Last fall, I provided one-on-one Presentation Skills coaching sessions for a number of executives at one of my clients’ locations. The feedback I received through my client contact afterward was terrific, and I was thrilled that my input had such a positive impact. One of my attendees sent my contact the following praise, and later kindly gave me permission to share it with you:
“I gained an appreciation for the importance of bringing conviction and passion into presentations, including those that seem mundane (e.g. regular updates). Most times as a presenter, you know more about that particular topic than anyone in the room. Over the course of 60 minutes, Andrew reminded me of this point and helped me experience the impact of speaking from the heart with focus and energy. Despite the same slides and message, my presentation of the material at the end of the session was much more powerful (and literally felt better) than my handling of the same content at the start.”
I also coached this same executive again a few weeks ago. Since our session in the Fall, he has been promoted to a leadership role, and he needed to prepare his presentation for the company’s upcoming Annual Sales Meeting, which the company’s new CEO would be attending. This time we worked virtually for two hours. As I typically do in these sessions, I gave tips and suggestions for improving the PowerPoint presentation materials themselves, as well as for how to deliver the presentation with maximum impact. I dropped the executive a note the week after the sales meeting to ask how it went. He reported that he had hit a true home run, and that the praise he had been receiving from both his peers and his superiors has been almost embarrassing in its enthusiasm. I’m not at all surprised; this fellow takes input to heart, and puts it into action immediately. And clearly, the results showed! My congrats to him on his success.
Today, I’ve just completed a couple of one-on-one coaching sessions at another of the company’s locations, and again great work from both people. It’s always a pleasure when people walk in, eager to communicate!