25 June 2009

Pinto's Point

Develop your speaking skills

By Jim Pinto

How are you at making presentations? Do you enjoy speaking with groups in your company? Or perhaps participating in a panel session, or presenting a paper at the ISA EXPO? Good communicators tend to be good leaders.

In his ISA article, “Presenting … You,” Paul Gruhn tells how to make yourself more marketable, to broaden your skill sets. Engineers must become marketers in their jobs, and make more presentations, which helps to become more people-oriented.

Would like to speak, but don’t quite know where to start? Here are some suggestions:

1. Find opportunities within your company to make presentations—introducing new products, discussing organizational changes. Develop leadership—volunteer; do not wait to be asked.
2. Sign up to make a presentation at your local ISA section, and progress to speaking at regional conference and the annual ISA EXPO.
3. Join your local Toastmasters group. This offers a proven and enjoyable way to practice and hone communication and leadership skills. There is no instructor; instead, each speech and meeting is critiqued by a member in a positive manner, focusing on what was done right and what could be improved. Members learn by giving a prepared speech or an impromptu one, or serving as timer, evaluator, or grammarian. Most meetings have about 20 people who meet weekly for an hour, and quickly become friends. There is likely a Toastmasters group near where you live; you can visit as a guest before you decide to join.

I enjoy speaking, which leads to meeting many new people, which stimulate new ideas and thinking. I started by presenting papers at local, and then national, ISA meetings. I progressed by participating in panel sessions, and then organizing (selecting panelists) and being moderator. Over the years, I have been a featured speaker at more than one ISA EXPO. In 2004, I was invited to present the Rimbach Lecture in Houston.

My own personal networking comes through my writing—columns such as this—and my speeches on automation and future technology topics. The Q&A sessions during my speeches often result in spontaneous discussions that inspire new ideas. And the people I meet give me more ideas, plus invitations for more speaking engagements.

After my retirement (from a regular “job”), my avocation became that of a technology futurist—not predicting the future, but rather tracking and trending the changes that occur in our rapidly advancing technological progress.

I am now invited for regular public speaking engagements—keynote speaker at international conferences and exhibitions, company sales meetings, customer seminars. I have been invited to moderate corporate planning sessions and panel sessions. I enjoy talking with large or small groups and have addressed audiences ranging from 50 to 1,000 people at business seminars, marketing & sales meetings, and international conferences.

The following topics are popular favorites:

• The global future of industrial automation
• U.S. and international sales channel development
• Global R&D and manufacturing shifts – Offshoring
• Futures – new century predictions

Related links:

• ISA: Paul Gruhn – “Presenting … you”:
  http://www.isa.org/InTechTemplate.cfm?Section=Workforce_Development&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=74206
• Toastmasters International web site:
  http://www.toastmasters.org/
• InTech e-News – How to make a dynamic presentation:
  http://r.listpilot.net/c/isa/1wnxdir/18erw
• Jim Pinto – Speaking Engagements:
  http://jimpinto.com/speaking.html
• Jim Pinto YouTube video:
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxgpeg6h0eI

Behind the byline

Jim Pinto is an industry analyst and founder of Action Instruments. You can e-mail him at jim@jimpinto.com or view his writings at www.JimPinto.com. Read the Table of Contents of his book, Pinto’s Points, at www.jimpinto.com/writings/points.html.