IS IT GOODBYE TO STANDUP PRESENTATIONS - and hello to communicating with impact?

These days work changes with such speed that it can leave behind even the most established employee practices.

Being able to give a formal, stand-up presentation has been on the agenda of learners for decades, possibly centuries.

Apart from numerous courses on the topic, there are countless books about presenting, and confess to having written at least two myself.

Yet the demand for formal stand-up presentations at work keeps declining. “We don’t do presentations” may be how you react to the suggestion that you learn the basics of good presentations. And you are right.

Much of the activity in many organisations consists of team meetings and communication sessions in which standing up and presenting remains the exception. Google’s Ngram system shows the popularity of certain words, and the result for stand-up presentation skills shows a severe decline since their heyday in 2000:

Source google Ngram

So, does this fundamental shift mean you don’t need to learn to present? Quite the opposite. The transition is placing even greater emphasis on communicating with an impact.

Standing up and demanding attention to a formal set of notes seldom seems essential anymore. “We’re communicating all the time, using our phones, laptops and other devices” is how many people behave at work.

Yet the challenge itself has stayed the same. It’s about getting your message across in a powerful way so that others listen, understand, and, if necessary, agree to act in response.

Achieving this is being made much more challenging by the wrong assumption that all you need to do is talk the talk. People still need to be persuaded, convinced, and inspired.

Take, for example, the long-standing rule of good presentations that you should prepare for your communication, not just improvise. Bringing together the facts, analysing them, and getting them across with conviction still matters.

It’s a soft skill best practised in advance, even if you only use it in an elevator when you have a brief chance to talk with your boss.

Knowing what you want to achieve with your

communication may demand more than a casual statement.

It needs accurate content to land with impact and does not allow listeners to be bored or distracted.

Thinking through your message, structuring it to gain attention, and delivering it passionately still counts.

The requirement to communicate with impact continues to grow, with employers placing ever-increasing importance on it. Corporate recruiters worldwide list communication and interpersonal competencies as top skills employers seek. Check out this revealing chart:

WHERE PRESENTATIONS STILL MATTER

1. Interviews: you'll have a more significant impact on your prospective employers if you can give a small presentation showcasing your skills, experience, and expertise during the interview process.

2. Meetings: presentations continue to be important during meetings even though there may be no formal requirement to stand up and perform. For example, team members give presentations to provide solutions. They discuss goals and targets; sometimes, presentations highlight and acknowledge a team member's achievements.

3. Sales Pitches: modern customers are harder to impress because they have free access to all the information through the Internet. If you don’t have a communication impact, you may not reassure them that you can provide what they need.

4. Conferences and events can be daunting, especially if you need more confidence in your presentation skills. When you talk at such events, you face influencers, executives, guests, and people of note. It’s worth polishing your impact skills and being confident in such situations.

5. Networking and establishing connections: your ability to communicate with impact can help you establish relationships with industry influencers and other important people. You might speak at networking events, deliver a personal sales pitch or business proposal, or get into discussions with essential people and establish connections.

6. Reputation: if you speak well at networking events, conferences, and team meetings, it will help you develop a good reputation. You can change from an industry novice to someone with authority, even an expert. That result can positively impact your career and improve your future job prospects.

7. Relationships with customers: communicating with impact helps you establish a good relationship with customers. Customers need to trust your information and believe you know about the product or service.

8. Online or telephone communication: it’s easy to underestimate the value of presentation skills in this era of digital communications. Yet they’re as relevant now as they were before, if not more so. Can you deliver your information in a well-organized and concise fashion? How do you come across in such settings?

To sum up, presentation skills can make or break your career. It’s worth investing in them to make an impact and continue building your brand.