Real-Life Communication -- Solution
Every presentation is different, just like every person is different.
Each company may also have its own tradition for presentations.
Here's
an example of a presentation that is positive and brief, yet factual:
"Good
morning. I am Jim Johnson, the accounting technician in Group Five.
"I'm
pleased to say that this has been a strong year for all of us in Accounting
Group Five, from the accountant, Fred Rogers, to the salesperson, Tonya Jones
and our assistant, Wilma Smith.
"Earlier this year, we completed a
Fortune 500 company's audit more than a week ahead of schedule. With this
feat, we earned the employee-of-the-month award.
"We also worked to
prevent one of our smaller clients, a local company, from filing for bankruptcy
by conducting a thorough bookkeeping overhaul.
"We computerized accounts
and were able to locate some cash reserves the company had lost due to its
antiquated bookkeeping system.
"The only bad news this year was that
we did lose one client who switched to another firm.
"Finally,
we met tax deadlines for our five other clients, with all members of the team
doing extra duty to achieve this important goal."
Accounting
technician Katherine Culligan says that communication skills are very important.
This includes listening skills.
"A lot of times, when you're preparing
financial information you have people requesting information, and they don't
necessarily know specifically what they want," says Culligan.
"And
so you have to listen and get a feel for what they want, and ask the right
questions so that you give them what they really want instead of what they
think they want," she says with a laugh.
"Because a lot of times
we're dealing with other departments that are not finance oriented -- they
may be in planning or they may be in the city manager's staff or so forth
-- so the outsiders are not necessarily familiar with the inner workings of
our department," Culligan explains. "So you have to determine and get down
to the nitty-gritty of what they really want."