Become the Leader on Effective Workplace Communication

When you introduce yourself, you must build credibility. If you fail to do so, the audience/listener/reader will lose interest and quickly tune out.

The first step in crafting your introduction is to ask yourself, "Why should the audience listen to me?" This question is quite important because it forces you to think about the audience. Instead of thinking about all your achievements - and they might be impressive - think about what will resonate with the audience. What do they care about? For example,

• If you have an engineering degree, but you're presenting marketing information, why should the audience listen to you? How can you build credibility? You could say, "Like you I have an engineering background, and like you I struggled with the transition." Now you've built a rapport with the audience.

• If you don't have extensive experience, college degrees or credentials, mention the listener's issues. They are listening to you because they have some sort of problem or issue, and they'd like someone to help them solve it.

The introduction can be similar to your "elevator speech," just be sure it's targeted to the audience.

CREATING AND REFINING YOUR RESIDUAL MESSAGE WILL BE DIFFICULT. 

The Residual Message is the ONE thing the audience will remember from your report, presentation or seminar. The residual message is the most important part of your presentation and also the most difficult to define. As you review your evidence and clarify your thoughts, your residual message will change. That's OK...and it's expected.

The best way to test your ability to craft a residual message is to practice, with feedback. When we are testing one of our " lunch and learn" one-hour seminars, we complete the talk and ask the audience, "What is the main message of this talk?" If we get many different or unrelated answers, we know we have more work to do.

The KWUC is the Killer Wake Up Call. It is a provocative call to action. It's often called the "attention grabber" or the "call to action." Either of these names are fine, but we like ours because it's a memorable acronym. It's got "sticking power."

The listener must be made aware of an impending disaster if they don't act. The example below is from a cashflow discussion with a start-up. Notice the "uh-oh!" we presented.

Throughout the presentation, think of what's important to the listener. In this section, we teach you to create the WIIFM - What's In It For Me.

You will notice a recurrent theme in everything we teach: "Put it in terms that are meaningful to the listener." This principle is especially true when developing your WIIFM. In our case study, we identified our audience as plant managers and operations managers, the residual message was "You can dramatically increase production without any capital expenditure," but why is this message imporant to them?

To determine the WIIFM - What's In It For Me - put yourself in the listener's prosition and ask, "So what?" In the case presented in the video, the WIIFM was "The new processing method will provide profitability and job security." (When production facilities stop operating at a profit, they close and the people are out of work.)

We usually start with three main concept or ideas, and as we refine and edit we may end up with two, three, four or whatever number is appropriate. For each main point, use the format below. Use complete sentences.

• State - State the main point.
• Define - Further define the main point. Use more detail.
• Support - Provide graphs, charts, process maps, etc.
• Relate - Relate this point back to the audience.

People often struggle with this concept, but it's important to understand and really think it through. In this section, try to use graphics instead of bullet points. People often neglect the "Relate" part of this section. After you state, further define then supply supporting documentations, think about why this point is important. The Relate section is very similar to the "What's In It for Me" we discussed in the previous lecture.

Once you've presented your evidence, restate the Residual Message and you are done! This wrap-up may take many forms. It can be a review, a simple restatement or a request for action. Either way, be sure the audience has a clear idea of the ONE main concept you want them to remember from your seminar, blog post, email or presentation.

You probably noticed that titles of the slides were directly from the outline. You don't have to do it this way, but it's a great place to start. You should be able to convey 90% of your story just using the titles. In our live, on-site instructor led training, students create at presentation of ONLY titles. And the limit is nine slides. Once the titles are complete, then the rest of the information is added.

Thank you so much, and we hope you enjoyed this class. Please feel free to contact us at gadelsberg@communicationforgeeks.com

"I know I have to have a WIIFM, but how do I do that?"

"How can I put it in terms that are important to the listerner?"

"How can I think like a CEO if I've never been one?"

You've probably asked these questions, and they're good ones to ask. If you've never "been there," creating a WIIFM might be difficult. However, if you understand two simple concepts, you'll be able to develop a message appropriate to people at each level of an organization.