presentations as a leader

7 brilliant ways successful leaders start presentations

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“The beginning is the most important part of the work.” —Plato

When we speak, we have about 60 seconds to capture our audience’s attention, establish credibility, orient them to our topic, and motivate them to listen, says Darlene Price, president of Well Said, Inc., and author of “Well Said! Presentations and Conversations That Get Results.”

If you waste those precious opening seconds with a joke, an agenda, an apology, housekeeping details, a string of thank-yous, or a rambling, pointless paragraph littered with “ums” and “uhs,” your audience’s minds are likely to drift, and you may not get them back. “You need to put the art in the start, the most important part of the work,” says Price.

That’s a tall order for any speaker — and it requires us to develop and rehearse a well-crafted, attention-getting opener.

Price offers seven options:

1. Tell a captivating story.

“Of all the starters in your toolkit, storytelling is among the most powerful and consistently successful,” Price says. “As humans, we’re hard-wired to enjoy and learn from stories. From bedtime stories and campfires, to Broadway theaters and boardrooms — heroes, villains, conflict, plots, dialogue, and lessons learned draw us in, remind us of our own lives, and hold our attention.”

The story can be about you personally, which tells the audience first-hand why you’re invested in and passionate about the topic. Or you can tell a story about another person who the audience can learn from. “Another option: Tell a fable, wisdom tale, historic event, or anecdote,” Price says. “The idea is, start with a brief 60- to 90-second narrative that launches your speech and captivates your listeners, and make sure the story encapsulates the key point of your message.”

She suggests you consider these questions as you craft your version of “Once upon a time”: What challenges have you (or another) faced in relation to your topic? How did you (or another) overcome them? Who or what helped you or harmed you? What lessons were learned? What do you want your audience to gain, feel, or do as a result of the story?

2. Ask a rhetorical, thought-provoking question.

“As Shakespeare wrote in ‘The Merchant of Venice,’ ‘If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?'” says Price. “As a speaker, you ask rhetorical questions for persuasive effect; you don’t expect the audience to answer aloud, rather silently to themselves.

When crafted and delivered well, rhetorical questions influence an audience to believe in the position of the speaker. “Clearly, Shakespeare’s character Shylock is leading his listeners to think ‘yes’ four times in order to justify revenge against Antonio. What do you want your audience to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to?”

In addition to yes or no questions, you can also arouse curiosity and motivate your audience to think about the answer, she says.

3. State a shocking statistic or headline.

Price says the vice president of sales for America’s leading healthcare IT company successfully sells software solutions to hospitals by starting her presentations with the following:

“According to a new study in the Journal of Patient Safety, medical errors leading to patient death are much higher than previously thought. Preventable adverse events, known as PAEs, cause up to 400,000 deaths per year for patients who seek care at a hospital. That means medical errors are the third leading cause of death behind heart disease and cancer. Our vision is to create a world free of medical errors, and we need your help.”

“The statistic, bold claim, or headline needs to be directly related to the main purpose of your presentation,” Price explains. “Its impact ideally persuades the audience to listen and respond positively to your recommendation and next steps.”

4. Use a powerful quote.

“Employ the wise words of a well-known person, because the name allows you to tap into his or her credibility, likeability, and notoriety,” she says. The quote must have meaning and relevance to the audience.

Imagine you’re urging a group to reach consensus, or giving a talk on conflict management. You could open with: “Mark Twain once said, ‘If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary.’ Even though some of us disagree on the xyz issue, each of us is necessary in reaching a resolution.”

5. Show a gripping photo.

A picture is worth a thousand words — “maybe even more,” Price says.

“Use photos instead of text, when possible,” she suggests. A quality photo adds aesthetic appeal, increases comprehension, engages the audience’s imagination, and makes the message more memorable.

Price offers the following example of an effective use of an image:

The president of an electronics equipment company needed his managers to cut costs. Rather than showing mundane charts, graphs, and spreadsheets, he opened the meeting by asking, “What sank the Titanic?” When everyone in unison replied, “an iceberg,” he displayed a beautiful high-definition image of an iceberg on the screen: the tip of the iceberg was clearly visible above the water; the much larger portion was dimly visible below the surface of the water.

“The same thing is about to happen to our company,” he continued. “Hidden costs — the dangers beneath the surface — are about to sink this company. I need your help.” This visual metaphor spawned a creative, productive brainstorming session that inspired every business unit manager to diligently hunt for what they labeled the “icebergs,” says Price. The result was saving millions and ultimately the company.

6. Use a prop or creative visual aid.

“A prop is a magnetic tool that hooks your audience and keeps them watching — or listening,” Price says. A visual aid can also help emphasize a point.

Price uses the example of a sales VP at a large insurance company, who happens to be an avid tennis player. She says he wanted to kick off his annual meeting with a bang — so he “brilliantly used his tennis racquet to emphasize ‘acing the competition,’ ‘rallying together as a team,’ and winning a ‘grand slam’ through great customer service.” Year after year, other speakers were compared to this leader’s creative ability to present a motivational message, she says.

“Think about how you could use items like a big wall clock, a colorful gift bag, juggling balls, a deck of cards, a bunch of carrots, or another prop, to introduce your topic, captivate the audience, inject humor, and drive home your message.”

7. Play a short video.

Imagine kicking off a product management meeting with a video of compelling customer testimonials, or opening a fundraising event for endangered species by showing an Amur Leopard playing with her cubs in the wild.

“Videos evoke emotional responses,” Price explains. “Unlike text and bullet points on a slide, you can employ people, pictures, and sound to reel in the audience, add drama, and communicate the gist of your message quickly.”

As Walt Disney said, “I would rather entertain and hope that people learned something than educate people and hope they were entertained.”

This article is published in collaboration with Business Insider . Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: Jacquelyn Smith joined Business Insider as the careers editor in February 2014.

Image: an empty meeting room is shown. REUTERS.

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Powerful and Effective Presentation Skills: More in Demand Now Than Ever

When we talk with our L&D colleagues from around the globe, we often hear that presentation skills training is one of the top opportunities they’re looking to provide their learners. And this holds true whether their learners are individual contributors, people managers, or senior leaders. This is not surprising.

Effective communications skills are a powerful career activator, and most of us are called upon to communicate in some type of formal presentation mode at some point along the way.

For instance, you might be asked to brief management on market research results, walk your team through a new process, lay out the new budget, or explain a new product to a client or prospect. Or you may want to build support for a new idea, bring a new employee into the fold, or even just present your achievements to your manager during your performance review.

And now, with so many employees working from home or in hybrid mode, and business travel in decline, there’s a growing need to find new ways to make effective presentations when the audience may be fully virtual or a combination of in person and remote attendees.

Whether you’re making a standup presentation to a large live audience, or a sit-down one-on-one, whether you’re delivering your presentation face to face or virtually, solid presentation skills matter.

Even the most seasoned and accomplished presenters may need to fine-tune or update their skills. Expectations have changed over the last decade or so. Yesterday’s PowerPoint which primarily relied on bulleted points, broken up by the occasional clip-art image, won’t cut it with today’s audience.

The digital revolution has revolutionized the way people want to receive information. People expect presentations that are more visually interesting. They expect to see data, metrics that support assertions. And now, with so many previously in-person meetings occurring virtually, there’s an entirely new level of technical preparedness required.

The leadership development tools and the individual learning opportunities you’re providing should include presentation skills training that covers both the evergreen fundamentals and the up-to-date capabilities that can make or break a presentation.

So, just what should be included in solid presentation skills training? Here’s what I think.

The fundamentals will always apply When it comes to making a powerful and effective presentation, the fundamentals will always apply. You need to understand your objective. Is it strictly to convey information, so that your audience’s knowledge is increased? Is it to persuade your audience to take some action? Is it to convince people to support your idea? Once you understand what your objective is, you need to define your central message. There may be a lot of things you want to share with your audience during your presentation, but find – and stick with – the core, the most important point you want them to walk away with. And make sure that your message is clear and compelling.

You also need to tailor your presentation to your audience. Who are they and what might they be expecting? Say you’re giving a product pitch to a client. A technical team may be interested in a lot of nitty-gritty product detail. The business side will no doubt be more interested in what returns they can expect on their investment.

Another consideration is the setting: is this a formal presentation to a large audience with questions reserved for the end, or a presentation in a smaller setting where there’s the possibility for conversation throughout? Is your presentation virtual or in-person? To be delivered individually or as a group? What time of the day will you be speaking? Will there be others speaking before you and might that impact how your message will be received?

Once these fundamentals are established, you’re in building mode. What are the specific points you want to share that will help you best meet your objective and get across your core message? Now figure out how to convey those points in the clearest, most straightforward, and succinct way. This doesn’t mean that your presentation has to be a series of clipped bullet points. No one wants to sit through a presentation in which the presenter reads through what’s on the slide. You can get your points across using stories, fact, diagrams, videos, props, and other types of media.

Visual design matters While you don’t want to clutter up your presentation with too many visual elements that don’t serve your objective and can be distracting, using a variety of visual formats to convey your core message will make your presentation more memorable than slides filled with text. A couple of tips: avoid images that are cliched and overdone. Be careful not to mix up too many different types of images. If you’re using photos, stick with photos. If you’re using drawn images, keep the style consistent. When data are presented, stay consistent with colors and fonts from one type of chart to the next. Keep things clear and simple, using data to support key points without overwhelming your audience with too much information. And don’t assume that your audience is composed of statisticians (unless, of course, it is).

When presenting qualitative data, brief videos provide a way to engage your audience and create emotional connection and impact. Word clouds are another way to get qualitative data across.

Practice makes perfect You’ve pulled together a perfect presentation. But it likely won’t be perfect unless it’s well delivered. So don’t forget to practice your presentation ahead of time. Pro tip: record yourself as you practice out loud. This will force you to think through what you’re going to say for each element of your presentation. And watching your recording will help you identify your mistakes—such as fidgeting, using too many fillers (such as “umm,” or “like”), or speaking too fast.

A key element of your preparation should involve anticipating any technical difficulties. If you’ve embedded videos, make sure they work. If you’re presenting virtually, make sure that the lighting is good, and that your speaker and camera are working. Whether presenting in person or virtually, get there early enough to work out any technical glitches before your presentation is scheduled to begin. Few things are a bigger audience turn-off than sitting there watching the presenter struggle with the delivery mechanisms!

Finally, be kind to yourself. Despite thorough preparation and practice, sometimes, things go wrong, and you need to recover in the moment, adapt, and carry on. It’s unlikely that you’ll have caused any lasting damage and the important thing is to learn from your experience, so your next presentation is stronger.

How are you providing presentation skills training for your learners?

Manika Gandhi is Senior Learning Design Manager at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. Email her at [email protected] .

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How to Make a “Good” Presentation “Great”

• Guy Kawasaki

Remember: Less is more.

A strong presentation is so much more than information pasted onto a series of slides with fancy backgrounds. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others. Here are some unique elements that make a presentation stand out.

• Fonts: Sans Serif fonts such as Helvetica or Arial are preferred for their clean lines, which make them easy to digest at various sizes and distances. Limit the number of font styles to two: one for headings and another for body text, to avoid visual confusion or distractions.
• Colors: Colors can evoke emotions and highlight critical points, but their overuse can lead to a cluttered and confusing presentation. A limited palette of two to three main colors, complemented by a simple background, can help you draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the audience.
• Pictures: Pictures can communicate complex ideas quickly and memorably but choosing the right images is key. Images or pictures should be big (perhaps 20-25% of the page), bold, and have a clear purpose that complements the slide’s text.
• Layout: Don’t overcrowd your slides with too much information. When in doubt, adhere to the principle of simplicity, and aim for a clean and uncluttered layout with plenty of white space around text and images. Think phrases and bullets, not sentences.

As an intern or early career professional, chances are that you’ll be tasked with making or giving a presentation in the near future. Whether you’re pitching an idea, reporting market research, or sharing something else, a great presentation can give you a competitive advantage, and be a powerful tool when aiming to persuade, educate, or inspire others.

• Guy Kawasaki is the chief evangelist at Canva and was the former chief evangelist at Apple. Guy is the author of 16 books including Think Remarkable : 9 Paths to Transform Your Life and Make a Difference.

Partner Center

10 Presentation Ideas For Leadership Teams and Training

Leadership teams shape organizations for better or for worse. They’re responsible for guiding teams and moving things— big or small— forward. So what makes a great leader versus one that causes employees to leave a company?

When you think of a great leader, it’s probably a specific characteristic that comes to mind. Qualities like respect, self-awareness, trust, influence, collaboration, and strong communication skills can set extraordinary managers apart from mediocre ones. But how leaders listen, learn, and communicate with their employees is just as important. Because of that, leaders— regardless of the industry— need to hold themselves accountable and continuously seek out ways to grow as a manager.   

It’s not uncommon for companies to host offsites or retreats to bring the leadership team together for brainstorming, planning, and training. This helps align leaders across various departments, teams, and offices, while offering them the tools they need to be more successful in their role. 

When preparing a presentation for leadership teams and training, it's crucial to focus on content that resonates with the audience's strategic mindset and their role in guiding the organization. Here are some leadership presentation ideas to help inspire your own content.

Leadership presentation ideas

Presentations can act as a platform to encourage learning and collaboration among different leaders. Do you have a leadership retreat coming up? Here are 10 leadership presentation ideas to help train and motivate your own leadership team. 

Effective leadership strategies

As a recurring training, you might share effective leadership strategies with your executive team. This presentation would act as a refresher of the latest trends and best practices in leadership. This could include insights on empathetic leadership, fostering a positive company culture, and embracing diversity and inclusion.

Change management

How should managers and leadership teams address the challenges and opportunities associated with change within the organization? A change management presentation would provide strategies for how leaders can navigate transitions successfully, with the least amount of disruption to the team.

Strategic planning and decision-making

A strategic planning and decision making presentation will offer insights into the process of setting achievable goals and making informed decisions. Organizations might also use a strategic planning presentation to lead their own company brainstorming sessions at a leadership all-hands meeting. 

Team development and engagement

Team development and engagement is important for the overall success of the team. In this presentation you might share techniques for fostering a high-performing and engaged team, including methods for providing feedback, coaching, and creating a supportive work environment.

Communication skills

Communication skills can make or break a leader. A training session on effective communication in leadership roles could be beneficial for both managers and executives of all levels. Here you could offer practical tips for clear, transparent, and empowering communication.

Leading through uncertainty

Given the current business landscape and layoffs happening across various industries, leadership teams need to know how to handle hard situations. This presentation idea for leadership teams would discuss strategies for navigating uncertainty and ambiguity, including how to maintain resilience and inspire confidence in a team concerned about job security. 

Embracing innovation and creativity

It’s no secret that AI is here to stay, and teams are having to pivot to accommodate new technology. Use a thoughtful presentation to encourage leaders to embrace innovation and promote a culture of creativity within the organization. The slides in this deck could showcase the benefits of adopting innovative approaches and thinking outside the box.

Building high-performance teams

Leaders need the right tools and knowledge to be able to guide positive performance. Employers might offer a training “how-to” on best practices for assembling and nurturing high-performance teams. This deck should include strategies for fostering collaboration, trust, and accountability among teammates. 

Data-driven decision making

As a leader, leveraging data to make more informed decisions should be top of mind. This leadership presentation idea can highlight the importance of leveraging data and analytics in decision-making processes, and offer guidance on how to incorporate data-driven insights into leadership strategies. This could include ways to implement KPIs, OKRs, or other effective ways to track the performance of individual contributors and campaigns. 

Ethical leadership

A wildly important leadership topic is ethics. Upper management should be well-educated in ethical leadership, and how that impacts the success of the team. An ethical leadership presentation could include the significance of ethics, the impact it has on organizational culture, employee morale, and long-term success, and how to ensure it’s top of mind in each department on a daily basis.

Beautiful presentations to drive your message home

You have a presentation topic, now what? The hardest part of presentation design is going from idea to deck with little design skills to back you up. Thankfully, there's a presentation software for that. Insert: Beautiful.ai. Beautiful.ai helps leadership teams create beautiful presentations so they can pack a bigger punch with their message and inspire their audience. Presenters can use one of Beautiful.ai's customizable pre-built presentation templates — like the training presentation — or leverage our AI-assistant to create a presentation from scratch specific to their topic. By creating beautiful decks you can engage your audience, drive your message home, and leave your leadership team feeling inspired to make a difference.

Jordan Turner

Jordan is a Bay Area writer, social media manager, and content strategist.

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A Leader's Guide to Effective Presentation Skills

Presentation Skills for Leaders

• Inspire and motivate their teams
• Strengthen their personal brand and reputation
• Build trust and rapport with stakeholders
• Persuade others to support their ideas and initiatives

"People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it."

Key Elements of Effective Presentations

Clear and compelling storyline, visual aids and design, engaging delivery, interaction and engagement.

Practical Tips for Developing Your Presentation Skills

Know your audience, practice, practice, practice, leverage the power of storytelling, minimize cognitive load.

• Breaking down complex ideas into smaller, digestible chunks
• Using visuals to support and simplify your message
• Focusing on the most critical points and eliminating unnecessary details

Master the Art of Nonverbal Communication

• Maintain eye contact with your audience to establish connection and demonstrate confidence.
• Use purposeful gestures to emphasize key points and express enthusiasm.
• Adopt an open and relaxed posture to convey approachability and credibility.

Utilize the Power of Pauses

• After making an important statement or revealing a key piece of information
• Before transitioning to a new topic or section
• To allow the audience time to process complex ideas or ask questions

Seek Continuous Improvement

Examples of great presentations, steve jobs' iphone launch.

• Craft a clear and engaging storyline that guides your audience through your content.
• Use minimalist visuals that complement and reinforce your message.
• Exhibit genuine enthusiasm and passion for your subject matter.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" Speech

• Use storytelling and vivid imagery to evoke emotion and create a lasting impression.
• Deliver your presentation with conviction, passion, and energy.
• Be mindful of the power of language, and choose your words carefully to convey your message effectively.

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12 Presentation Tips Every Leader Must Practice

The word “leader” comes with a great deal of responsibility. Being a leader one is expected to lead the team members in an organized and perfect way. The company's working set-up has been changed over the years. And so has the role and function of a leader. Being a leader you should know about all the work functions, and internet marketing tactics to lead your team to new heights.

As a leader, how you express yourself and engage with others is very important. As such, presentations are a great opportunity to demonstrate your leadership skills.

Consider the following list of tips as a checklist of everything you must do to ensure that your presentation flows smoothly.

Self Leadership vs Progressive Leadership

Before we get to the presentation tips every leader must practice, let’s quickly understand more about leadership and types.

What are some core leadership skills?

• Self-awareness
• Communication
• Strategic thinking

What is self leadership?

Self leadership is crucial to accomplish your career goals and become a great leader. The self leadership definition is intentionally utilizing your thinking, actions, and emotions towards your goal. The primary self leadership skills are planning and scheduling, setting goals for life and business, avid interest in learning, clear focus, and discipline.

What is progressive leadership?

The progressive leadership definition is that someone who likes to challenge the status quo focuses on positive things and avoids negativity. Progressive leadership is about having a concern for their employees, and their core focus is customers. They have nothing to prove to anyone and are good mentors to people who want to learn.

12 Best Presentation Tips for Leaders to Practice

1. know your audience.

As you will see in this list, the success of your presentation will depend on a variety of things. All of them, however, have to do with how well you connect with your audience. This is why knowing your audience is important.

Whether it’s a group of business professionals at a conference or a group of high school students, modify your presentation to fit the needs and expectations of your audience. This will convey your skills as a presenter and leader.

2. Structure Your Presentation

Your presentation needs to have a clear beginning, middle, and end. This structure will help guide your audience through your presentation. It will also illustrate the effort you put into preparing and giving the presentation.

As you prepare to give your presentation, try to divide it in three sections. If it’s difficult, make some adjustments. The more structured your presentation, the easier it will be to follow and the more engaged your audience will be.

3. Have a Well-Designed Presentation

A badly-designed presentation can make for a bored, uninterested, and frustrated audience. Designing your presentation to meet the needs of your audience can help prevent this. Always make sure that the color scheme, font size, and use of images is adequate for your audience.

If you’re unsure about your design skills, however, you have the option of finding a presentation template that fits your needs. If you want to show professionalism in your line of work, there are a variety of PowerPoint slides to choose from. Show your audience that you care and demonstrate your leadership skills by having a well-designed presentation.

4. Dress the Part

The time and effort you put into giving a great presentation means little if you don’t look the part. Dressing too casual or too formal can be distracting, making it seem like you lack self-awareness.

To avoid this, make sure you have all the details relevant to your presentation, including the dress code. Then, pick an outfit that matches the dress code .

5. Get Organized

Being organized is a simple yet effective way to convey your leadership skills. A good leader is not only knowledgeable but also organized and prepared. Before your presentation, make sure you have your visual aids, notes, and other tools in order.

Getting organized will also help to boost your self-confidence and calm your nerves. This preparedness tells your audience (and yourself) that you are the best person for the job of presenting.

6. Practice, Practice, Practice

One of the easiest ways to ensure that your presentation runs smoothly is to practice. The more you practice what you are going to say during your presentation, the more confident you will feel about giving it.

A few days before your presentation, take some time to practice . This will allow you to notice the parts where you can improve. It will also help to depend on your written notes less.

7. Arrive Early

Nothing damages the impression you make with your audience more than arriving late. Regardless of your reasons, arriving late to your own presentation hurts your image as a leader. It tells your audience that you didn’t care enough to be on time.

Avoid this negative impression by arriving early. If you can, you might want to greet some of the audience members before your presentation.

8. Test for Technical Issues

Where things can go wrong, they often will. Try not to carry your presentation in pendrives. The use of big data in business has grown immensely. Cloud storage and other big data uses business can easily help in storing your presentation in the cloud.

Sometimes the audio doesn’t work correctly, or your presentation isn’t in the right format. These small but significant technical issues can put a damper on your presentation.

If you’ve followed the previous tip and arrived early, take the time to make sure everything works the way it’s supposed to. This will help you prevent any technical issues during your presentation.

9. Speak Clearly

If you want to command the attention of your audience, you need to be eloquent in your way of speaking. Mumbling your way through a presentation will only make it more difficult for your audience to hear you. As a good leader, you want to speak clearly , so everyone can understand you.

Additionally, make sure to avoid using too many filler words such as um , uh , and like . Filled words distract from the message you are trying to send and illustrate how nervous or unprepared you may be.

10. Show Your Enthusiasm

How you give your presentation is just as important as what you have to say. As you practice, notice the way you speak and move. Your body language can say a lot about how you feel, so try not to stay tense and still throughout your presentation.

You can also show your enthusiasm by smiling. Noticing your body language is important , and can show your audience just how much you enjoy the time you’re spending with them.

11. Engage With The Audience

If you want to keep your audience focused and entertained, you need to engage with them. Though presentations might seem like a one-way deal, engaging with your audience shows how well of a leader you can be.

As you give your presentation, take the time to connect with your audience by asking them questions. Additionally, take some time at the end of your presentation to answer any questions your audience might have.

12. Thank Your Audience

If you want to ensure that you made a good impression, be sure to acknowledge the role your audience played in your presentation.

Your audience gave you their time and attention to listen to what you had to say. Show them the same respect by both listening to their feedback and thanking them for their time.

From the planning stage to the audience’s applause, this list is meant to help you improve every aspect of the presentation process. Follow them to ensure you give your audience exactly what they want while illustrating your leadership skills.

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Resource 1: Presentations: The Life of a Leader

Presentations: the life of a leader.

Why Effective Presentation Can Redefine Leadership

Presentations are opportunities for leaders to lead in a way that serves others, as opposed to simply exerting authority. Too often, leadership is portrayed to young people in terms of status and success, where leadership means you are the “best” in a group and presentations are a way to demonstrate that you know the “most”. Unfortunately, presentations that serve only to prove to everyone that you are worthy and valuable are less effective because they end up overemphasizing the quantity of content over its quality. Trying too hard to prove yourself can also result in oral delivery that is distant, defensive, and lacking in pathos, or the ability to appeal to the emotions of an audience. The end result is a presentation that is all about the slide deck instead of about connecting with people through powerful oral delivery and eye contact.

A Lead-To-Serve Mindset

While we may sometimes work or learn in places that mandate that we present to prove ourselves, we cannot let that culture dominate the way we present. For presentations to be effective, we need to think about guiding, directing, and inspiring our audiences, providing them with valuable content that will impact their thinking. When we have the mindset that leaders serve people, then our presentations become all about helping people learn, listen, and remember new information. Ask yourself:

• Why am I presenting this content?
• Why is it significant to my audience and why should they care?
• What can I teach them so that we can be on the same page about this content in the future?
• What will help them listen and retain the most important information?
• What do they need to know now and what can wait until later?

By asking ourselves questions that are oriented towards learning, presentations become vehicles for teaching content and providing audiences with a reason to listen, retain, and ultimately, connect.

Elements of Effective Presentation

When presentations are used as a tool for learning, choices about structure, sequence, and language are important to being as clear and as credible as possible. (For more guidance on how to improve your presentation structure and language and implement elements of effective presentation, see “Presentation Cheat Sheet: Tips for Structure and Language” later on in this guide.) More specifically, most effective presentations include the following elements: Connect: Connect to the audience by referencing a common experience or concern.

Contribute: State how you will be contributing something new to the conversation.

Preview: Frame the main idea in terms of how your presentation will help the audience.

Illustrate: Teach new information by illustrating complex ideas with examples or case studies.

Synthesize: Synthesize or sum up key takeaways.

Extend: Take the main idea one step further by offering one more final thought or implication that is especially memorable.

The exact presentation structure will vary widely depending on the purpose of the talk, length, audience, context, format, and whether you are presenting with others. What to avoid, however, is jumping into complex information without preparing your audience and priming the conditions for listening. Too many presentations start without stating why we should listen to the presentation in the first place and end without stating why this content matters. As a speaker and leader, it is also important to reflect on why the presentation content excites you and matters to you. If it doesn’t, then it won’t matter to anyone else.

Adapting to Audiences

Given the focus on listening and learning, crafting effective presentations also require public speakers to consider the needs and interests of the audience. During the brainstorming process, this involves asking the following questions:

• Why am I being asked to speak?
• What does my audience already know?
• What are they worried about?
• What are they excited about?
• What level of information interests them?
• What helps them learn?

When working with young speakers, it is important that presentations are more than just a culminating assignment. Instead, a key part of the presentation preparation process is for speakers to learn how to reflect on the purpose of the presentation and why they might be an important voice on the selected topic.

The Final Takeaway

Presentations are a classic form of public speaking that can be powerful opportunities to teach, guide, and inspire others. They are opportunities to clarify complex ideas and establish credibility as a leader who can serve people effectively. To present effectively, it is important to remember the relationship with the audience and consider how to help them learn. Rather than fading into the background, presentations are opportunities to lay the groundwork for future conversations and frame new ideas in a way that is thought-provoking, clear, and memorable.

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Presenting as a Leader™

Powerful presentations motivate an audience to act. learn how to inspire your audience to take action with presentation skills training..

Whether presenting to your team, senior leadership, or any internal or external audience, it’s imperative that you craft your message in a way that will be heard. But that’s easier said than done. Effective presentations require a successful blend of an audience-centered message, an engaging delivery, and powerful supporting visuals. There’s a lot of room for error, which is why everyone can benefit from training to become a more effective presenter. Even the most nervous speakers can gain the confidence to become inspiring presenters with formal leadership presentation skills training and practice.  

Ideal Audience

Anyone who often creates and/or delivers presentations.

Delivery Method

In-Person or virtual. Hybrid learning options are also available.

Available In: English, French, and Spanish.

In-Person: 2 days, or ;

Virtual: 4, 1.5-hour live online sessions over four weeks + pre-program, self-paced learning modules + 30-minutes of 1:1 virtual coaching.

Sustainment

Upon program completion, participants gain access to ELI , an AI-powered coach designed to provide personalized, on-the-job feedback and support as they implement new skills and techniques.

What Participants Learn in our Presenting as a Leader™ Program:

In Presenting as a Leader ™, participants learn what it takes to craft and deliver presentations that motivate, inspire, and engage their audience. By bringing their own past presentations into the classroom and rebuilding them, learners have a chance to see where they typically go wrong and how to make a greater impact with their approach, their visuals, their speaking notes, and their delivery style. Both the virtual and in-person learning experiences are led by an expert facilitator and provide extensive opportunities for peer discussion, feedback, and practice. Learners will leave with the skillset, mindset, and confidence to inspire others through presentations.

Presenting as a Leader ™ participants receive the knowledge and tools to:  

• Shift their approach to presentations from information to inspiration. 
• Use presentations to demonstrate their leadership in a given area. 
• Craft audience-centered messages. 
• Build slide decks that are easy to follow, simple to understand, and beautiful to view. 
• Use slides and visuals in delivery without being upstaged by them. 
• Engage any audience, whether virtual or in-person, through body language, pace, eye contact, and expression. 
• Answer questions with confidence and clarity. 

Is Presenting as a Leader™ Right for You? 

Presenting as a Leader ™  is designed to develop presentation skills for leaders who are struggling with one or more of the following challenges:  

• Presenting with clarity and conviction in every presentation – both formal and informal. 
• Building formal presentation experience. 
• Preparing for large, formal public-speaking engagements. 
• Handling Q&A. 

Delivery & Partnership Options

A variety of delivery and partnership options are available to meet your needs.

Our expert facilitators deliver this training directly to teams in your organization.  

Our Partners Deliver

Connect with our open enrollment partners to find program options for individuals. 

Spark Your Learning With Tailored Program Add-Ons:

As part of our extensive suite of offerings, we have a number of additional Spark modules that complement Presenting as a Leader ™ If you are interested in strengthening a particular skill that is not covered in the core program, we make it easy to add additional modules to your core program design. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Contact our Sales team to learn more about our full library of Spark add-on modules. Here are our top recommendations for Presenting as a Leader ™ :

30 minutes of 1:1 coaching is included in the core program design to provide direct presentation skills feedback for your learners. Additional 1:1 or group coaching is available if needed. 

Storytelling For Leaders

Storytelling builds a level of rapport and connection that facts and data cannot. It’s a skill that takes any communication to the next level—if you know how to use it. 

Connect With Us

Whether you’re ready to invest in development for your leaders, or just want to learn more about who we are and how we can help, we’re ready to answer your questions.

Your Challenges Are Solvable

It doesn’t have to be complicated. Our solutions incorporate simple, easy-to-apply tools and methods that drive big impact.

We Look Forward to Chatting!

We can’t wait to talk about how we can help you develop leaders who inspire.

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Leadership Powerpoint Presentation Slides

Wish to implement leadership strategies that influence, engage and encourage excellence performance in the organization? SlideTeam has come up with content ready leadership PowerPoint presentation slides to portray the management abilities of the workforce. These team management PPT templates include slides like leadership introduction, leadership vs. management, control styles and theories, participating captaincy process, strategic management, business theory, adaptive performance, group cohesion, communication patterns and many more. Apart from this, if you want customized designs for your presentation, our design team is at your service. Our predesigned leader-member exchange theory presentation can be used for the topics like leadership skills and training, qualities of leadership, leadership in management, leadership strategies & practices, productive guidance etc. Click and download our leadership PowerPoint presentation templates and make your team efficient. Folks are enthralled by the explosion of colors in our Leadership Powerpoint Presentation Slides. It's iridescence increases interest.

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Templates are editable in PowerPoint. This presentation has 80 slides. Pixels do not get blur with widescreen. Downloads are risk-free. This Presentation is useful for the top management, leaders. Slides are compatible with Google slides. Customers have Prime support. The stages in this process are strategic management, business theory, industrial, social concepts, adaptive performance, group cohesion, communication patterns.

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Content of this Powerpoint Presentation

Slide 1 : This slide introduces Leadership. State company name here and get started. Slide 2 : This is an Agenda slide. State your Starting agendas here. Slide 3 : This is also an Agenda slide. State your Ending Agendas here. Slide 4 : This slide defines What is Leadership with imagery. Slide 5 : This slide presents the Definition of Leadership Slide 6 : This slide states what Leadership Is. Slide 7 : This slide states Who is a Leader? with introduction, definition etc. Slide 8 : This slide presents Leadership Quotes for inspiration, motivation etc. You may change the slide content as per need. Slide 9 : This too is a Leadership Quotes slide with background imagery. Slide 10 : This slide shows another variation of Leadership Quotes. Slide 11 : This slide states the Difference Between Managers & Leaders. Showcase it here in points. Slide 12 : This is a Leadership vs Management slide with respect to the following factors- Role, Focus, Approach, Methodology, Style/tone, Outcome. Slide 13 : This slide states the Qualities of a Good Leader such as- Shared Vision, Lead Change, Set Example, Inspire People, Empower People, Honest, Competent, Forward Looking. Slide 14 : This slide states Formal and Informal Leadership in points. Slide 15 : This slide is titled Styles of Leadership. Slide 16 : This slide presents Leadership Styles based on Authority in a flow chart form. Slide 17 : This is another slide showing Leadership Styles Based On Authority divided into three categories- Autocratic, Laissez-faire, Democratic. Slide 18 : This slide presents the definition of Autocratic Leadership with imagery. You can alter it as per need. Slide 19 : This slide showcases Autocratic Leadership Advantages & Disadvantages. You can add your own as per your need and use it. Slide 20 : This slide showcases Democratic Leadership with imagery divided into- Consultative, Persuasive. Slide 21 : This slide presents a list of Democratic Leadership Advantages & Disadvantages. Slide 22 : This slide shows Laissez Faire Leadership. Slide 23 : This slide states Laissez-faire Leadership Advantages & Disadvantages in points. You can refine them on the basis of your requirements. Slide 24 : This is a Based on Task vs People Emphasis matrix slide ranging from High to Low and vice versa. Slide 25 : This is Based On Assumptions About People slide showing Mc Gregor’s Theory with human head imagery. Slide 26 : This slide showcases Likert's Styles of Leadership which include the following 4 points- Benevolent Authoritative, Consultative Leadership, Participate Leadership, Exploitative Authoritative. Slide 27 : This slide states Entrepreneurial Leadership facts and information to be displayed. Slide 28 : This slide showcases Transactional Leadership. Slide 29 : This is a Transformational Leadership slide showcasing its 4 important components- Inspirational Motivation, Individual Consideration, Idealized Influence, Intellectual Stimulation. Slide 30 : This is Transactional vs Transformational Leadership slide to state. Slide 31 : This slide is titled Theories of Leadership. Slide 32 : This slide showcases four Leadership Theories. These are- Trait Theory, The Managerial Grid, Contingency Theory, Leader Behavior Theory. Slide 33 : This is Trait Theory of Leadership slide showing Personality Traits further divided into three components- Abilities Personal Traits Motivators Slide 34 : This slide states What Makes a Leader with the following points- A Born Leader, Honesty and Integrity, Maturity and Charisma, Analytical Ability, Self Confidence, A Desire to Lead, Development, Contextualize Decisions, A Drive to Achieve. Slide 35 : This slide showcases various Traits and Skills (Leaders vs Non-Leaders). Monitor them and change as per requirement. Slide 36 : This is Behavioral Theory of Leadership differentiating between Behavioral Theory and Trait Theory. Slide 37 : This slide shows Managerial Grid matrix with two parameters- Concern For People, Concern For Production. Slide 38 : This slide showcases Behavioral Theory Studies-Ohio State Studies with- Consideration, Initiating Structure. Slide 39 : This slide states University of Michigan Studies with the following points- Employee-oriented, Production-oriented Leader. Slide 40 : This slide shows 4 Contingency Theories & Situational Theories of Leadership. These are- Fiedler Model, Hersey and Blanchard's Situational Theory, Leader Member Exchange Theory, Path Goal Theory, Leader Participation Model. Slide 41 : This is a Coffee Break image slide to halt. Alter as per need. Slide 42 : This slide states Contingency Theory with description, introduction etc. Slide 43 : This slide shows Fiedler's Model. Slide 44 : This slide presents Fiedler's Contingency Model in a graphical form with the following parameters- Favorable Moderate Unfavorable Slide 45 : This slide showcases Least Preferred Co-worker (LPC) Scale with Scroring. Slide 46 : This slide shows Contingency Model. Slide 47 : This slide shows Path Goal Theory. Slide 48 : This slide also shows Path Goal Theory further divided into 4 components- Leader behavior, Environment Contingency factors, Subordinate contingency factors, Outcome. Slide 49 : This too is a Path Goal Theory slide showing Path-Goal Leadership with the following functions to perform- Defines Goals, Clarifies path, Removes Obstacles, Provides support. Slide 50 : This slide shows How Path Goal Theory Works with- Subordinate Behavior, Task Characteristics, Leadership Behavior. Slide 51 : This slide shows Hersey & Blanchard's Situational Leadership (SLT) matrix. You can add or modify text as per need. Slide 52 : This slide states Four Leadership Styles (Hersey & Blanchard)- Telling, Selling, Participating, Delegating. Slide 53 : This slide presents Leader-Member Exchange Theory in a flow chart form. You can add or modify text as per need. Slide 54 : This slide showcases the Normative Decision Model (Vroom & Yetton ). Slide 55 : This is Participative Leadership slide showing Continuum Of Decision Procedures. Slide 56 : This slide showcases Participative Leadership Process with the following 6 steps- Facilitate the conversation, Openly share information and knowledge, Encourage people to share their ideas, Synthesize all the available information, Take the best possible decision, Communicate their decision back to the group. Slide 57 : This slide states Four Types of Participative Decision Making. These are- Democratic, Consensus, Collective, Autocratic. Slide 58 : This slide showcases Icons For Leadership. Use icons as per requirement. Slide 59 : This slide is titled Additional Slides to proceed further. You may alter the slide content as required. Slide 60 : This is Vision & Mission slide. State your mission, vision etc. here. Slide 61 : This is Our team slide with names and designation to fill. Slide 62 : This is an About us slide to state company specifications etc. Slide 63 : This slide shows Our Main Goals such as Satisfaction, Communication, Values etc. Slide 64 : This slide shows Comparison between two enties etc. Slide 65 : This is a Dashboard slide to state metrics, kpis etc. Slide 66 : This is a Location slide on a world map image to show global presence, growth etc. Slide 67 : This is a Project Timeline slide to show evolution, growth, milestones etc. Slide 68 : This is a Post It slide to mark events, important information etc. Slide 69 : This is a Puzzle pieces slide to show information, specifications etc. Slide 70 : This is a Target image slide. State targets, etc. here. Slide 71 : This is a Venn diagram image slide to show information, specifications etc. Slide 72 : This slide shows a Mind map for representing entities. Slide 73 : This is a LEGO slide with text boxes to show information. Slide 74 : This is a Silhouettes slide to show people specific information etc. Slide 75 : This slide presents a Bar Graph for showcasing product/ company growth, comparison etc. Slide 76 : This is a Hierarchy slide to show information, organization structural specifications etc. Slide 77 : This slide displays a Funnel image. State information, funneling aspects etc. here. Slide 78 : This is a Pie Chart slide to show product comparison etc. Slide 79 : This is a Contact Us slide with Email, Address# street number, city, state, Contact Numbers. Slide 80 : This is a Thank You slide for acknowledgement or to end the presentation.

Leadership Powerpoint Presentation Slides with all 80 slides:

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The slide presentation covers several types of leadership styles, including autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire, transactional, and transformational.

The presentation outlines the difference between managers and leaders in terms of their roles, focus, approach, methodology, style, and outcome.

The presentation outlines several qualities of a good leader, such as having a shared vision, leading change, setting an example, inspiring and empowering people, being honest and competent, and having a forward-looking mindset.

The slide presentation covers four main leadership theories: trait theory, the managerial grid, contingency theory, and leader behavior theory.

The slide presentation outlines the advantages and disadvantages of several leadership styles, such as autocratic, democratic, and laissez-faire, providing insight into the potential benefits and drawbacks of each approach.

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Leadership Topics for Presentation

Have a presentation or a meeting coming up? Need to find leadership training topics to present on or leadership topics for discussion? The Leadership Mission has you covered! Below is our list of leadership training topics, leadership topics for discussion, leadership exercises and leadership team building activities we have compiled that are impactful for leaders at any level. These are designed to get your wheels turning and have proven to be successful across many different organizations.

Want to jump quickly to one particular section? Here are some helpful links!

Leadership Training Topics

Leadership Topics for Presentation and Discussion

Leadership Team Building Activities

Leadership exercises.

The following leadership training topics are great for leaders at any level. These work best in smaller meetings or groups. These topics are designed to generate great discussion and hopefully yield higher functioning managers.

Soft skills

Soft skills are personal attributes that enable someone to interact effectively and harmoniously with other people. These are critically important in today's workforce as now more than ever our workforces require employees to be able to communicate, work as a team, listen and get along with others. Here is a very brief list of soft skills but this topic is HUGE and you could easily turn each of these topics into presentations.

Communication

Problem-solving

Time management

Critical thinking

Decision-making

Organizational

Stress management

Adaptability

Conflict management

Resourcefulness

Openness to criticism

Change management

Today's world changes faster than arguably any other time in history. Between 24 hour news cycles, social media and the explosion in communication methods between individuals, managing change is an essential skill any leader must have. There are a couple of excellent books on this topic by John Kotter called Leading Change and Our Iceberg is Melting. You can also have a good discussion about how your team deals with change and how much change your organization has (or hasn't) had over the years.

Managing effective meetings

Meetings consume so much of the average working person's time. No matter what kind of job you have, meetings are most likely a part of their day or week at some point. How effective are your people at running effective meetings? When was the last time anyone ever thought about it?

A great subtopic for this presentation can be a study and/or game you can play with your attendees call meeting or email? I'm sure you could easily find a handful of examples of meetings that could have been emails (and vice versa) and let your attendees have some fun guessing. Don't be surprised when your team becomes very candid during this meeting about the need for meetings!

Performance management

Managing the performance of others is an extremely important part of any leader's job. Leader's must also be managers and cannot simply rely on connecting with and "leading" people. At the end of the day, we all have hard metrics we are responsible for. One of the most important ones, is the performance of those that work for us.

This topic doesn't get nearly as much attention as it should and I guarantee you can get some good discussions going around the most effective way to do this for you organization. You can discuss how often this happens, annually, bi-annually, monthly? You can discuss what format it is done in and how the teams respond to them. Get your groups thoughts on the effectiveness of your current system and brainstorm if there isn't a better way.

The Six Styles of Leadership

Developed by Daniel Goleman, the six styles have been a staple part of the discussion around situational leadership for awhile. They describe the different ways you need to lead depending on the situation, the people and various other factors. There is plenty of discussion to be had with this topic and is great for new leaders!

The six styles are as follows:

Visionary — mobilize people toward a vision. Works best when a clear direction or change is needed.

Coaching — develop people for the future. Works best when helping people and building long-term strength.

Affiliative — create emotional bonds and harmony. Works best to heal rifts in teams or motivate people in stressful times.

Democratic — build consensus through participation. Works best to create consensus or get input.

Pacesetting — expect excellence and self-direction. Works best to get quick results from a highly competent team.

Commanding — demand immediate compliance. Works best in crisis or with problematic people.

Managing an inbox

This is something that gets taken for granted all of the time and would make a great leadership topic for presentation. The organization, efficiency and 'cleanliness' of inboxes today can be a sensitive subject. No one wants to admit to having thousands of unread emails just sitting there but chances are, most of your leaders do.

How do you as a company manage that? When was the last time anyone cared? Effective inbox organization can do wonders in taking a manager from good to great. It might also get a good conversation started around communication as a whole in your organization.

Managing a calendar

Just like the inbox, calendar's are criminally misused or underused. They can be a great way to manage the obvious things like meetings and calls. However, they can also be a great way to hold teams accountable, document what you did for reflection and serve as a sort of task list for leaders.

Don't make the assumption that everyone knows how to use the calendars. Technology changes so fast and new features come out all of the time. Even if someone in leadership learned how to use outlook ten years ago in college, it might be completely different now!

Leadership Topics For Presentation & Discussion

This section is about topics that make for great discussions or presentations. Whether it be a small group or large one, these topics are always important in the world of business today.

Virtual leadership

Thanks to 2020, so many of us have had to get used to working virtually, which means we've also had to lead virtually as well. This topic is sure to generate discussion on what is working, not working and how everyone feels about it.

This is sure to be an important topic moving forward as companies must decide what their "new normal" is going to be. You might be surprised at how effective or ineffective working virtually is/was. It might open the door to other conversations surrounding flexibility in the workplace.

Most businesses come down to some sort of execution. Whether it be making widgets, serving guests, healing patients or selling goods, every business has some sort of metric when it comes to executing the core function of the business. When was the last time you discussed not only the results but overall execution as a whole? Can you guarantee that the way things are supposed to be done are actually being done?

Additionally, you can discuss training of new hires, repair and maintenance of equipment, employee productivity and anything that goes into actually getting the job done.

When was the last time your organization had a conversation about your company culture? Are expectations meeting reality? Does your team/company know what culture they are supposed to be creating? Having an open and honest conversation about your company culture is a healthy exercise for any company.

It is extremely important that there be a strong moderator for this conversation as it is easy to go off the rails with this subject. That statement shouldn't dissuade you from having the conversation though! A great book on this topic is Good to Great by Jim Collins.

Company specific leadership topics for discussion/presentation

Do you have specific tasks, goals, metrics or items that your leaders should be discussing with their teams? Have you set an agenda that is being pushed down through the organization? Putting together a list similar to this specific for your team might be helpful for your mid level leaders. This list can give them a clean and easily accessible company approved list of topics they should be discussing with their teams.

Giving your leaders a list of exercises that they could practice either by themselves or with their teams makes a great leadership training topic. It is always extremely important to develop yourself as a leader and the other leaders in your organization. Here are some leadership exercises to get you started.

Quality circles

This isn't so much a topic as an activity but is highly effective, especially if your group allows for crossover from different departments, regions, etc. It is amazing how sometimes just putting a fresh set of eyes on a situation can create positive discussions or solutions around a problem. Spend some times thinking about your attendees and split them into smaller groups.

Come up with a top 5 list of challenges or obstacles that each group might be facing and have them discuss it in a "nameless & rankless" frank discussion. Assign a note taker to each group and charge them with capturing key points and takeaways and for keeping the group on point.

Difficult leadership situations

This is a great topic to discuss with your leaders, especially if your group has a good mix of leadership experience and tenure in it. The following situations are always important to talk about and discuss/share with other leaders. The growth that can come from just talking through some of these situations is priceless. Depending on the size of your group, you can either discuss as a whole or break into small groups and have them discuss the following topics:

Dealing with difficult or problem employees

Handling your team's stress and pressure

Letting someone go

Delivering bad news

Leading an initiative you don't agree with

Managing underperforming employees

Internal leadership challenges

This often gets such little attention, yet is one of the most important factors leaders must deal with, their own feelings. Managing your own emotions and generally how you feel about something is way easier said than done. Just like the previous item, having a good mix of leadership experience and tenure is a great.

Just talking about how their fellow leaders handle the following topics can be vitally important for new leaders and great reminders and encouragement for experienced leaders. Unlike the previous item though, it is crucially important that attendees feel comfortable being open. It is one thing to talk about topics that impact others or are conceptual and something entirely different to discuss personal struggles!

Staying humble

Self confidence

Overcoming fear

Handling personal stress and pressure

Avoiding burnout

Staying motivated

Compartmentalizing competing priorities

Keeping work life balance

Situational leadership scenarios

Situational leadership is extremely important in today's modern workforce. Diversity of all types in employee bases has exploded in the last several decades. That means managers and leaders cannot treat everyone the same. A leader that understands using different leadership styles with different people and at different times is critical.

Develop some scenarios that are relevant to your group and ask them to decide how they would approach one differently over another. There is a fantastic book written by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson on this topic called the One Minute Manager that is a quick read and is very beneficial to new leaders!

The following items are great team builders for small groups or meetings in any professional setting. They are designed to bring team's together, develop teamwork and give any observing leaders some data points about their people!

Build a building

Break your group into small even teams and provide them with their building materials consisting of any combination of the following:

index cards

tooth picks

playing cards

Don't stress over which materials you give them, just as long as it is enough to build a free standing building with! The object is simple, which team can build the largest free standing structure.

Things to consider with this activity:

How will you divide your teams? Be purposeful in how you break them up

Have the teams assign a 'project manager' ahead of time

Take mental notes of how the teams interact and how the assigned managers perform

Qualities of a leader

Break employees into teams and have them share leaders they admire (in any industry). Take notes on the characteristics that these leaders share, then give employees time and space to reflect on the characteristics they share with those leaders before identifying skills they would like to develop in themselves

Use employee notes on skills they would like to develop to design your own training opportunities.

Use employee notes and compare them to your organization. A sort of 'expectations vs reality' mental exercise.

These lists are in no way exhaustive we just think these leadership training activities are great for effective presentations or meetings that will grow the leadership abilities of your team! We'd love to hear from you in the comments below! Or feel free to shoot us an email [email protected]

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TCNJ students “far and away” national undergraduate leaders in health communication conference presentations

According to the world-renowned organizer of the nation’s most prestigious health communication conference, Professor Nancy Harrington, TCNJ students are far and away the nation’s leaders in undergraduate paper presentations. She offered this opinion when three TCNJ undergraduates (two majoring in communication studies, another in public health) and one master of public health graduate student presented co-authored papers on April 5 in Lexington, Kentucky, at the biannual Kentucky Health Communication Conference (KCHC 2024), the nation’s oldest and most revered health communication conference in the U.S.

Commenting on TCNJ student presentations, Harrington, who has organized the University of Kentucky conferences almost since their founding in the late 90s, said: “Since 2006, when students from TCNJ first began presenting their research at the Kentucky Conference on Health Communication, a biennial conference that attracts national and international participants, they have been far and away the leaders in undergraduate participation. In fact, TCNJ students have presented more refereed papers and posters than have undergraduates from any other college or university. KCHC 2024 is the first conference for which we have two other colleges bringing a significant number of undergraduate students. I like to think that TCNJ has paved the way.”

All three co-authored undergraduate papers and the single graduate paper were written in classes in Communication Research Methods and International Communication taught by social scientist John C. Pollock , professor of communication studies and public health, founder of the health communication specializations in both departments, who said: “I am especially proud of this year’s TCNJ representatives, co-authoring papers on such diverse topics as nationwide multicity coverage of abortion access ( Roman Fabbricatore ’25 ), birth control access ( Shannon Allen ’25 ), and opioid misuse ( Chandler Storcella ’25 ), as well as on cross-national coverage of water pollution (MPH student Jessica Munyan ).” Each media sociology paper was written using “community structure theory,” developed by Pollock over several decades at TCNJ, comparing community-level (city or country) demographics with variations in coverage of critical issues in major city or national newspapers. Over his nearly 32 years of teaching at TCNJ, Pollock has co-authored almost 200 papers with over 500 student co-authors, papers presented at state, national, or international conferences, co-authoring additional articles or chapters, and even a book with 28 student co-authors.

Student presenter comments were appreciative. According to Chandler Storcella ’25, “As one of the few undergraduate students participating in the nation’s top health communication conference, it was an exceptional experience, gaining insight into cutting-edge research.” For Roman Fabbricatore ’25, “The Kentucky conference opened my eyes to the wide array of health communication frameworks addressing health concerns globally. Research presented by dozens of academic institutions convinced me that the field can effectively engage diverse audiences to better influence health outcomes.” For Shannon Allen ’25, “Attending KCHC was one of my most memorable and rewarding undergraduate experiences. The exposure to such rigorous research and brilliant scholars allowed me to gain more appreciation for the health communication field.” For Jessica Munyan, MPH candidate, “The opportunity to present at KCHC 2024 was an honor, and I really enjoyed learning about others’ incredible ground-breaking research throughout the country.”

According to Susan Ryan , chair of the Department of Communication Studies, “We continue to be impressed by the exemplary work in Dr. Pollock’s classes leading to student presentations at national conferences. This accomplishment reflects well on the students and on the health communication specialization that has long been a major department strength.”

According to Carole Kenner , dean of the School of Nursing and Health Sciences, “The School of Nursing and Health Sciences and the Department of Public Health are delighted that students representing health communication concentrations have become exemplars for other students nationwide.”

— John C. Pollock

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WestPac, IA-NE-SD are scanning leaders again

A snapshot of Postal Service scanning data shows the national rating was 97.18 percent during the week ending April 12, up 0.11 percent from one week earlier.

The data was collected April 17.

WestPac led the four areas with a rating of 97.59 percent, while Southern ranked last with a 96.37 percent rating.

Among the 50 districts, Iowa-Nebraska-South Dakota, part of WestPac Area, ranked first with a 98.33 percent rating, while Georgia, part of Southern Area, ranked last with a 93.3 percent rating.

Scanning data allows customers to track their mail and packages, which helps USPS deliver excellent service, boost loyalty and drive revenue.

To see the latest data, go to the Informed Visibility website and select “Customer Experience,” followed by “DES 2 Scan Performance.” Postal Service employees must request Informed Visibility access through eAccess.

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Doctoral Dissertation: Educational Leadership for Social Justice

Join us for this doctoral dissertation presentation, titled "Development of Intercultural Communication Skills: Lessons Learned From Early-Career Professionals Who Interned in Germany" by Ina Marshall on  Tuesday, April 16, from  1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m., via   Teams .