Ignite: Real Leadership, Real Talk, Real Results

Chapter 5 Presenting the real you on stage

Like it or not, every time you present, you are being judged. Your audience will be critiquing not only your presentation style but also your ability as a leader. So if presenting is part of what you do, your presentation can affect, either negatively or positively, your future success and how people see you as a leader.

If you have senior leadership ambitions, it's imperative that you become an inspiring presenter. Organisations want inspiring leaders. Why? Because inspiring leaders engage and motivate a workforce, increase productivity, and attract and retain talented people.

Just look at Barack Obama. He won the US presidential election in 2008 because people believed he would be an inspiring leader, largely because he was an inspiring presenter.

Every time you present, you have an opportunity to increase your leadership presence. So it is worth investing time preparing for your presentation, and determining what will give you the biggest impact or the greatest return on your investment.

Due to the critical importance of presenting I have dedicated a fair number of pages in this book to it. Although the chapter title references the stage, keep in mind that you do not have to physically be on a stage for parts to be relevant. Your stage could be the boardroom or your stage could be around the table at your next team meeting. Your stage could be literal or lateral, and the information in this chapter is relevant regardless of whether ...