BCOM Exam #3

Effective use of charts to convey specific types of data

(1) title descriptiveness (2) focal points (3) information sufficiency (4) ease of processing (5) takeaway message Use a pie chart when you want to show the relative value of parts that add up to a whole (or 100 percent) Use a bar chart when want to show comparisons across groups Use a line chart when you want to show fairly precise changes over time. (You can also use bar charts for comparisons across time, but they are less precise and typically cover longer periods of time, such as quarters or years).

Strategies for effective attention- getters

- Rhetorical question - Vivid example - Dramatic demonstration -Testimonial or quotation -Intriguing statistic - engaging exercise -Challenge

The PREP method for presentations

1. position 2. reasons 3. example 4. position

Buffer Statements

A buffer is a statement to establish common ground, show appreciation, state your sympathy, or otherwise express goodwill. EXAMPLES: NEUTRAL STATEMENT: Decision on Bid for Annual Contract with Marble Home Makeovers APPRECIATION: Thank you for submitting your competitive bid to supply and deliver plastic resins for the upcoming year. SYMPATHY: We're sorry to hear about the crack in your countertop. COMMON GROUND: Reducing work hours creates unwanted financial challenges for our employees. COMPLIMENT: Thank you for your excellent work, especially during this temporary period of cash flow challenges.

Effective strategies for delivering bad news messages

Deliver the bad news in a timely manner. Choose the right mix of channels. Sympathize with the bad-news recipients and soften the blow. Provide a simple, clear rationale. Explain immediate impacts. Focus on solutions and long-term benefits. Show goodwill

Effective relaxation techniques before public speaking

Stretching. Meditating. Going hiking or exercising (a day or so before your presentation). Listening to music. Going to a movie. Watching a sunset. Thinking about the things in your life you are grateful for, such as your cherished relationships. Letting your mind go blank. Counting backward from 100

Techniques for designing an effective slide deck

- Limit the amount of information on any given slide. Readers should be able to grasp the content within 10 to 15 seconds. For text, rarely should you use more than ten words per line and more than five to six lines. - Use font sizes that all audience members can read easily. For titles, use at least 24-point fonts; for body text, use at least 18-point fonts. - Focus on and highlight key information. Use bold, italics, and other formatting features to make key phrases or key components in figures stand out. - Use plenty of white space. White space is effective for borders and between items and text on slides; it provides an uncluttered appearance. - Use high-contrast backgrounds and colors. Make sure backgrounds do not obscure text. For dark text, use light backgrounds. For light text, use dark backgrounds. - Use compelling images in moderation. One of the basic reasons to use electronic slide presentations in the first place is to display images. You can use these images to convey powerful messages efficiently and with emotional power, especially for the visual learners in your audience. But make sure you are selective. Too many pictures, poor-quality pictures, or off-message pictures may detract from your message. - Develop simple charts and diagrams. Charts and diagrams can be particularly helpful for simplifying complex data relationships. Make sure to use charts and figures that the audience can process in a matter of seconds. Otherwise, they have to spend an excessive amount of time trying to understand the chart or diagram and they're not paying attention to you. In some cases, they may give up and become annoyed. - Get professional design help when possible. For high-stakes presentations, consider getting help from public relations or design specialists. If you are part of a large organization, you can often get this help internally. In many cases, well-designed templates may already exist.

techniques for effectively answering questions during a presentation

- Use a Remote Control to Advance Slides When Possible Using a remote control to move from slide to slide allows you to move around as you talk and more effectively engage with your audience. It also allows you to maintain more eye contact, since using a keyboard requires glancing down. - Avoid Standing in Front of the Slide Projection Make sure to stand to the side of the slide projection area. Standing in front of the projection causes two problems. It makes the slide more difficult to view. But, perhaps worse, it distorts your appearance. - Use Blank Slides Strategically If you plan to speak for lengthy periods without referencing your slides, consider displaying a blank slide so that the screen does not become a distraction. - Use Handouts Effectively ----------------- an opportunity to clarify points you may have misstated or omitted. Of course, fielding questions involves a number of risks: Your audience members may ask you difficult ones and may even get you off topic. The solution is to reinforce your key messages while also addressing the needs of your questioners.

Effective transitions during team presentations

- decide on roles -Stand Together and Present a United Front - Refer to One Another's Points - Transition Effectively You and your team members should smoothly pass speaking roles from one to the next. Simple phrases such as the following allow effective transitions from one person to the next: "I've shared with you how employee engagement increases productivity and profitability. Now, Latisha will share some ways we can improve employee engagement."

How to Avoid Plagiarism, why?

- goal is to combine information from your various sources in novel and insightful ways and thereby generate your own conclusions and recommendations. To develop original report To avoid plagiarism on a sentence and paragraph level, document all references to the ideas of others, including (1) direct quotations, (2) paraphrases, and (3) other instances in which you borrow or reference the ideas of others. Direct quotations are verbatim restatements from another source. Use direct quotations only when the quotation contains a particularly compelling combination of words, flows effectively with your paper, and emphasizes the credibility of the original speaker or writer. In most situations, you should paraphrase rather than use direct quotations. Paraphrasing involves using your own words to express the meaning of the original speaker or writer. When you paraphrase, you significantly alter the original words and sentence structure, but you still need to give credit to the original speaker or writer for the idea.

how to deliver presentations with authenticity

- know material and rehearse - Overcome Fear and Speak with Confidence Establish credibility. Maintain authenticity. Know your material. Speak with confidence. Focus on people. Stay flexible. Use the room to your advantage. Communicate nonverbally. Dress for success.

Impact of Delivering Negative Messages Ineffectively

- lose control of the message -can lose credibility if others think you have wrongfully withheld information. -Never wait too long to deliver bad news. On the other hand, don't deliver bad news when you don't know the details because this can cause unnecessary anxiety.

Deceptive Research Practices

-Leading questions -unambiguous -multiple ideas

Leading Questions

A leading question is one that suggests an answer. Often, the leading question is designed to gain a preferred response from the survey designer's perspective. Sometimes, leading questions are phrased to imply how a respondent should answer. For example, the following leading question would likely lead many respondents to provide insincere answers: As a citizen in the country with the most per capita carbon emissions in the world, how interested are you in learning about green meeting options? Leading questions often do not allow respondents to provide their genuine thoughts or impressions. So, leading questions in surveys can produce unreliable and unusable information

Designing Effective Business Proposals

Cover Page Executive Summary Current Situation Specific Objectives Deliverables Overview Timeline Results Enhancers Pricing/Budget -Start with a Clear Statement of the Business Problem or Challenge - Use Fact-Based Language - Document Secondary Research and Avoid Plagiarism - Base Recommendations on Facts and Conclusions in the Report - Provide Specific and Actionable Recommendations

What is business casual dress

Formal business dress, at one end of the continuum, is intended to project executive presence and seriousness. It is distinguished by business suits, typically dark and conservative, accompanied by collared, button-down dress shirts. For men, neckties are essential. Business casual dress is one step down in formality along the continuum. It is intended to project a more comfortable, relaxed feel while still maintaining a high standard of professionalism. Business casual dress is interpreted broadly and varies significantly by location and company. As a result, business casual can be divided into high-level business casual and low-level business casual.

Strategies for delivering effective performance reviews

Give Clear and Targeted Feedback Focus on Actions and Results, Not Attitudes and Intentions Establish Measurable and Realistic Expectations Receive Negative Feedback

Using a slide deck to create a report

In slide deck format for reports, analysts can focus slightly more on the visual and aesthetic nature of reports. However, the most important issues still relate to the strength of the research.

Business Casual High Level

Men- Suit coats, sports coats, or blazers, button down collar shirts, neckties optional, leather shoes Women- pantsuits and tailored separates, closed toe or closed heel shoes

Business Casual Low level

Men- button down collar shirts or polo type shirts, khakis or chinos, leather belts or shoes, conservative footwear women- dress shirt, dress pants or skirt, conservative footwear

Principles of effective survey design

Simple to answer (10 to 20 seconds) Non-leading Exhaustive and unambiguous Single idea

Advantages and disadvantages of online surveys

Survey research is increasingly common because of the ease with which online surveys can be administered. Generally, survey research involves administering written questionnaires. Most survey questions are closed questions, which restrict respondents to certain answers (rating scales, multiple choice, etc.). Some survey questions are open-ended questions, allowing respondents to answer in any way they choose. Closed questions can be more easily quantified and analyzed. However, open-ended questions allow you to understand an issue in more depth. With online survey technology readily available and easy to use, you will likely have many opportunities to use it in the workplace. Surveys are particularly useful because you can quickly get the responses of dozens if not hundreds of colleagues, current or potential customers, or members of other groups of interest. Online surveys are a nice tool because you can automatically dump all the data you collect into a spreadsheet. Of course, online surveys are not always convenient or possible, so you will sometimes use traditional paper-and-pencil questionnaires.

How to define and analyze data as part of a specific research problem

The first step in developing research-based business reports is identifying what decision-makers want to accomplish. - Find Ways to Make Your Research More Analytical: Generally, you make your research more valuable (and challenging) as you examine relationships and integrate related information. causation or correlation (e.g., how corporate Pinterest pages impact purchasing decisions), comparisons or analogies (e.g., how Lowe's uses Pinterest pages to develop customer relationships), benchmarks (e.g., what experts say are best practices on Pinterest), or trends (e.g., how Pinterest users have changed expectations about content on corporate Pinterest pages over the past three years). - Talk to Others Who Can Help You - Evaluate Data Quality Reliability relates to how dependable the data is—how current and representative. Relevance of the data relates to how well it applies to your specific business problem. Adaptability relates to how well the research can be altered or revised to meet your specific business problem. Expertise relates to the skill and background of the researchers to address your business problem. Biases are tendencies to see issues from particular perspectives. (keep in mind for 2ndary research) - Conduct Library Research

Teaser Statements

These messages, often written, signal to recipients that an upcoming conversation or other communication may involve unpleasant news. The teaser message prepares recipients emotionally yet does not reveal specific information. Neutral statements such as "I have some feedback to give you this afternoon" or "I'll share with you what our clients thought of your ideas" help employees prepare for news that may be partially negative.

Purpose of presentation overview

This overview segments the presentation in terms of key benefits or takeaway messages. These benefits are easy to remember and help audience members think about the benefits to their units within the company. - typically, your preview occupies roughly 10 to 15 percent of your presentation time, your view takes up the vast majority (85 to 90 percent) of your time, and the review takes up the least time (5 percent).

Effective Channels for Delivering bad news messages

Verbal: Advantages- Can use and observe nonverbal cues Can more easily demonstrate intentions Can more effectively clarify and explain the bad news Can respond to concerns immediately Disadvantages- May hinder effective delivery, interpretation, and discussion of bad news due to strong emotions Requires more time Less able to document the bad news Less able to provide directions that bad-news recipients can reference later Written Delivery: Advantages- Can craft message more carefully Can document the message more easily Can provide a message that serves as a reference (provide directions, suggestions, and options for future actions) Can deliver message to more people more efficiently Disadvantages- Unable to demonstrate concern through nonverbal cues Unable to immediately respond to concerns Unable to work out mutual solutions Less able to control long-term impacts on working relationships

Effective presentation techniques for kinesthetic learners

Visual learners, who make up about 40 percent of the population, learn best from illustrations and simple diagrams that show relationships and key ideas. They also enjoy gestures and metaphors. Ironically, text-based PowerPoint slides do not appeal to them much. On the other hand, PowerPoint slides rich in images and figures do help visual learners respond to your message. Auditory learners, who also comprise roughly 40 percent of the population, like loud, clear voices and believe emotion is best conveyed through voice. ------Kinesthetic learners, who make up about 20 percent of the population, need to participate to focus their attention on your message and learn best. They need group activities, hands-on activities, or breaks at least every 20 minutes.4 Page 445 Components of Presentations

Positioning statements

positioning statement frames your message in appealing terms to your audience members and demonstrates clear and valuable benefits to them. The positioning statement should be as concise as possible—ideally one to two sentences. With the attention-getter, you engage and capture interest. With the positioning statement, you demonstrate that your presentation is worth paying close attention to for its entirety.

the SOFTEN method of nonverbal communication

smile, open stance, forward lean, tone, eye contact, and nod. By focusing on these nonverbal behaviors, you can display confidence and strength while also showing warmth and concern

Projecting objectivity in a report

the sense that you are providing information, analysis, and advice that is sound, reliable, and unbiased. In other words, project objectivity first and positivity second.

Effectively designing a report

value to decision makers precision documentation easy navigation objectivity.