As we discussed in Chapter 1, Planning Your Presentation, a successful presentation accomplishes its purpose by getting the audience to hear, receive, and act on its message. That means the purpose and the audience must be your focus as you prepare your content.

As a new manager, you have to communicate in ways that resonate with your team members and bosses. As you develop your presentation content, think about everything from their perspective. What do they already know about your topic? What do they need to know? What will they find most persuasive? How do they process information? How do they prefer to be engaged?

Take a look at the Content Development Worksheet below. We'll be using this to work through the process of drafting your presentation. As you can see, purpose and audience(s) are at the top. Fill in those blanks with the purpose and audience(s) you defined and identified in the last chapter.

We'll work on filling in the rest of the worksheet...