1. Total commitment to the problem/project/outcome – Do not present for the sake of presenting.  If you are, you might as well call it off or get somebody else to do it.
2. Create a compelling “Story line”/“Plot” – Make a strong and believable story in their context.  Remember, it’s in their context.
3. Sufficient data to drive message across – Do not bombard the stakeholders or audience with too much data.  They will not be able to absorb so much within the short time frame.  However, give them the key information they need and prepare a big list of answers to any questions they may have.
4. Memorize or familiarize the data – In this way, you can manipulate the data and present it in a different context on the spot.
5. Tell great stories or illustrations – This will bring vivid life to your presentation and the audience will be keen to hear more.
6. Be sensitive to the audiences – Look out for body languages and sense the response of the audiences.  Know when they are bored or attentive.  Switch your presentation style to grab their attention back!
7. Connect with audience – This will prevent them from falling asleep and being bored in your presentation.  Talk to them.  Ask questions!
8. Walk around the presentation – Especially to the audience area.  They will be made to stay alert throughout your presentation when they know you may walk to their “safe” area anytime.
9. Give a punch line or surprise at the beginning of the presentation – Surprise them and grab their attention!
10. Don’t be pushy once you “won” – No matter how good you are, once you’ve “won” it stay at there.  Let’s not hurt anyone’s dignity.
11. Be “in command” but not a “show-off” – The audience will decide if you are really good.
12. Be nice to everyone, even your detractors – That’s where the audience decides who the real jerks in the presentation are.
13. Pay attention to the senior stakeholder. However, you need not act like a suck-up to him – You do not want to be seen as a social suck up in front of everyone right.  Furthermore, the entire audience deserves your attention as well!
14. Let the audience arrive at the conclusion – They will find the conclusion more meaningful than you telling them you are right.
15. Just THREE key points! – Too many key points will not be understood by the general audience.

1. Communication

One of the most important skills in any business (where everyone is talking about) is effective communication.  It’s not just sales talk or negotiation.  It’s about communicating and understood by the other party.  Communicate clearly with your co-workers and clients, make sure all instructions and information are understood the way you want it to be.  Repeat and re-emphasize when you need to.  It doesn’t mean that you talk well is equivalent to being a good communicator.

By speaking clearly, concisely and checking back with that other party has understood what you have said, you can save a great deal of precious time

2. Planning

You can’t start without proper planning.  Be it a long term project or a short term ones, or a recurring one.  You need to plan.  You have to plan for the day, the week and the month.  Planning is essential to maximize your available time for the tasks you put forth and also for achieving your goals.

3. Prioritizing

Planning allows to list out all the things that needs to be done.  But we only got a certain amount of time that we have in our life.  We need to prioritize what is important to us.  Look at your To-do lists everyday.  Which one is more important and needs your attention first?

4. Procrastination

One of the biggest problems we humans encountered is procrastination.  The key thing is to admit that you are procrastination then identify the tasks that you put off the longest. Once you know which things you are likely to procrastinate about, find out the reason why you are not doing it.  By identifying the reasoning behind your procrastination issues, you can find solutions.  They can be breaking into smaller pieces, or plan the task as priority or find the best working time that you find most efficient at. Eliminate procrastination from your life and you see how much you can achieve everyday.

5. Delegation

Remember again, we have limited amount of time in a day.  You need leverage to do more tasks than what you can do alone.  Delegation comes in.  Delegate some of your routine tasks which you can quickly instruct someone else to take responsibility of.   Some of us may not like delegation as they find it a hassle to “prepare” the person for the task.  But before you think of that, give yourself the doubt that through proper communication, you will be able to automate some of the routine tasks, thus allowing you to work on the more important ones to you.

How do you get the most out of your meetings?  How do you make sure that you get your objective across in the meetings and all attendees walk out of the meeting room with a clear mind?  We’ve got a list for you to achieve this:

1. Call a meeting when it’s necessary.  Don’t call it just for the sake of calling.  Make sure—really sure—that the meeting is needed.
2. Invite only those people that will get something out of the meeting.  This applies to recurring meetings as well.  Let’s not waste time.  Get people that will contribute or get something out of the meeting!
3. Have a detailed agenda. A meeting that does not have an agenda does not call for a meeting.  Set the time limit to each item to keep people wandering off the topic.
4. Schedule your meetings at least a few days in advance.  This gives people ample time to prepare.  Hastily planned meetings are may not yield any output.
5. Cancel your meeting if you think it’s no longer required.  Never, have a meeting just for the sake of having it.
6. Start on time.  Forget about the late comers.
7. Set a time limit. Then think about cutting it in half. If you think you want an hour meeting, try a half-an-hour.  A longer meeting usually end up wasting time.  Isn’t it better to close things in a shorter time?  Sometimes half of that is just fine and it can force everyone to get down to business.
8. Have a leader. Every meeting should have a leader who can lead everyone to the discussion and keeping things on track.
9. Stick to the agenda. Put a chit-chat session in the agenda if you want it to be part of the meeting.
10. End your meeting on time. Resist the temptation to go over.

These tips apply to most of the meeting.  However, there will be exceptions to it.  At the bottom-line, meetings should be held when they are constructive and make good use of everyone’s time.  Everyone should be well prepared in advance to get the best use of their time.