What to do when your manager asks you to ‘give a presentation’ to introduce your team?
Perhaps you have a new senior executive who needs a briefing or perhaps there is a slot to fill in a coming Town Hall?
Do you work through your org chart or can you turn this into a bigger opportunity?
I hope you know me well enough by now to assume the latter!
Today I would like to offer some further insights on this topic while also linking back to a previous post addressing a similar challenge.
So, here are some thought starters to help you ‘niche’ your purpose statement and will turn this potentially burdensome request into an opportunity. I offer three initial areas to explore and three follow-on questions:
3 initial areas to explore
Dig into three areas so you can ‘niche’ your purpose and turn this burdensome presentation into an opportunity.
- Think very carefully about the role your team plays within the organization strategy. How do you add value? Why are you ‘organised’ into the structure in the way you are? Why do you even exist as a team / unit / division?
- Ask yourself what the rest of the organization could do for you if they understood your role better. Could you equip them to help you better by supporting or perhaps not resisting some of your requests? Could they adjust their approach to enable you to deliver more value? Could they get more out of your services if they understood you better?
- Find out why you have been asked to present to this audience at this time. Are you ‘just’ on a roster of education presentations or is this ad-hoc? If so, what is behind the request? Does that inform the value you could deliver or obtain from this presentation?
3 follow-on questions
Once you are clear about the answers to these questions, go further and ask three more:
- As a result of this presentation, I want my stakeholders to know, think, do …. What?
- Who among those stakeholders are going to be most influential in achieving that outcome?
- How can I tailor my messaging to hit home with them (as well as everyone else, but particularly with them?)
>> Click here for an example that we worked on within the program
Have a great week.
Talk soon,
Davina