a strong opening and great middle, you must plan out how you will close the presentation. How will it end? In their book Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes, Andy Goodman and Cause Communications (2006) talk about the particular importance of the beginning and the end of presentations. They explain that it is at these two points that the attention of the audience is at its peak:
It’s human nature. When we first sit down, we are curious about the … subject … and when we hear the words “In conclusion,” even those among us in the deepest reaches of REM sleep will awaken and look to the podium, awaiting those words of wisdom that make it all worthwhile. (Goodman & Cause Communications, 2006, p. 32)
Since the end of the presentation is your time to reiterate the main purpose of your presentation, you want to do it well because the audience is most likely listening. The reproducible “Presentation Preparation Outline” (page 29) is a template that you can use to plan out your presentation beginning, middle, and end.
A public question-and-answer session is usually not a good way to end a presentation in the school environment because it opens up the floor for off-topic questions or for questions that steer people away from your original purpose. For example, if the purpose of the presentation was to provide information about a new initiative coming up, you may get questions such as “We tried this five years ago, and it didn’t work—so what if it doesn’t work again?” Or you may get inundated with what if questions. Although a presentation is when you as the school leader are imparting information to the audience for a specific purpose, there are many ways to gather input and feedback from the audience without derailing that purpose. You can bring index cards for the audience members to write their questions on, which they can submit to you as they walk out the door. Or make yourself available at the end of the presentation for one-to-one questions. Another possibility is to post chart paper on a wall, and participants can write their questions there that you can address after the presentation, either in person or via an online platform. If the situation calls for it, you can even conduct meetings with smaller groups of people prior to or after the presentation to reinforce the same purpose and make sure that everyone feels heard and supported (see chapter 2, page 35).
You also do not want to end the presentation by making announcements completely unrelated to the presentation. For example, if your presentation was a professional development session on classroom management skills, don’t end with something like “Remember to turn your grades in by Friday.” When school leaders end their carefully honed presentations with unrelated announcements, it takes away from the message of the presentation because now teachers walk away only remembering those announcements.
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