Tag: presentations

Approaching mock interviews or presentations

Mock interviews or presentations are an opportunity to refine your own judgment of how to approach the real thing well. Too often, they’re viewed as a place to receive feedback you never thought of.

If you have a good mock interviewer or audience, the likelihood you will get good feedback is high. But, that isn’t the point as it is only useful in the short run.

The way to approach practice of any sort is to use your coach’s (in this case, your mock interviewer’s or audience’s) feedback to train your own judgment on when things are done well. This means that the onus is on you to look at your performance critically before the session and walk in with a hypothesis on what needs to get better. All these hypotheses then get tested and validated, or not.

Practice with a coach is both great and important. But, you’re going to need to develop the discipline to coach yourself over time. Besides, game time is an exercise in solitude and listening to your own gut.

It is best to be prepared for that.

mock interviews,presentationsSource

Someone’s dad or mom – The 200 words project

I hope you’re having a nice weekend. Here’s this week’s 200 word idea thanks to ‘From Values to Action’ by Harry Kraemer..

Early on in his career as an analyst, Harry Kraemer noticed a colleague who made an excellent presentation to senior management. He commented on what an excellent presentation it was. She then shared her secret – her father had been the Chairman of a very large company and regularly held meetings at their home. So, from a very young age, she thought of directors as “somebody else’s dad or mom.”

She never Iost that perspective as an adult and that meant she gave presentations to senior management just as she would give presentations to her fellow analysts or, in her case, her parents.

Harry Kraemer found it incredibly useful in a career that saw him make many presentations to the Board of Directors as CFO and then CEO of Baxter, Inc.

And, it makes for great perspective as we head into our next “big” presentation.

Someone else's dad or momSource and thanks to: www.EBSketchin.com

‘Often we allow ourselves to be intimidated by someone at a higher level in the organization, but with true self-confidence, we understand that we’re all just human beings.’ | Harry Kraemer