Tweet

Ultimate Truth About Executive Presence At The Whiteboard

Guest post by: Milly Sonneman

Article Overview: Looking to stand out with poise and presence in your company? Whether you’re the CEO or an aspiring leader, presenting at the whiteboard is a winning decision. If…you know how to present with skill, executive presence and authenticity.

Ultimate Truth About Executive Presence At The Whiteboard

Looking to stand out with poise and presence in your company? Whether you’re the CEO or an aspiring leader, presenting at the whiteboard is a winning decision. If…you know how to present with skill, executive presence and authenticity.

Many leaders shy away from whiteboard presenting. At first glance, it looks too down to earth, too simple and too low tech. However, these qualities are the exact reasons why whiteboard leadership presentations are so incredibly powerful.

Let’s examine why smart leaders use whiteboard presentations to connect with their employees, clients, board of directors and stakeholders.

Down To Earth

As smart leaders know, it’s essential to keep important topics and values very down to earth. Rolling up your sleeves, grabbing a marker and sketching out ideas is extremely practical.

Instead of relying on fancy tools, slick presentations and expensive special effects, real leaders prefer to be down to earth. Using simple words, everyone will understand. Sketching out ideas and solving problems with an everyday marker, sends a dramatic message.

The message: “your leader is right here with you. We’re solving problems and inventing the future together.” Isn’t that the kind of leader you are?

Simple

While many business problems and solutions are extremely complex, great leaders have a knack for keeping things simple. To emphasize simple solutions is, in fact, the mark of brilliant thinkers.

A whiteboard presentation is really only as good as the thinking that created it. If the presenter is a clear thinker and the message is well thought out, it will be profoundly simple.

This kind of simplicity is extremely rare. But when you see it…well, the light bulbs go off. There’s a magic moment. Wow. That’s special.

As a leader or aspiring leader, aim for this kind of remarkable simplicity. Don’t settle for an idea that is complex and convoluted. One rule of thumb that may help you: test out your whiteboard sketch on a young child. Say, 5 years old. If he or she ‘gets it’ and has a big grin in response, you’re good to go.

Low-Tech

There’s no question that high tech tools are awesome, appealing and very attractive. But let’s not forget the point of tools. Tools help leaders communicate their message.

When you use a low-tech tool such as a classic dry erase board or whiteboard, you send a direct message. It’s a story in itself. The story is: this is a hot idea. It’s so hot that it works directly…just a marker and a board and you get on fire.

If you’ve been tracking it, there’s a flurry about visual storytelling, whiteboard selling, story selling and leadership. More and more business leaders are picking up a marker to share their story.

Why? Because it’s a good time to be basic. Go low tech. Go down to the roots. Show people that with simple tools, great things are possible.

The truth is: leaders have always relied on visual storytelling to inspire people. Whether they used paintings on cave walls or marker sketches on whiteboards, the effect is the same.

Great leaders inspire others with emotion, passion and visual stories. There’s nothing so compelling as seeing a brilliant leader step up to the board and simplify a complex problem—right in front of your eyes. It is riveting.

If you want to ignite results and lead change, get the coaching, skill development and training you need. Presenting with poise, command of the tools and complete confidence is all part of your leadership presence. With whiteboard presenting, you, your story and your whiteboard presentation combine to send one powerful message.

Related Articles
  Searching for Executive Presence
  Executive Presence and Leadership Development
  Selling More With Whiteboard Displays
  Developing Executive Presence - What Really Matters
  Are Your Whiteboards Helping Or Hurting?
  Develop Your Executive Presence
  Executive Coaching or Sales Coaching Is Not New Because It Is an Almost 2,500 Year Old Proven Process
  The Key To Successful Whiteboard Presentations
  Why You Should Ignore That Whiteboard
  11 Qualities of Executive Presence
  The Truth About Selling With A Whiteboard
  Mastering Mistakes In Whiteboard Sales Presenting
  5 Kinds of Stories That Create Our Reality
  Present Your Way To The Top: Selling At The Whiteboard
  Building Executive Presence - Storytelling for Professional Success
  Selling With Whiteboard Conversations Boosts Personal Touch
  Five Ways to Boost Sales Using Visual Storytelling
  Stand Out In Any Crowd With World-Class Whiteboard Skills
  Don’t Miss Out On The Whiteboard Sales Presenting Craze
  Why Whiteboard Presentations Save Headaches, Time and Money

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



Related Forum Posts
$1000 and a stupid idea - [quote="OmnivoreInk":8mkh1lv7]Bill and Heidi Dittmar: Executive Lifestyle founders of a magazine called Executive Lifestyle. Started in 1991. Revenue has grown more than 200% since 2004. 4 full time, 3 part time employees "We started off with $1,000 and a stupid idea." It began as This Month, a guide for tourists, and morphed into Executive Lifestyle.[/quote:8mkh1lv7] Hi Barbara, I find this story about Bill and Heidi Dittmar's success to be especially interesting! Would you happen to know what the catalyst or tipping point was for their change from a guide for tourists to an Executive Lifestyle magazine? Thanks
Re: Bye Bye Vista - [quote="RussellWebb":3q55cgov]I've been cleaning house...Finally rid myself of this atrocious operating system called Windows Vista. Eeeegads! It's good to have a nice clean computer again - all reformatted and shiny new! Windows XP has been reinstalled and Vista is in the trash can. Vista is a bomb... plain and simple. ..[/quote:3q55cgov] Where do I begin... I love Vista Ultimate on my personal laptop, but when I tried to integrate my Vista Ultimate laptop into the local area network here at work... Let's just say Vista couldn't quite take on the challenge of a network log-on and killed itself. I have since formatted Vista and vowed to keep my Vista at home, XP here at work. I have an XP desktop and I'm having an older laptop of mine reformatted into an XP Pro laptop for when I need to VPN in to work (as it turns out, Vista and my office network don't really like to VPN, as it is currently.) Vista is a lot of fun for personal use, but it's an abysmal atrocity for work use.
Good Adwords Books? - I've just purchased "Ultimate Guide to Pay-Per-Click Advertising" by Richard Stokes. Has anyone read it, and if so what do you think? Does anyone have any other recommendations for books relating to Adwords? Thanks,
5 Entrepreneur's success stories - My local paper's business section profiled 5 successful entrepreneurs in the Jan 6, 2008 issue of the paper. Thought I'd share just a bit of it here. Bill and Heidi Dittmar: Executive Lifestyle Jeff Wassmer: Spectrum Deloise Hawkins, Star Whitaker and Lenzy Hill: Touch of Elegance Stephen Brosius: Advanced Door Systems Pam Watson: Goodrich and Watson Insurers Bill and Heidi Dittmar: Executive Lifestyle founders of a magazine called Executive Lifestyle. Started in 1991. Revenue has grown more than 200% since 2004. 4 full time, 3 part time employees "We started off with $1,000 and a stupid idea." It began as This Month, a guide for tourists, and morphed into Executive Lifestyle. Jeff Wassmer: Spectrum Company specializes in computer network security and intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance. Wassmer was an 11-year Air Force guy, so he had "ins" in order to form this business. Deloise Hawkins, Star Whitaker and Lenzy Hill: Touch of Elegance Founded business in 1994. 12 employees. Their company designs and plans an average of 25 events each month in Hampton Roads and other parts of Virginia. Stephen Brosius: Advanced Door Systems Started company in 1995. 5 full-time employees, plus subcontractors. After having worked as a subcontractor for others in the construction business for 20 years, he decided to start his own business. Pam Watson: Goodrich and Watson Insurers At age 49, she was approached by an insurance colleague to buy out their employer's insurance division. They did so, and became employers themselves., witj 4 full-time people.
Re: History of Women in Business in the United States - Yes. Women have increasingly made positive economic contributions to society and their position is being recognized more and more as seen on the Forbes List of Executive Women. In general, women can be a bit more practical in their approach as entrepreneurs too.


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

3 Competencies of Leadership

Tips for the Novice Traveler

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.