ORGANIZE EVERYTHING!

Every successful training program or training class or presentation, which comes off as being very powerful, dynamic, innovative and inspiring the listeners to action, have one thing in-common, they have been and are well organized. Everything the presenter used during his or her presentation had been checked and rechecked. Nothing was left to chance.

So what does that means to you! It means in order for you to accomplish the same results, one of your first steps in building your training skills to become a skilled trainer is to get your Act Together and develop a habit of making sure everything that you are going to use during your training session is organized, and I do mean everything.

Getting Organized, simply means making sure that everything you plan to use during your presentation or training session has been checked for completeness, accuracy, its functional and in sequentially order of use. An easy way to accomplish this is to develop a pre-training checklist where you check everything you will use:

• Handouts' workbooks.
• Overheads, flip charts, wall charts, 35 mm slides.
• Audio/Visual equipment.
• Training aid mock-up's.
• Training facilities, classroom layout, environmental conditions. 

Would it gave you a warm fuzzy feeling to know the next time you boarded an airplane to fly somewhere, your pilots didn't check anything prior to taking off. 

The organizational attention to the details you give to your training presentation prior is "Critical" to your "Success," it is a small price to pay, because the first time you fail to ensure that everything is organized, you will know it instantly. The instant you discover something is out place during your class, speech or presentation, commonly more often than not, it forces you to stop and correct the problem. What suffers during this as you quickly attempt to fix the immediate problem, You !


Suddenly, the ad-lib's being flying all over the place, as you kill time looking for the right workbooks, charts or overhead transparency to use. Or discover your 35 mm slides are in upside down or backwards or out of sequence. It's about that time you start showing some early signs of nervousness, losing track of where you are in the presentation. Your confidence level also begins to sink a little, along with your image as a skilled speaker, trainer or presenter they begins taking a nosedive downward and suffers.

Been there done that! . . . It has happened to even the best of us at one time or another, the point being is do everything within your power to prevent it from happening in the first place.  That is why it is so critically important to you as a speaker, trainer, or presenter, after all your professional image is on the line as you stand in front of your audience. You want to project yourself as being a skilled professional with an authoritative sources of knowledge your students can learn from, and being well organized, is just one more way of maintaining that image of a professional. Remember to check everything, I mean everything, leave nothing unchecked.

While on the subject of professionalism, your clothes or what you choose to wear, when making a presentation is one of the strongest components of what you communicate.

Here's why: Your clothes or more specifically, what you choose to wear are pure, non verbal communication. Clothes communicate almost instantaneously, as quickly as the eye can transmit it to the mind.

Your Clothes provide a self-portrait of you. You are what you wear. Fashion has drummed this concept into our minds and it has achieved a certain level of credibility. Clothes are universal. Everybody wears them, outside of a nudist camp, you won't find many audiences totally disregarding the importance of clothes. Thus, you can't dismiss or underestimate the relevance of clothes to your presentation effectiveness. They're very important. What you wear tells us, your audience, two fundamental things, your perception of yourself and your perception of us.

Let's start with you, for most people, clothes are a deliberate indication of lifestyle and attitude. Shirts and blouses speak volumes. Colors make announcements, sometimes loud and boisterous . . .sometimes shy and muted. Shoes talk. Wingtips say one thing, sandals, another. Scarves, jewelry, eyeglasses they all make their own statements of your taste and personality.

How do you see yourself? Your clothes give us, your audience, our very first clue. Your clothes communicate your aspirations for you. Unless you are standing behind a podium that covers up everything except your head, your audience is going to notice your clothes. After all, you're presenting yourself and clothes are part of that image. Many presenters do not consciously think about what they're wearing and that comes across, too. Here's the point, whether accurate or faulty, perceptions are going to be made--and your clothes will contribute. You don't want to gave your audience the wrong perception before you've even spoken a word. Enough said use your own best judgment you know when you look sharp or not. Believe it or not your appearance can help you handle some of the tough issues that pop-up from time to time during your presentation either as a teacher, trainer or speaker.

Don't believe me, try this little experiment and see what kind of response you receive. The next time you go shopping or out to eat and dressed like a slob or hippie, watch the looks and see what kind of response you get. Now, do it again, only this time dress looking as a very professional confident person. Enough said!

During the course your instructor will go into greater details, for now, go to "Managing Questions", or back to "Your Presentation Skills"

About TLC Seminars | Presentation Skills | Basic Instructor | Advance Instructor | Custom Training
Contact Us | Your Feedback | Related Resources | Guest Column | Seminar Schedule

© Copyright 1992-2008 TLC Seminars

Site Developed by ShoalsWEB

Click Here