One of the important characteristics of a leader is the ability to communicate effectively. At some points, a leader would have to communicate goals to be achieved, plans to be implemented, or even how well the team has done in terms of organisational responsibilities. If the aforementioned is correct then the importance of the ability of a leader to be a great communicator cannot be overemphasised.
Since communication can be written or verbal, a leader should ensure that he can make use of either means effectively to pass information across to his team. It has been established that effective communication has only occurred when there is a shared meaning. This means that the sender and the receiver both understood the intent of the message in clear terms. In terms of verbal communication, it will be good to communicate in a clear and simple language for people t decode which will go a long way in having to provide support to enable the intended recipient to understand the message clearly. Writing communication can also be a tool one can use to convey messages provided the communication is effective, and this is where the power of understanding the principle of presentation comes into play.
A presentation offers the opportunity to combine both written and verbal communication as one will have to prepare slides to be presented which will aid or guide the verbal communication. One important point to note is that there is power in planning and one should not take the intended audience for granted by not planning well. For a presentation to be effective, the presenter has to know the audience and also the purpose of the presentation. Knowing the audience will put the presenter in a better place to know what will make them understand the message better and this will guide in the formation of the slides and gathering of points while knowing the purpose will ensure that the presenter comes out confident as he or she has mastery of the topic at hand to be presented.
How the presentation will begin is also an important consideration that should be planned carefully, as this might set the tone for how the whole presentation will go and also the audience’s level of acceptance. One must come out confident and positive within the first few minutes of the presentation.
Other important points to note when preparing for a presentation will also be to anticipate questions to be asked by the audience and try to provide answers to them before the presentation while also making use of visual aids to guide your presentation and also capturing the mind of the audience to prevent them from being bored.
Finally, practice makes perfect they say. One must carefully practice the presentation ahead of the actual delivery as this goes a long way in identifying errors in delivery, perfecting slide order, and ensuring the thought process to guide presentation delivery is audited and in order which will boost the delivery confidence. For communication to be effective, we have to be intentional about making it so.
