The John Adair Handbook of Management and Leadership

Chapter 8: Communication and presentation 187

Preparation is helped by asking the Who? What? How? When?

Where? Why? of the speaking occasion to focus on the audience,

the place, the time, the reasons giving rise to the occasion, the

information that needs to be covered and how best to put it across.

Presentation skills

There are six clusters which form the main elements of good,

effective presentation skills.

1 Profile the occasion, audience and location

You should ask yourself these questions:

• The occasion
  
  
  • what kind is it?
  
  
  • what are the aims of it?
  
  
  • what time is allowed?
  
  
  • what else is happening?
  
  
  
  


• The audience
  
  
  • do they know anything about you?
  
  
  • do you know its size?
  
  
  
  

Adair’s six

principles

of effective

speaking

1 Be clear

2 Be prepared

3 Be simple

4 Be vivid

5 Be natural

6 Be concise