According to Kevin Ford co-author of The Leadership Triangle, there are three types of leadership: tactical, strategic, and transformational. Each of these three styles has its place in business. Tactical leaders excel at solving straight-forward problems. Strategic leaders are masters of spotting trends and creatively planning for the future.
Transformational leaders are people who, irrespective of audience, possess the ability to create big shifts in their audiences’ thinking, which leads to big shifts in their behavior, which enables them to achieve extraordinary results, according to the Forbes article, Developing The 3 Habits Of Transformational Leaders
Transformational leaders can typically attain the following results for organizations:
– Improve the long-term commitment and sense of purpose of employees.
– Increase job satisfaction of employees.
– Inspire trust from employees.
– Help employees develop self-efficacy and motivation.
Even if you are naturally a strategic or tactical leader, you might occasionally need to act as a transformational leader. When companies are looking for a turnaround or to keep from getting left behind many times a transformational leader is what they are looking for, says Ford.
If your organization is experiencing the issues described by Ford and you need to rally the team with a presentation, you need to be prepared to deliver an extraordinary presentation – a transformational presentation.
To prepare you to successfully deliver a transformational presentation, let’s first take a closer look at what it means to be a transformational leader.
Transformational leaders embody these characteristics:
– Idealized Influence – lead by example
– Inspirational Motivation – ignite passion within others
– Individualized Consideration – demonstrate care for others
– Intellectual Stimulation – challenge others to innovate
Now that you know some of the most important elements of transformational leadership, let’s put those to work for you in the form of how-to tips for transformational presentations.
How to deliver a transformational presentation
1. Idealized Influence
To lead by example during your presentation, tell a story demonstrates that you have done what you are asking others to do. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable during your story. Vulnerability can help you connect to your audience.
Being willing to be strengthened by our human vulnerability is the true foundation for transformational leadership, says Jen Leonard, a journalist and human-centered design strategist.
Another way to lead by example during your presentation is to actually demonstrate the action you are requesting of others. For example, if you want your audience to be more involved in social media on behalf of the organization, use some of your presentation time to send a tweet or post a LinkedIn update that exemplifies the type of social media activity you are hoping to inspire. To do this, consider projecting your computer screen for a few moments of the presentation so the audience can see what you are doing in real time.
If you walk the talk, people will be more likely to do as you ask, and follow in your footsteps.
2. Inspirational Motivation
To be motivational, Jeffrey S. Shipley, vice president and CIO at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City suggests explaining the why behind requests. When explaining the why, be sure to emphasize the value and meaning of the tasks requested. Shipley offers this analogy as inspiration:
Two guys are digging a ditch, so I asked one of them, “What are you doing?” He says digging a ditch, what’s it look like I’m doing? I asked the other guy the same question and he says, “I’m building a hospital.”
Building on the analogy above, don’t just ask your audience to dig a ditch, ask them to help you build a hospital by digging the ditch.
Your audience will be more motivated to take action if they can see their part in the big picture, especially if the big picture is something that will inspire pride.
3. Individualized Consideration
To deliver a transformational presentation, carefully craft every element of your presentation specifically for the audience you are addressing. Don’t deliver the same material you previously delivered to another audience.
Make sure that your audience knows that you are addressing their concerns, their needs, their interests, their jobs.
To effectively demonstrate individualized consideration, reach out to some of the audience members in advance and collect some of their personal stories that relate to the topic of your presentation. With their permission, build the foundation of your message on the stories you collected.
The more you can demonstrate care for your audience, the more they will care about what you have to say.
4. Intellectual Stimulation
Transformational presentations should be more interactive than other styles of presentations. You want to engage your audience and stimulate their creativity so they feel empowered to take action following your talk. Your presentation should teach a man to fish, instead of simply giving the fish away. Presentations that give fish away feel like a to-do list for audience members.
To avoid the to-do list style, build some group exercises into your presentation to fully stimulate audience members. The exercises will not only generate solutions to problems, but they will also train employees to tackle issues on their own in the future. When employees are inspired and empowered to generate innovate solutions to problems that relate to their role, the organization will thrive.
Conclusion
If you need to be a transformational leader during a presentation, develop your presentation around the four pillars of transformation leadership: 1) Idealized Influence, 2) Inspirational Motivation, 3) Individualized Consideration, and 4) Intellectual Stimulation.
