International Audit Report Writing

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

You Are Absolutely Unique

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Words Are Like Seeds

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

5 Things They Don’t Teach You in Communication Skills Training

More and more, I’ve started incorporating concepts, strategies and techniques into my communication skills training that I learned during the first three years of starting my own business, Quality Assurance Communication.

My typical clients are international professionals working in Europe. Very often, the articles I write are written to ‘speak’ to internal audit professionals who travel the world assessing governance, internal controls and compliance with policies and regulations.

Audit not your thing? No problem. What I share can be applied to any other function, whether you work for a global conglomerate or you’re an entrepreneur.

Let me explain by starting with my pitch. It goes something like this:

“I empower international audit professionals to communicate their key messages more clearly, concisely and persuasively, so my clients achieve better audit results than ever before.”

You can argue the merits of the exact wording. I can tell you that the wording changes slightly each time I present myself. You could say its imperfect… imperfect wording or an imperfect pitch. I’m absolutely fine with that. Because it gets results.

Here are five of the strategies and concepts I learned while starting my business, and why I think they can help you refine and target your communication skills and strategy.

1. Take imperfect action

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned is to take imperfect action.

I consider myself a ‘recovering perfectionist’. This means I have to work on not being a perfectionist. Every. Single. Day. If you are like me, you know that being a perfectionist means it can take you a lot longer to complete a task than ‘normal’ people who don’t suffer from this affliction. Learning to take imperfect actions means you get stuff done. Faster, if less perfectly. But I promise you, it will get you results and move you forward. Much more than striving for and achieving perfection ever will.

2. Build strong, trustful relationships

“People buy from people they know, like and trust.”

This is a long-used sales phrase that is just as valuable today as it was 30+ years ago. I use it in my communication skills training all the time now. Why? Because if you take the time and make the effort to build strong, trustful relationships, you’ll get better results, faster. (Am I starting to sound like a broken record? Good!) I believe wholeheartedly that people champion, support, promote, recommend, cooperate with, take action for, etc., people they know, like and trust.

3. Make it personal

You want me to implement a new global procedure that adds work to my day and has a less-than-friendly user interface? Frankly, it’s not very motivating, or convincing, to tell me that “Global department X is rolling this out at every subsidiary”. The benefit to the global organization may not trigger an emotional connection for me.

Dig deeper, and tell me the impact this new procedure will have on my daily work: pros and cons. How will this change benefit me? How will it improve my world? That last question is the one many of my presentation workshop participants struggle with: You’ve got to be able to answer it. Because if you can answer it, you WILL get cooperation, action, and commitment.

4. Make results clear

I’ve got to be really clear on what results working with me will bring to my clients. This concept works for everything, not just for training: Tell me the expected results and show me examples of similar results, and you’ll influence the decision so it’s a win-win.

Don’t know what the results are of what you are proposing? Then it’s back to the drawing board, my friend. Know the results. Communicate the results. Deliver the results. A simple formula for success.

5. Know your ‘why’

Simon Sinek said it best: “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

My goal is not to offer training to the wider world, my goal is to connect with my perfect customer. Someone, and yes it is one person, who understands my ‘why’, because it is their ‘why’. The pitch I shared with you at the beginning of this article resonates with my perfect customer. They hear, they see, they feel, they believe me when I tell them that my purpose is to help internal auditors improve their communication skills so they can be more successful, and get better audit results, than ever before.

By implementing these strategies and techniques, I know, I believe in my bones, you will take your relationships, your communication, and your business to the next level. Results, results, results – for you and your clients.

All the best,

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Strength

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

(Text) Kills Readability

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Is Your Communication Style Hindering Your Business Success?

If you are like me, you strive every day for positive, value-added communication. We know that creating and maintaining relationships underpins our success. Sometimes though, we come across a Negative Nelly or a Sabotaging Sam. Their communication can be negative, accusatory or even bullying.

Consider Fred, one of my networking contacts.* I’ve known Fred for years. But lately, his attitude and mindset have become even more negative than usual. His communication comes across as sarcastic and passive-aggressive. And this time, he has come very close to embarrassing himself to a wider audience.

In a recent meeting full of lawyers and other stakeholders, Fred got so angry and frustrated that he said to the entire room: “What do you take me for, an idiot?”

Uh oh … long dramatic pause in the conversation …

Fred just scored an ‘own goal’. He achieved nothing but a negative impact to his reputation. And in all probability, he will not be able to achieve the career and life goals he set for himself if he continues with this self-destructive communication style.

Not every interaction we have with others will lead to the outcome we want. We know this, right? We work hard to achieve our desired results, but as educated, worldly professionals, we know that sometimes we don’t get the win in our column.

How can Fred or other people who might let their emotions overrule their judgement make a better impression and ensure their communication brings them success?

Here are 5 ways to accomplish that:

1. Leave the emotion out of it

Let’s face it. Some of us are emotional creatures. But negative emotions do not serve our greater purpose. So leave them at the door. Even better, learn to deal with them yourself, without overburdening your business communication with them.

2. Change your mindset

A negative, controlling, or woe-is-me attitude is not just your problem. You make it everyone’s problem. So do some soul-searching, understand how to manage your state, and turn on the positivity.

3. Make an effort to add value

Someone who is always trying to get the edge over everyone else is not trying to add value to the conversation or the world. Those who take, take, take are usually undone in the end. So use your new positive mindset to help others, share your expertise, and give something amazing to the world.

4. Practice empathy, tolerance and acceptance

Understand that others may have a different opinion than you do, and that’s just fine. When we accept not just the similarities but differences in our business partners and others, we can reconcile our interests and come to a win-win solution. So use constructive communication that moves everyone forward.

5. Think before you express yourself

Once in a while, we say something we shouldn’t. Maybe we are being too honest, or maybe we are making a judgement about someone else. That can get us into a situation where a major apology is required, but even that may not save the relationship. So be your own best friend and put on your internal filter before you damage your relationship and your reputation.

Bottom line? We should be able to handle challenging business situations with empathy, open-mindedness, tact and diplomacy. Relationships, business or otherwise, are critical to our success and our happiness. Use your excellent communication skills to nurture those relationships, not tear them, and yourself, down.

All the best,

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

* Named changed to protect privacy. Apologies to all the Freds out there for using their name here.

Set the world on fire

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Why You Should Channel Yoda in Your Next Presentation

Most of us know the movie:  Yoda mentors Luke by giving him guidance, insight and advice. Taking on that mindset in your next presentation will get you better results that just informing your audience of the new process, procedures or change.

In a recent training session on Preparing and Delivering Powerful Presentations, a participant told me that there was no purpose to his presentation other than to inform his audience about a new template that should be used by staff going forward.

“Steffen,” I said, “there must be a more actionable reason you are giving the presentation. Otherwise, you could just send an email with the slides attached.”

This is not the first time I have heard this, that the only reason for a presentation is to inform. And I don’t believe it.

I poked and prodded Steffen throughout the morning with specific questions, including my favourite question, “So what?”

Presenting to influence and affect change

As the session went on, and Steffen eventually came to the conclusion that there was in fact another reason for his presentation. His real purpose was to persuade the Country Managers to accept the new purchasing template and to champion its use within their local organizations.

Steffen explained that while using the new template was mandatory from a Global Purchasing perspective, it’s never easy to get staff in faraway places to take accept change. After all, the current template had been working just fine for years. And it would be another instance of headquarters unilaterally imposing a change on local organizations.

You could argue that the Country Managers should just accept the new template and pass on the facts to their staff. “Here it is, use it.” This may be enough to get achieve the desired result, but in practice doesn’t usually produce consistent results.

By going two steps further, and explaining why the new template is needed, and how it will positively impact not just the organization but the individuals using it, Steffen is more likely to achieve the desired result.

So what did this mean for Steffen as he redesigned his presentation? Steffen had to:

• Be crystal clear on his purpose and the result he wanted from the presentation.
• Understand the mindset of the Country Managers and anticipate their objections in advance;
• Anticipate and overcome the objections of the staff who would have to use the template even though they weren’t present;
• Explain why the new template was so important to the global organization (but this is not enough);
• Clearly describe the benefits of using the new template to the staff in faraway locations, which included clearer measures for bonus calculations;
• Give Country Managers the argumentation that they in turn needed to persuade their staff;
• Explicitly tell the Country Managers what action he wanted them to take.

How you can apply this to your next presentation

In every presentation you create, focus on the why: what are the benefits at every level: to the individual, the team and the organisation, at both local and global levels. Explain the impact of not taking the action. Your audience’s journey to success begins when they leave your presentation. Arm them with the tools, techniques and strategies they need to be successful, so they can continue to add value to the organization. Be Yoda.

All the best,

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

If anything terrifies me

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Words are powerful

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Write Executive Summaries Like a 3-Michelin-star Chef

I recently spent four days in Brussels working with 15 international auditors from the banking industry on how to write effective, action-oriented audit reports. One of topics of this integrated workshop was Executive Summaries. This topic is often a pain point in writing workshops: What to include? How much to include? In what order? Can I just do a quick copy/paste from the detailed body of the report?

During the workshop, participants learned how to craft an executive summary and the importance of identifying stakeholders and their needs before starting to write. When participants add a dash of good language and a pinch of critical thinking, their executive summaries will be something their stakeholders enjoy reading. (Or at least won’t get indigestion from.)

Create a fine-dining experience for your reader

Something clicked for me after this particular workshop: an executive summary is, or should be, similar to the tasting menu we enjoyed during an extravagant fine-dining experience one evening in Brussels.

A tasting menu is the perfect opportunity for a chef and a restaurant to demonstrate their culinary expertise. It allows the chef to use the finest ingredients while creating a higher-value offering for guests.

By choosing the tasting menu, a guest knows they will dine on unique and delicious food they won’t eat anywhere else. It’s more expensive, but it’s exclusive.

A tasting menu creates an opportunity to forge a deeper connection with the chef, and have a memorable dining experience overall.

So, what is a tasting menu?

A tasting menu is a selection of small plates or dishes with a fixed number of courses for a set price.
The number of courses and what is offered on each plate is determined by the chef.

All dishes are smaller portions so guests can sample the best without having to eat too much. According to dining experts, these small plates tells a story, with each course seamlessly flowing from one to the next.

How does this relate to executive summaries?

• An executive summary should contain the highlights of the detailed work you documented in the body of your report. If your reader wants more, they can refer back to the detailed report.
• The content and structure within the executive summary should tell a story, with each section flowing logically to the next based on relevance to the stakeholders.
• The executive summary should showcase your professionalism: the quality of the work you performed should shine through, and your critical thinking skills should be evident.
• The reader is guided through the executive summary with concise bites of key information via subtitles, bullet points and conclusions.
• The conciseness of your writing ensures the stakeholder invests an acceptable amount of their most precious resource: their time.

Evaluating return on investment

A restaurant must evaluate the return on investment when offering a tasting menu. Are the portions too big? Too small? Does the story told by the plates develop the character of the experience? Does that experience provide enough value for money?

Just as the vision for the menu comes from the chef, you create the content of the executive summary.

The content and the level of summarization should give the reader exactly what they need, in just the right amount. The reader should not be left hungry for important information, or feeling like they are missing key information within the story. If the reader wants ‘seconds’, they can dig into the detailed body of your report.

Sharpen your skills

Remember that 3-Michelin-star chefs studied, trained and practiced their craft, usually for years, before being awarded those stars. So keep learning, practicing and improving your executive summary skills.

Get feedback from your stakeholders, get coachingfrom someone who knows, or take a course to learn more. You might even try modelling your summary after one that has already been recognized by senior management as hitting all the right notes on being clear, concise and persuasive.

Wishing you every success in writing your next executive summary!

All the best,

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

If you want to conquer fear

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Practice, practice, practice

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Setting goals is the first step...

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

From Push to Pull: How to Be More Persuasive in Your Writing

If you are like most international professionals I know, you literally spend weeks each year writing business correspondence: reports, letters, slide presentations that are in fact documentation... and let’s not forget emails!

When you start writing these business documents, you usually have a goal in mind. Then sometimes you get lost in the detail, you write too directly, or your key messages get lost in the lengthy paragraphs.

Results can be disappointing: No action was taken, no decision was made, no one mentioned your brilliant report in conversation at the weekly department meeting. Sometimes you can’t even be sure than anyone even read your document!

If this sounds familiar, then hang in there, because there is hope!

How to make your writing more persuasive

Just about every client I work with wants to know how to make their reports more persuasive, so the reports, recommendations and writers have a positive impact on the business.

My clients want to influence decisions, get actions taken, and create positive change. They understand that when there is no change, there is no growth.

How can you persuade in writing to increase your impact and influence positive change? Here are 5 of the foolproof techniques I share with my clients in my Writing for Impact workshop:

1. Start with a structure

No matter what your reporting template looks like, make sure you’ve got a logical structure built into your document. Whether it’s an audit report or a scientific report, it’s easier for the reader to grasp your key messages and follow your argumentation if you have a structure.

Your structure may be explicit, using subtitles, or it may be implicit, embedded in the language you choose. Either way, a structure will help you create a convincing argument.

2. Add facts and figures

No business report would be complete without facts and figures to anchor your arguments. These facts and figures should be indisputable. They will establish the foundation for your supporting analysis, comparisons and conclusions.

Add figures like graphs, charts and images as long as they support your argumentation. The key point of any figure should be self-evident, otherwise it will distract the reader rather than add clarity.

3. Explain the impact

I’m a firm believer in the idea that people will make better, more informed decisions when they understand the impact of doing – or not doing – something. It may be impact to the organization, the environment, the team or something personal. Regardless, knowing the impact gives your business partner the opportunity to make a different decision than they might have otherwise made.

Add in equal measures of sincerity and authenticity, so that no one feels like they are being manipulated or bullied.

4. Invoke the pain-pleasure principle

In the end, we all make decisions because they will either add pleasure or take away pain. If your recommendations will save my unit $15,000, 15% or 15 man-days, then I want to know about it. And I will most likely implement it.

Remember that emotions play a part in every decision we make, so always, in a professional manner, appeal to their emotions, even in writing. Difficult? Yes. Impossible? No.

5. Make your document ‘easy on the eye’

Please. I can’t stress it enough. There is (almost) nothing worse than opening up a document and seeing page after page after page of 20-line paragraphs. Nothing kills my joy at learning something new than having to weed through pages of text that have no breaks, no diagrams, no subtitles, no numbering and no white space.

Write more persuasively immediately

These strategies come straight from my experience, working with international professionals and having reviewed literally hundreds of their reports. They are things you can put to work TODAY in your business writing to help you persuade, increase your impact and influence others to take decisions and action.

Let me know how these strategies help you, and please add your own in the comments below.

All the best,

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

If you don't tell your reader to take action...

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Deliver a killer presentation with these strategies

Several times a year, I deliver a workshop called Preparing Powerful Content for Presentations. It’s a two-day workshop where we look at strategies, techniques and insights on how to create a killer presentation. Essentially, the workshop is all about what you can do from the point you are first asked to give a presentation, to when the slides are finished.
In the workshop, pushback inevitably comes when participants are asked to take a step back and rethink the concept and create a storyline for their presentation based on what they’ve learned. I get responses like ‘I can’t change it. I’ve already delivered the presentation’ or ‘But I’m just preparing the presentation, I’m not delivering it.’
These responses will NOT help to create positive change in your organization.

Trying new concepts to create ‘more’

And so I encourage my participants to start from scratch. Yes, restart the whole thing. Are they happy to do that? Maybe 30% are ready and excited to jump in and start all over again.
But let me tell you, after we finish, 100% of the participants are glad they did!
Something magical happens when you turn off and tune out old ideas, preconceived notions, and perceived limitations. And it’s a joy to see the final result.

Some of the key learning points from my Preparing Powerful Content for Presentationsworkshop are:

1. Know the goal

Know exactly what action you want the audience to take when they leave your presentation. Because if you don’t know, they won’t know either. There should always be an action, so push yourself to identify it. I guarantee there is more to your presentation than just ‘informing’. (Can’t figure it out? Get in touch and I’ll help you.)

2. Create a gap

Create a gap, a pain, an opportunity, between the current situation and the future that could be, if only they take the action you are proposing. Because there IS a gap, there IS a pain point, there IS an opportunity. Otherwise what you want to tell them is of little value.

3. Show multi-level benefits 

Include the benefits of doing something and the risks of not doing something. At each of these levels: society and the environment (possibly), the organization, the department, the individual making the decision. Make sure to address each of those in your presentation content and strategy if you’ve assessed that it’s relevant for your audience.

4. Get personal

The old adage goes, ‘People buy from people they know, like and trust.’ I take it a step further: People buy from, support, champion, recommend, refer, help and promote people they know, like and trust. Add anecdotes from your experience, empathize because you used to do their job, or show in some other way that you know what it’s like to be in their position.

5. Inspire action

Inspire your audience with what is possible to be/do/have in the future. Many people are just fine with the way things are, thank you very much. So asking people to take on change can be tough. But if you believe in the change, in yourself, and in their ability to be successful with the change, you can lead them to a better position: in work and very possibly, in life.

Unlimited possibilities

Here’s what you can create:

• A presentation with an active, compelling concept
• A clear understanding of who the audience is and what they need from the speaker
• An engaging storyline that keeps the audience’s attention and takes them on a journey
• A slide deck that with key messages and supportive images that resonate
• A clear and explicit action that the audience should take

Create more – for your audience and for yourself. Let us know how these strategies work for you.
Wishing you every success as you prepare powerful content for your presentations!

All the best,

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Stop Paying Lip Service and Start Empowering Your Team

Coaching. In most companies, we sit down with our manager once a year to discuss past performance. If we’re lucky, it’s twice a year. Part of the process is setting a few goals, some of which we can influence, and some (or most) of which we cannot.

Is that really the best way to help your team grow and develop into (even more) valuable employees that actively and measurably contribute to the success of your organization?

For the last four months, I’ve been teaching and working with an international team of internal auditors in the financial industry on the topic of coaching. So far, 120 auditors have been through the training program here in Europe, the US, and in Asia.

This team of auditors is being empowered by senior management, through the training, to improve their communication skills. Perhaps not unusual in itself.

What is unusual is that the new annual performance goals of training participants will include using the coaching methodology in their roles as managers. These participants are senior auditor managers within their teams, and after the training, are required to implement the coaching methodology in their discussions with their direct reports. (Yeah!)

The coaching method we worked with is GROW, which is co-created by Sir John Whitmore. Find out more from his best-selling book Coaching for Performance. GROW is much more ‘ask’ than ‘tell’. It relies on the strategy, questioning and listening skills of the coach.

The beauty of GROW is that it enables a coach to empower their staff to identify the desired goal and the steps necessary to achieve that goal. Your staff is then accountable and responsible for the resulting transformation. And that is empowering!

Empower YOUR team to achieve next-level results. Focus on their communication skills. Focus on transformational coaching. Focus on transforming results from good to great.

To find out more, contact me here on my website or through LinkedIn.

All the best,

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Are You Accidentally Making Yourself Look Less Professional?

“I, um, I just wanted to say that, ah, …”

I just came from a presentation given by an expert in their field. Well, the presenter’s bio said they were an expert in the topic. But right from the beginning, I had my doubts. It had nothing to do with content of the presentation and EVERYTHING to do with delivery. You see, I counted 5 ‘um’s and ‘ah’s from the speaker in the first 3 minutes of their presentation. Not a good sign. I knew it was going to be a painful 90 minutes.

You might wonder why I started counting the ‘um’s and ‘ah’s. It comes naturally, from being a Toastmaster. One of the things we do at our Toastmasters meetings, at least at my club, is to count ‘um’s, ‘ah’s and other filler words spoken aloud … by EVERY person attending the meeting.

The Ah Counter, the person spending the entire meeting focusing on this task, reports the number of times – every – single – person – said those words during the meeting. At first it sounds like an awful thing to have done to you: Someone counts your ‘um’s and ‘ah’s and then tells the entire room how many you uttered. Embarrassing!

In fact, it’s a gift. You can no longer live in blissful ignorance of your bad habit. And that’s a good thing. Because once you are aware of your penchant to say ‘um’ and ‘ah’, you become instantly aware of it the next time one of those words comes out of your mouth.

So you can immediately begin to STOP saying them by developing strategies and tips to put in place each time you speak in public. It all starts with awareness. And then you work at it, every time you speak in front of others.

And don’t forget the pride that will result from this: The day the Ah Counter SKIPS your name because you didn’t utter a single ‘um’, ‘ah’, or any other filler word is a great day! That, my friends, is a real moment to celebrate!

You can be THE expert in your field, but your content and your professionalism won’t shine through to your audience if you utter 177 ‘um’s and ‘ah’s in your 87-minute presentation.

Yes, that was the final count during the presentation I watched today: 177 ‘um’s and ‘ah’s. I didn’t bother to count the other filler words. The 177 was bad enough. It was painful for the audience. It was all anyone talked about at the break. But did the speaker even realize they had this habit?

I engaged the speaker during the break, asking a question about the content of the presentation. After a few moments, the speaker asked for some feedback on their presentation. They brought up the topic of the ‘um’s themselves, which created an opening for me introduce ways to overcome them. All in all, it worked out well. The fact that the speaker was already aware of the bad habit to some degree made it easy for us to have the conversation.

Here are some strategies and tips to stop saying filler words that have worked for me and for my clients:

1. Create an awareness that you say ‘um’, ‘ah’ and other filler words. Have a colleague be your own personal Ah Counter, record yourself, etc.
2. Know your topic inside and out and know what you want to say inside and out. That way, the information comes out of your mouth with ease and confidence; no searching for what to say next.
3. Keep your mouth closed. When you are thinking of what to say next, make an effort to keep your mouth closed. When we open our mouths when we are thinking, we tend to utter sounds like ‘um’, ‘ah’ or other filler words.
4. Choreograph how you will move from idea to idea, slide to slide. That means knowing what comes next, and next, and next in your presentation. You don’t have to memorize a script, but you should know the flow of your presentation by heart. (After all, what would you do if you had no slides??)
5. Work on your confidence speaking in front of a room. You might even consider joining Toastmasters.

Have an insight, strategy or tip for reducing the number of filler words we say? Please share in the comments below.

Wishing you every success in your public speaking!

All the best,

Tracie

Quality Assurance Communication

PS: Keep an eye out for my open workshops in the Rhein-Neckar region on how to Prepare and Deliver a Dynamic Presentation hosted by the IHK. The next one is in three weeks!

The first problem of communication

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Communication is the key for success

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Put Your Dancing Shoes On, It’s Time to Rock the Stage

Preparation is critical to my success, whether I’m delivering a workshop or speaking to a roomful of my ideal clients.  And whenever I get ready to speak in those situations, I like to take a step back and plan my dance moves… I like to call it my ‘choreography’.

This week I’m delivering two Audit Report Writing workshops to a new client. Because it’s the first time I’m delivering a full workshop(s) to them, it’s important that I get it right.

I’ve invested time getting to know the client and their staff, I’ve tailored the training material to their audit methodology, and I’ve gotten the stamp of approval from the Head of Internal Audit to deliver the workshops.

There’s one thing left to do before I go ‘on stage’: make sure I am ready to seamlessly move from one key message to the next, change from one slide to the next, and transition from topic to topic.

Here are 7 of the strategies I use to prepare myself for any presentation or speech, which I share in more detail in my Preparing Powerful Content workshop:

1. Plan the first section of your presentation carefully. I still do it for my Audit Report Writing workshop, even though I’ve delivered it well over 50 times.
2. Identify the relevant aspects of your experience and qualifications to resonate with that particular audience. This will create instant credibility during your self-introduction.
3. Plan the key messages for every slide. Include supporting anecdote/example/comparison, and timing.
4. Identify the ‘Ah-a moment’ of each slide in the body of your presentation. If there isn’t one, don’t show the slide.
5. Plan the transitions between slides and topics. Use signposting language to take your audience by the hand with you.
6. Know what you can cut out per slide and overall. Flexibility is key, and the audience shouldn’t feel that you are cutting anything out even if you are.
7. Plan your conclusion. Skip the ‘Thank you for your attention’ slide and instead, focus on your main messages and call to action.

Why choreograph your next presentation?

When you are clear on these things, you can deliver with confidence and authenticity. Planning may take you 5 minutes, 50 minutes or 5 hours. Regardless, you will be far more successful, and your audience is much more likely to benefit from your messages if your choreography is mapped out before you put on your dancing shoes and step onto the stage.

Wishing you much success in your next presentation, speech or workshop!

All the best,

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

No passion in playing small

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Successful people

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication

Why You Should Think Before You Ink

Whether you’re thinking of getting a tattoo or writing a business document, it pays to think before you ink.

The general rule is that the more time you spend planning your document, the less time it will take to write it. Can I guarantee you that? No. But I believe you’ll write a shorter, more effective report that will resonate better with your readers if you do.

It’s a topic that comes up often in my Writing for Impact workshops. I sometimes get a few moans and groans that if they, the workshop participants, implement this key learning point, it will take them longer to prepare their reports.

Yes and no.

Yes, because the first few times you sit down and actually plan your document, you won’t have a routine, template or personal style that guides you. The more you plan upfront though, the easier it will get. You’ll develop your own approach to document planning, and you’ll become more efficient over time.

No, because you’ll write less if you think before you ink. It happens naturally, because you end up including ‘just enough’ to support your key messages and recommendations. Because of this, your stakeholders will easily find what they need in the document and then take the desired action.

Before you sit down to write your next business document, consider these aspects in your planning:

1. Design

A careful outline is just as important to a report as it is to a tattoo. Design the content and structure of your report so that it achieves its purpose and has logical flow. Identify your key messages, and include only those facts and figures necessary to support your conclusions and recommendations. Including everything you know on the topic will result in reader fatigue.

2. Interpretation

They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and that applies to both tattoos and business documents! Use connecting words and phrases to link your facts, opinions and argumentation. Draw conclusions for the reader, rather than leaving it up to them to decide what your point is. If not, your reader may not come to the same conclusion you did. And that could lead to negative feedback and inaction on your recommendations.

3. Permanency

We’ve all heard about the lengthy, painful process involved in removing a tattoo. Your document is a representation of you, your team and your organization. It indicates the quality standards you work to, and is a sign of your professionalism. If your report is long, vague and unclear, your reader will notice immediately.

More concise, more informative, better results

You want your reader to read your report and take action, right? Planning your document before you begin writing will increase your chances of achieving this goal. Clear and concise reports don’t burden the reader with excess or irrelevant information, they bring the reader joy because they are so easy to read, absorb and act on.

Planning before you write will result in you writing less, and will save you the time and effort of clarification discussions, negotiations on language used, and edits from your boss.

Do you have a planning technique you want to share? Include it in a comment below, because we can all learn from each other. Plus, if you need daily inspiration for writing clearly and concisely, you can check out my first book, Communicate Your Way To Global Business Success.

Happy Writing.

All the best,

Tracie Marquardt

Quality Assurance Communication