Podium pointers.

The ability to communicate well goes along with being a high-level executive, but for many chief elected leaders, the toughest challenge is delivering a speech to a large audience. Whether the audience is the association membership, an outside group, or the' television-viewing audience, the task is always to persuade as well as to inform.

Here are some suggestions for powering up your presentations:

* Don't count on the facts to carry the day. As a leader you have access to factual and statistical information that will be part of any presentation you make. Some people need facts and figures to be convinced, but most people will find their attention drifting during a dry' factual account. Choose your factual evidence carefully and balance it with other types of evidence: anecdotes, analogies, demonstrations, and expert opinion.

* Use your eyes to manage anxiety, pacing, and interaction. Podium phobia is one of the most common of all fears, and many speakers inadvertently raise their anxiety level by the way they look at the audience. Darting your eyes around the room or slowly panning the audience will increase any initial nervousness you feel because all that extraneous visual information gets in the way of what you are trying to say.

Instead of trying to take in the whole audience, take a breath, fix your gaze on one person, and start to speak. When you have completed one thought, which usually takes five to seven seconds, breathe, look at another face, and continue with your next thought. Maintain this pattern all the way through your presentation.

The one-person-per-thought technique virtually forces you to breathe at natural intervals. This will help you maintain your composure as well as prevent you from freezing up, losing your train of thought, or rushing your words.

Looking at one person at a time also allows you to "read" the reactions to your speech. Pausing to breathe at the end of each thought buys you a little time to make midcourse adjustments, if necessary. For example, if you're getting blank and puzzled expressions, explain your point another way. If you seem to be losing your listeners, step up the interaction - by asking real or rhetorical questions, varying the volume of your voice, or moving toward your audience.

* Be passionate. The bottom line of any presentation is moving your listeners to do something - work in a different way, support a certain position, or unite around a particular cause. What moves people to take action is feeling, but what too many presentations lack is passion.

Don't edit the emotion out of your presentation. A low-key delivery can take the steam out of any burning issue, but enthusiasm is highly contagious. Allow your facial expressions, your body language, and your voice to show that you're fired up about your subject.

Your audience can read a report or newsletter article any time, but a face-to-face presentation is an event. Use your podium stint to bring your subject to life.

BOARD DEVELOPMENT

Common Recruitment Methods And Benefits

A recent study of nonprofit organizations by William M. Mercer, Inc., New York City, found the most common means of recruiting board members to be

* a nominating committee (54 percent);

* recommendation by the board chair (44 percent);

* recommendation of a board member (44 percent);

* recommendation of staff members (23 percent); and

* elections (13 percent).

The 1996-97 Survey of Executive Compensation Benefits in Not For Profit Organizations also found "no significant difference" in board member benefits between 501 (c) (3) and 501 (c) (6) organizations. In total, 74 percent of the surveyed respondents receive travel expense reimbursement; 23 percent have a charitable giving program (e.g. matching gifts); 14 percent receive group travel insurance; and 11 percent receive travel expense reimbursement for a spouse.

Submitted by Kevin Daley, chief executive officer of the communications skills company Communispond, New York City