The Top 10 Leadership Qualities

A leader with vision has a clear, vivid picture of where to go, as well as a firm grasp on what success looks like and how to achieve it. But it's not enough to have a vision; leaders must also share it and act upon it. Jack Welch, former chairman and CEO of General Electric Co., said, "Good business leaders create a vision, articulate the vision, passionately own the vision and relentlessly drive it to completion."

A leader must be able to communicate his or her vision in terms that cause followers to buy into it. He or she must communicate clearly and passionately, as passion is contagious.

A good leader must have the discipline to work toward his or her vision single-mindedly, as well as to direct his or her actions and those of the team toward the goal. Action is the mark of a leader. A leader does not suffer "analysis paralysis" but is always doing something in pursuit of the vision, inspiring others to do the same.

Integrity is the integration of outward actions and inner values. A person of integrity is the same on the outside and on the inside. Such an individual can be trusted because he or she never veers from inner values, even when it might be expeditious to do so. A leader must have the trust of followers and therefore must display integrity.

Honest dealings, predictable reactions, well-controlled emotions, and an absence of tantrums and harsh outbursts are all signs of integrity. A leader who is centered in integrity will be more approachable by followers.

Dedication means spending whatever time or energy is necessary to accomplish the task at hand. A leader inspires dedication by example, doing whatever it takes to complete the next step toward the vision. By setting an excellent example, leaders can show followers that there are no nine-to-five jobs on the team, only opportunities to achieve something great.

Magnanimity means giving credit where it is due. A magnanimous leader ensures that credit for successes is spread as widely as possible throughout the company. Conversely, a good leader takes personal responsibility for failures. This sort of reverse magnanimity helps people feel good about themselves and draws the team closer together. To spread the fame and take the blame is a hallmark of effective leadership.

Leaders with humility recognize that they are no better than other members of the team. A humble leader is not self-effacing but rather tried to elevate everyone. Leaders with humility also understand that their status does not make them a god. Mahatma Ghandi is a role model for Indian leaders, and he pursued a "follower-centric" leadership role.

Openness means being able to listen to new ideas, even if they do not conform to the usual way of thinking. Good leaders are able to suspend judgment while listening to others' ideas, as well as accept new ways of doing things that someone else thought of. Openness builds mututal respect and trust between leaders and followers, and it also keeps the team well supplied with new ideas that can further its vision.

Creativity is the ability to think differently, to get outside of the box that constrains solutions. Creativity gives leaders the ability to see things that others have not seen and thus lead followers in new directions. The most important question that a leader can ask is, "What if....?" Possibly the worst thing a leader can say is, "I know this is a dumb question..."

Fairness means dealing with others consistently and justly. A leader must check all the facts and hear everyone out before passing judgment. He or she must avoid leaping to conclusions based on incomplete evidence. When people feel they are being treated fairly, they reward a leader with loyalty and dedication.

Assertiveness is not the same as aggressiveness. Rather, it is the ability to clearly state what one expects so there there will be no misunderstandings. A leader must be assertive to get the desired results. Along with assertiveness comes the responsibility to clearly understand what followers expect from their leader.

Many leaders have difficulty striking the right amount of assertiveness, according to a study in the February 2007 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, published by the APA (American Psychological Association). It seems that being underassertive may be the most common weakness among aspiring leaders.

A sense of humor is vital to relieve tension and boredom, as well as defuse hostility. Effective leaders know how to use humor to energize followers. Humor is a form of power that provides some control over the work environment. And simply put, humor fosters good camaraderie.

Intrinsic traits such as intelligence, good looks, height and so on are not necessary to become a good leader. Anyone can cultivate the proper leadership traits.

Taken from HRWorld.com  

Experimenting with New Presentation Styles

Like a lot of folks, I was inspired by Dick Hardt's presentation in the Lessig style of presenting. It was my first introduction to this fast-paced, minimalist approach - and far cry from the denser presentation style I usually use.

I probably wasn't alone in thinking: I could do that with my next presentation and bask in the glow of my audience's admiration. Stephen O'Grady at Red Monk seized the opportunity and put together a great example of a Lessig-style presentation. At Juice, we're always looking for new and better ways of communicating with our clients and have been paring down the visual complexity of our presentation recently. After trying this approach with my last couple client presentations, I thought I'd share a few thoughts on my experience.

• A Ying to the prevailing Yang. The dominant style of presenting, the one that Cliff Atkinson tenaciously rails against, can be best identified by its long lists of bullets and mind-numbing detail. The Lessig/Hardt camp offers a diametrically-opposed alternative - one that requires the presenter to focus on the flow of the story. Trying this approach was a great reminder that you should be telling a compelling story, first and foremost. It also asks you to break the ingrained habit of throwing everything you know on each slide.
• Dazed and confused. From my experience, you have to be careful not to leave your audience in a Roadrunner-esque cloud of dust. The Lessig/Hardt style starts off fast and doesn't slow down. Particularly if you are well known to your audience, there is an implicit contract between you and your audience. The audience has expectations about your communication style and it is jarring to them when you change. On the other hand, if you bring the skill and commitment of a Dick Hardt, the audience is likely to recover from the initial shock and quickly get into the flow of the presentation.
• Be your own stylist. All of which made me wonder. Is the value in Dick Hardt's presentation popularity asking us to reconsider how we present information - rather than suggesting we simply copy his approach? There isn't one right style for playing a song, making a movie, or writing a book - why do so many presentations look alike? Some would blame it on the tool, but I think it stems from basic corporate conservatism.
• Fit style to the story. After trying pure Lessig, I wondered whether we were trying to force a style of presentation that needed something different? Maybe each presentation - and even parts of presentations - have a best approach for imparting the information. Remember when MSFT had presentation "starter packs" that would build a 15 page presentation for you with stubs on different pages? Interesting that the content varied for the different presentation objectives, but the presentation style/approach didn't. The default style in PowerPoint becomes the "right way" even if it isn't. A better way to present is to consider the characteristics of the information. High-level, conceptual points may be well-suited to a single word, phrase, or picture. In contrast, a rich display of data can be equally compelling if you need to impress the audience with your homework and deliver a foundation to support your case. We have even started to experiment with using separate handouts with the important raw data to supplement a sparse, story-telling style of presentation.

Taken from JuiceAnalytics.com

Improving Presentation Style

Effective Use of the Visual Aids

• Write legibly and big enough that your writing can be seen in the back of the room.
• Think about the organization of the material on the board.
• Fill one board at a time, starting with the top of each board and writing down.
• Do not scrunch in words at the very bottom of the board or in the margins. The students in the back will not see the words at the bottom, and no one will see the words in the margins.
• Underline or mark major assumptions, conclusions, etc.
• Use color to emphasize points. Before the class starts, determine which colors are most visible in the back of the room.
• Erase a board only when you have run out of room.
• If you find a mistake on a previous board, do not erase it. Cross it out, then write the correction in, which is what the students must do.
• Do not use visual aids unless they serve a clear and important purpose. Visuals should aid quick comprehension and support the main points.
• Book and check out the presentation equipment in advance.
• Talk to your audience and not to the screen.
• Use the visuals to enhance your presentation, not as a substitute for a verbal presentation.
• Use a pointer, if necessary.
• Coordinate the audio and the visual.
• Use too few visuals rather than too many. However, exactly the right number of visuals is great!
• Design your visuals with clarity and simplicity in mind.
• Use single words or phrases
• Organize the content visually
• Choose a font that is easy to see
• Keep the design simple
• Use short quotes, not long extracts, from documents
• Assign a title for each visual
• Use summary lists
• Limit the number of ideas on each visual
• Use color for emphasis and organization
• Design diagrams and tables that are clear and simple, with readily recognized symbols
• Use horizontal layout, not vertical

Improving Presentation Style

"Effective lecturers combine the talents of scholar, writer, producer, comedian, showman, and teacher in ways that contribute to student learning." Wilbert J McKeachie

An effective teacher is an excellent communicator and therefore thinks about improving his or her presentation skills. One of the most important aspects of communicating is shaping both content and style to fit your audience. In the classroom, if you cannot communicate in a way that is both comprehensible and interesting to your students, their learning will be greatly reduced.

To strengthen your presentation skills, focus on improving your skills in these three areas

1. Verbal and non-verbal communication
2. Effective use of the whiteboard and other visual aids
3. Effective and meaningful organization of content

Verbal and Non-Verbal Communication

• Find out all you can about the room in which you will be presenting. Visit the room ahead of time to familiarize yourself with its size and layout, as well as the type of visual aids and multimedia available. In addition, obtain any necessary training on the multimedia.
• Use the room as a stage. Move around to interact and engage with your audience. Do not stand in one spot the entire time. Move with purpose; do not walk aimlessly.
• Prepare. Preparation is essential. All excellent teachers are well prepared for each class. Practice in the room if you can, especially if you are new to teaching. In addition, prepare yourself emotionally and psychologically by taking the time to organize your thoughts and to look forward to teaching before each class.
• Speak loudly and clearly. Project your voice and face your audience when you are speaking. Speak slightly louder than you do in a normal conversation. Use a microphone in a medium to large room. The class may include students with hearing problems. Moreover, a mic will help ensure that students can hear you even when you turn to the whiteboard momentarily.
• Modulate the tone, pitch, and speed of your speech. Do not speak in monotone. Vary the pitch and speed of your voice for emphasis and effect. Use appropriate pauses. Rather than using filler words such as "uh," for examples, simply pause before moving on to the next idea or point.
• Use gestures and facial expressions to help you explain, emphasize and communicate the material. However, be careful not to develop distracting habits such as pacing or repeatedly adjusting your glasses or hair. To find out if you are unconsciously doing anything that may be distracting to your audience, have a colleague observe one of your classes or have your class videotaped.
• Develop and teaching persona. Decide how you want to be perceived and what mannerisms you want to have. For example, do you want to be quiet, humorous, formal or informal? Whatever persona is right for you, aim to convey confidence and ease. Move with certainty and assuredness, and be careful not to seem pompous or intimidating.
• Show passion and enthusiasm for the topic. If you are not interested in the subject, you cannot expect your students to be interested, either. Point out the fascinating aspects of what they are learning.
• Do not read your notes or slides. Doing so will lower your energy level and lead your audience to feel less engaged.
• Interact with and pay attention to your audience. Make eye contact with the students, not with the wall or whiteboard. Build a rapport with the class. Make sure the class is with you. If they appear to be lost, take additional time to explain points and to ask and answer questions.
• Do not take yourself too seriously. Be able to laugh at yourself and your mistakes. Feel free to bring humor into the classroom, but direct it at yourself, rather than at your students' questions and ideas.
• Keep track of the time. Do not start early or end late. The students often do not recall or listen to information presented after the class period is technically finished.

Presentation Style Guide

Avoiding Common Presentation Pitfalls

• PowerPoint 2007 and later users should save their presentations in their versions native .pptx format, not in the PowerPoint 97 through 2003 format, as this will provide better overall compatibility with systems.
• PowerPoint is designed to display pictures and text generated within the program or inserted from other sources. If the outside source is a sound file over 5kb or any video file, the original file is not saved within the presentation. Source files meeting these criteria must be available on the computer where the presentation is going to run. Please copy any source video and sound files to the media with your presentation. If in doubt, bring the file along.
• Embedded charts, graphs, and object-oriented graphic files are often difficult to work with. These file types usually are influenced by the version of the program used to create them, often making them translate strangely on a different computer system. It is recommended that charts and graphics be inserted into your presentation as a bitmap format graphic. If you embed charts and object graphics in your presentation, it is advisable to have the bitmap format graphics available on your media.
• HTML presentations - make sure that your files are portable.
• If you use PowerPoint's rehearse timings feature, pay close attention to the dialog box that appears after you finish rehearsing. It will offer to save the timings from your rehearsal, and if you inadvertently agree it will set them as automatic advances of your slides at the times you rehearsed. Unless you want your slides to advance on their own at predetermined times, you'll want to say no to this option. To check if there are any automatic timings currently associated with your slides, choose the slide sorter view of your presentation; they can be seen as numbers below the bottom left corner of each slide.

Presentation Delivery Tips

• Be considerate of other speakers and the audience by staying within your allotted time. This is essential to ensure adequate time for questions and discussion and adherence to schedule.
• Please discuss the same material as reported to the meeting planner.
• Take the time to rehearse your presentation. Give your talk to one or more colleagues and ask them for suggestions for improvement. If your presentation runs longer than the allotted time, eliminate the least essential material and rehearse again.
• Give an opening statement to acquaint the audience with the nature and purpose of the study. Word choice should be simple: use active words and short sentences. Words should reinforce your visual material.
• Use the mic and be sure to speak slowly and clearly. When using the mic clipped to your lapel, it may be difficult for the audience to hear you if you turn your head away from the microphone.
• Face the audience, not the slides or graphics you are showing, and try to establish eye contact with member of your audience in various areas of the room.
• Do not read your presentation verbatim from your notes or slides.

Presentation Style Guide

Using Animation within Your Presentation

• Animated builds, moves, highlights and transitions can help visually reinforce your message. However, these are often overused by presenters and can detract from the message you are trying to convey. Different versions of PowerPoint have different sets of animation features that are not always backwards compatible; it is best to use as little animation as possible to keep your audience focused on your content, and minimize problems in portability.

Fonts

• The presentation systems are usually loaded with standard system fonts. If your presentation contains any special fonts, you must provide a copy of the font to be loaded on the presentation system. 
• PC users - to be safe, use a standard font like Arial or Times New Roman to create your presentation.
• Mac users - many fonts with the same names are spaced differently on Mac's and PC's. The Tahoma font is designed to be identical on both systems, so using it whenever possible will help avoid the need to adjust things once your presentation is moved to a PC.

Presentation Style Guide

Using Images within Your Presentation

• PowerPoint will display your presentation in slide show mode at 1024x768 resolution. The PC has a native display of 96 DPIs. You should consider these factors, when inserting images into your presentation. If your image file is scanned, or from a digital camera, it is likely to be much larger than the screen resolution. An image size larger than 1024x768 will not translate into a sharper image, when displayed on screen. It will only increase the size of your PowerPoint file and slow down the playback of your presentation. Reduce the image size in an image-editing program prior to inserting the image into your presentation.
• There are many different image file formats available. After you have made sure that your image size is appropriate, you should save your image as a .BMP, .GIF, or .JPG file prior to inserting it into your presentation. Generally the JPEG format provides high quality, small file size and portability to other machines.
• Once you have the images properly sized and saved, choose Insert Picture from file... to put the image onto the slide. Do not copy and paste the image, or drag and drop it into your presentation. Doing that might look fine on your machine, but it may not display properly when you transfer the presentation to another computer, particularly if you are a Mac user who will be presenting from a PC.
• Animated .GIF files - Although these are actually saved within your PowerPoint presentation, you should bring the separate .GIF file with you whenever possible. Microsoft has changed the way they handle the looping of these in recent versions of Office, which on occasion causes them not to play properly in PowerPoint. If you have the original .GIF file with you, you can fix the problem prior to the presentation.

Using Media Clips within Your Presentation

• Be aware that media clips may not be saved as part of your presentation depending on what version you are using. PowerPoint 2010 is the only one that embeds the media clip in the file. For other, the actual video or audio files need to be on the computer you will be presenting from. You will need to supply those files along with your PowerPoint file either when you upload or prior to the presentation.
• Avoid long file names for media clips. There is a limit in PowerPoint on the total length of the path to your media files, and much of it gets used up in pointing to your presentation folder. Though the absolute limit varies based on the presenter's information, movie and sound files with names longer than 20 characters should be renamed prior to inserting them into your presentation. The shorter the file names of your media clips, the better.
• PC users - Using the .WMV file format is the best way to ensure compatibility within PowerPoint on  another PC. While MPEG and AVI formats will generally work too, they use a variety of different codecs that may not be installed on the presentation machine.
• Mac users - Quicktime movies (.MOV file format) do not play directly within a slide in PowerPoint on the PC. You can create a hyperlink to them, which will open them in a separate Quicktime movie player window, and allow you to play them from there. If you are going to be presenting from a PC and you can convert them to .WMV format, they should play properly within slides in PowerPoint. Most MPEG and some AVI codecs will also work on the PC