Hotel Manager Presentation Skills

Presenting information clearly and effectively is a key skill for a Hotel Manager. While some people appear to carry out this task easily, many others find the Presentation of information at work much more challenging.

Many Hoteliers feel terrified when asked to talk in public, especially to bigger groups. However, these fears can be reduced by good preparation, which will also lay the groundwork for making an effective presentation.

It follows, that there is no single set of rules that apply to all Hotel Manager presentations. There are, however, some important simple considerations that will help everybody when asked to carry out a Presentation:

·       Hotel Managers will present better if they have prepared effectively. This does NOT necessarily mean that you have written out your speech verbatim and rehearsed it until you know it perfectly. It does, however, mean that you have to be confident that you are saying the right thing, in the right way, to the right people.

·       Hotel Managers need to be clear about their audience and their message. Every presentation will be better if you have clearly considered the message that you want or need to convey, and how best to convey it to your audience. These two pieces of information drive your style, structure, content, and use of visual aids.

·       You must never overrun your allocated time. In other words, don’t outstay your welcome.

·       Generally speaking, your audience starts as your friend. As a rule, your audience is there (more or less) voluntarily. They have chosen to listen to you and they want to enjoy your presentation. The occasion is yours to lose.

When you present, you are in charge of the room. The audience has effectively handed you control and is sitting back waiting for you to do something. You may have prepared a specific talk, but if you see that isn’t working, you can always change it. You are, after all, the Hotel Expert.

The most important tip, however, is to remember that it's all about your audience.

Keep that in mind, and your presentation skills will almost instantly improve.

If you have more time to develop your preparation … preparation is the most important part of making a successful presentation. 

Remember the most important aspects are the objective of the presentation, the subject and the audience.

Irrespective of whether the occasion is formal or informal within the Hotel, you should always aim to give a clear, well-structured delivery. To do so, you need to organise your material. You can either do this in your head or use a technique like mind-mapping to help you identify links and good flow.

By the time you come to write your presentation, you should know exactly what you want to say and the order in which you want to say it. You may want to use one of the standard presentation structures, such as ‘What, Why, How?’.

Visual aids can add another dimension to your presentation, helping to hold your audience’s attention and also act as a reminder of what you wanted to say.

There are times when using data in a presentation can really help you to tell the story better. It is, however, important not to blind your audience with statistics.

Few Hotel Managers will be able to give their presentations without notes. You will need to know your own abilities and decide how best to make the presentation. You might manage your talk by using full text, notes on cue cards, keywords on cue cards, or mind maps.

After the presentation, you may be faced with a question-and-answer session. For many people, this is the worst part of the event.

Remember, on the Day of the Presentation many people feel very nervous before and during a presentation. This is entirely normal and can even be helpful if you can channel it in the right way. 

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My posts are intended for hotel workers, supervisors and managers around the world, who are (or want to become) actively engaged in learning and development.