March 1, 2025
With David P. Otey, MA, MBA
Description
Have you encountered this yet? Your technical skills—your effectiveness at simply getting your tasks done—will only get you so far in the corporate world. What do you really need to advance? Communication skills! Specifically, you need to be able to present information about the work you do with confidence, clarity, and attention to the needs of your audience. It is not enough to narrate a pretty slide show. You must tell the story of your work in a way that engages your listeners.
Think how many times you have sat through a boring business presentation. Not only is that disrespectful to your audience, but it actually keeps your information from making a difference! The opposite of boredom is not entertainment; it is engagement. You will come away from this workshop with practical tools for telling the story of your work in an engaging way. When you are more engaging, you will feel more confident and ultimately be more successful.
Instructor: David P. Otey
Speaker, coach, trainer, and author David P. Otey has helped thousands of people on three continents in their quest for personal and professional growth. A former engineer, Otey understands how to reach and move the quantitative/analytical mind. He is known for his highly interactive programs, both in-person and on-line, that bring his participants confidence and practical results. As a coach, he has helped graduate students get their Ph.D.’s, scientists get their funding renewed, and engineers advance their careers. In the business world, he leads workshops on customer service, critical thinking and problem solving, communicating with tact and diplomacy, and storytelling as a business skill.
Otey is the author of the Speaker’s Quick Guide series of books for emerging and developing speakers, including his latest, The Speaker’s Quick Guide to Presenting with Confidence. A member of the National Speakers Association, Otey draws upon his background in science, engineering, and business to help others make sometimes surprising connections.
Learning Objectives:
- Understanding Your Audience: Participants will acquire and use a three-part tool for assessing their audiences’ needs—the most essential step before doing any other preparation.
- Serving Your Audience: Attendees will master the use of the single most important tool for ensuring they make a difference by serving their audience—not simply serving up information.
- Making a Difference to Your Audience: Participants will discover the importance of, and the actual formula for, changing their listeners’ brain chemistry to make them receptive to the speaker’s message.
- Telling the Story of Your Work: Attendees will master the use of a simple story structure that immediately ensures greater audience engagement, no matter the topic.
Competencies and Target Audience
Competencies Covered
Group Communication
Creativity/Innovation
Teamwork/Collaboration
Level of Leaders
MOST appropriate = Level 3 (Leader of Self) = High potentials, emerging leaders, 1st time managers
NEXT appropriate = Level 2 (Leader of Others) = Middle managers, people leaders, frontline supervisors