitude, continuous learning, peak performance, audience interaction, and personal coaching.

Stop worrying about your scores. Instead, pay attention to powerful presentation delivery.

Related Articles
  What affects your credit score?
  Seeing Your Free Credit Score
  To Successfully Obtain Business Capital Every Business Needs A Coach
  Bad Credit Car Loans - Getting a Auto Loan Financing With Bad Credit
  Need Auto loan finance But Became Bad Consumer credit?
  Mortgage Rates Canada - How Credit Scores Affect The Rate You Get?
  Raise Credit Scores: Raise FICO Score Product Review
  Restricted Access to Finance
  Inhibitors to Success: Natural Disasters
  How to Get a Car Loan Financing & Bad Credit Auto Loans
  I Want To Improve Your Credit Score, But You Won't Let Me Help!
  Small Business Credit Lines: Do you know what your banker is looking for?
  Putting the Cart Before the Horse – Financing Your Business
  Get Guaranteed Bad Credit Car Loans & Auto Financing for Used and New Cars
  Small Business Loans With Bad Credit
  How To Choose an Assessment Test
  Choosing Our Poison or Choosing to Let Go
  MANAGING RISK
  Assessing a Business Model
  Work Skills Transcend Cultures Work Habits May Not

Article Tags: business presentation skills, online presentation skills training, online presentation training, presentation skills, presentation skills online, presentation skills training, total presentation skills training, total training, whiteboard presentation skills online, whiteboard selling, whiteboard selling online



Related Forum Posts
Re: 2012 is a leap year! - I have a niece who will be 20 this year (or only 5). Poor girl - she is getting birthday gifts only every 4 years...
How to valuate a business - Hi Garth - here is how we did it at Northern Crown Capital when I was helping them raise venture capital for Toronto-based entrepreneurs. Assume the start date is 2003 so 2008 projections are 5 years out: How Northern Crown Capital Valuates a Business 2008 Financial Projections Earnings Before Tax $5,865,000 Tax Rate 42% Taxes $2,463,300 Net Earnings $3,401,700 Amount Seeking to Raise Today $3,500,000 Discounted Value of Future Opportunity, 5 Years Out 2008 P/E Ratio 15 Value of Company in 2008 $51,025,500 Discount Rate Applied 30% Year 2008 $51,025,500 Year 2007 $35,717,850 Year 2006 $25,002,495 Year 2005 $17,501,747 Year 2004 $12,251,223 Value of Company at Investment in 2003 $12,251,223 Less: Investment Amount $3,500,000 Present Value $8,751,223 Discount for Risk & Private Company 40% Less: Discount for Risk & Private Company $3,500,489 Private Company Value $5,250,734 Present Value (What the Owner Keeps) $5,250,734 60.00% Financing (What the Investor Gets) $3,500,000 40.00% Total $8,750,734 100.00% I hope this helps!
Show the Benefits - Offer a free test drive of the Product or Service with a Money Back Guarantee - Take the Risk out. This will help them make the decision but you have to work with them to realize it by explicitly state the benefits they are receiving.
Small Business Books - I haven't read them but will check them out the next time I go to the store. I've heard a lot of good things about Rich Dad Poor Dad.
odd Jobs - I wonder if #6 gets fired if they swallow the beer instead of spitting it out! ... if they dont, .this could be the perfect job...a job that no alcoholic would lose! LOL Well, those are some pretty weird and odd jobs to say the least...but interesting....Poor # 8...imagine meeting someone and they ask what you do and you simply say "i'm a ball tester" LOL My kids would love to be #9 and i don't even want to comment on #10 LOL enuff said.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Are You Too Good for Your Job?

What should your free giveaway be?

WHAT IS MANAGEMENT CONSULTING

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.