Presentation Skills are Important for Leaders to Master

What's the first image that comes to mind when you think of leadership? Maybe it's someone at the head of an expedition. Maybe it's a person standing out from the rest.

Whatever you think about, you'll probably agree that the image of someone presenting a vision to a group is one of the most enduring symbols of leadership. The ability to publicly guide, persuade, and inform defines leadership — arguably more than any other attribute or skill.

The key to developing that ability is practicing your presentation skills. Even if you're not fond of public speaking — it happens to be among the biggest fears in America — it's worth it to hone presentation skills as a leader.

How Do You Become a Better Presenter?

The good news is that your leadership position provides you with a lot of opportunities to practice your presentation skills. Recognizing those opportunities and taking advantage of them are the keys to improvement.

The first thing you should do is consider presentation as a more generalized skill. That is, think beyond the podium, the conference room, and the slide deck. 

Presentation skills are what you use to communicate your unique vision of success. They are also the tools that help you act out the principles of your organization's culture.

Whenever you find yourself having to explain, demonstrate, guide, or influence people, you can think of that as a presentation. As you practice these short, informal presentations that occur in the context of everyday conversation, you'll start to develop your confidence and skill. You'll also start to understand how your developing presentation style fits in more formal settings.

Which Presentation Skills Should You Focus On?

I look at presentation skills as clubs in a golf bag. You might have some skills that help you put the support and emotion behind your words necessary to connect with a large crowd. Just like a driver won't do you much good on the green, those powerful public speaking skills won't take you all the way to the hole.

You'll need presentation skills that are powerful, nuanced, specialized, and versatile if you want to become a better leader. It's the same idea when you prepare your clubs: You usually want to bring a combination of woods, putters, wedges, and irons to handle anything the course sends your way.

Practice Presenting Your Vision

If there's one thing that you want to present flawlessly as a leader, it's your vision. Luckily, your vision is also something that you will be presenting over and over in many different forms.

Start small, but think big. Try to communicate the biggest possible idea of success in just a few words. Once you have that down, you can adapt your presentation to fit into any situation — in front of a crowd or when you run into another leader in the elevator.

It will take some work, but it's worth the effort. Are you ready to learn how presentation skills can make you a better leader?