I’m a big supporter of the theory that everyone should be able to speak clearly and articulately about the work they do. They should have a 1-minute version, 5-minute, and 30-minute version ready to drop at any given moment. If you cannot articulate what you do, how can you communicate to your team what is happening?
A big part of this is in being able to judge how long you’ve been talking. If you are asked to give a brief introduction but go for 15 minutes, you’ve set a bad precedent. If you are asked to go for 15 minutes but only go for 2, you probably didn’t give the detail that people were looking for. Time management is a big aspect of presenting.
One of my favorite aspects of being face-to-face with people is putting together an agenda and action list. Face-to-face meetings offer so much value that it’s important to get the most out of them. Even if it’s just a 1-on-1 meeting, being able to clearly communicate is the top way to get what you want out of the session.
Practice, practice, practice. You won’t be able to nail down the various versions of what you do the first or even fifth time around. But by the tenth you should have a comfort level and by the twentieth you should be natural. If you aren’t getting to twenty, you are probably not communicating enough.