Problem and Solution Structure
School leaders almost always have a problem to tackle. This structure is perfect for when you are attempting to problem solve in order to improve your school. In this presentation structure, you identify and communicate the problem. Then you present a variety of solutions and help the audience select the best solution. If you have already predetermined the solution, then you describe the problem and communicate the solution. An example could be when the problem has to do with student performance declining in writing. In this case, a school leader might present solutions to help improve writing schoolwide. Or, another problem could be student discipline, and you share solutions to help prevent students from violating school rules. This structure basically divides the presentation into two main parts: (1) the problem and (2) the solutions.
Compare and Contrast Structure
Sometimes you need to juxtapose multiple concepts and, in that case, a compare and contrast structure could help organize the information. When you compare concepts, you are identifying how they are similar, and when you are contrasting concepts, you are identifying how they are different. Communicating information through a compare and contrast method is another way to help your stakeholders organize information logically. An example could be to compare and contrast current students with students from ten years earlier to demonstrate how teaching methods should or should not change. You can also compare and contrast how your school implemented something in the past with how you might implement something in the present to decide what to include in implementation and how best to do it.
Cause and Effect Structure
This structure allows you to present information in a way that demonstrates the effect of something. In other words, what impact has something made? In this structure, you would outline the cause (the what) and then describe the effect (the end result). Or you can explain the current situation (the end result) and then explore the causes (the what) for that situation. An example could be when a school leader communicates the current reality that it took eight minutes for the entire school to evacuate during a fire drill when in the past it was always done within three minutes. After this message, the school leader can share the reasons that may have led to the eight-minute evacuation.
Elements of Ineffective Presentations
Everyone has sat through an ineffective presentation. Think of an occasion when you were in the audience when someone was presenting and the entire time you thought about everything but what the presenter was discussing. In other words, you were not engaged and, therefore, you were not paying attention. If an ineffective presentation means your audience is not very engaged or even paying attention at all, then that means that presentation will most likely fail to meet the purpose you have set for it.
The American Management Association (2015) conducted a survey of 360 people to find out what annoyed them the most in presentations. The results show that the most annoying habit is when the presenter reads the slides (37 percent); second is when the presenter lacks knowledge about what he or she is presenting (22 percent); and third is when the presenter uses too many distracting words such as um or uh (16 percent).
This section outlines those elements in addition to some others that lead to ineffective presentations. These are the things not to do when preparing and delivering a presentation as a school leader.
Lack of Knowledge
There are times when school leaders have to present topics they may not be familiar with. Maybe this has happened to you: you receive some information from the state or district that you do not know a lot about but are responsible for communicating to your teachers. Or you could be communicating something that is out of your comfort zone or expertise area. When a school leader does not have strong knowledge of the content that he or she is communicating, this can lead to the bad habit of reading off the slides. As a result, the presentation can be ineffective because the audience is not taking it seriously—because listeners can tell the presenter is simply reading off slides and doesn’t really don’t know what he or she is talking about. Without strong knowledge of the topic, you may struggle to effectively convey your message to the audience.
Lack of Preparation
On the other hand, you may know the topic really, really well. Sometimes a school leader knows a topic and thinks he or she can just present it without preparing for it. No matter how well leaders know a topic or how well they may think they know what they want to accomplish with the presentation, it’s essential to spend time preparing for it. Your stakeholders will notice when you deliver a presentation that you have not prepared for. With any projects or tasks that you do, good preparation increases your chances of success. Not preparing can lead to an ineffective presentation because it increases the chances that you will not accomplish your purpose. For example, I remember one instance when I had to do a presentation on one portion of our strategic plan. Now, I knew that strategic plan forward and backward—surely I could present on this with my eyes closed. So I didn’t really prepare for the presentation because I thought I could just wing it. When I began presenting, I knew right away it wasn’t going well. My message was confusing, and the teachers looked bored. I spoke the entire time, without giving them any time to process or digest the information I was giving them. My purpose with that presentation was to inform the teachers of how we were going to implement a part of our strategic plan, and I know I failed because teachers left that meeting confused. The plan that I wanted to implement did not happen (until I called another meeting for which I was much more prepared). My lack of preparation, despite my familiarity with the subject, completely undermined my message.
Lack of Purpose
When presentations have no purpose, the audience is left asking themselves, “What was the point of that presentation?” Your audience is likely to be full of busy educators who want to feel that you value their time. When there is no purpose, then what exactly is the learning outcome or your desired end result? If you are just communicating without any goal, your presentation will be ineffective because you will have achieved nothing at the end of it. Unfortunately, I see this happen too often in schools and districts. Think about this scenario and see if you have experienced this: chances are, you already have all your staff meetings where you conduct presentations scheduled on your calendar for the year, right? Have you ever experienced a moment where you realize you have a presentation in two days and you have no idea what you’re going to say? So, you quickly put some slides together to fill that time up (or have other people come out and talk for you). When your presentation becomes a time filler, you have an ineffective presentation. Every presentation needs to have a purpose, just like we expect teachers to have a purpose for every lesson plan they create.
Off Topic
When you go off topic during a presentation, you risk derailing your message and your purpose for that communication. It can be easy to get off topic sometimes but when that does occur, keep in mind, you are now beginning to make the presentation ineffective. School leaders need to be able to read the audience so they pick up on body language signals such as confused looks or bored facial expressions. The message becomes convoluted as you begin to discuss other items. An easy way to get off topic is when a teacher asks a question or makes a comment while you are presenting. The presentation becomes ineffective because you are no longer communicating about what you were supposed to and therefore you may not fulfill the purpose of the presentation. In addition, sometimes school leaders go off topic because they’re trying to say as much as they can during the limited time they have—we all know how hard it is to call faculty meetings before or after school. When you do have the opportunity to hold the attention of the audience, it’s important to resist the urge to cram in as much information as possible, which can take away from the real purpose of that presentation. This is why it is important to have a plan for your presentation,