Introduce Your Champion

 

It's not unusual to invite someone who champions your project at a meeting or event, such as a kickoff meeting. These champions enjoy the opportunity to impress their vision and expectations to the project team and its stakeholders.

You should welcome these opportunities as they are usually few and far between. All you need to do now is to prepare an introduction of this project champion. Introductions, like any other speaking opportunity, deserve to be appropriately prepared to be effective.

You first need to recognize the dual role of the introduction. It tells your audience who is speaking and why the person is speaking. 

When you present the person, you want to make sure to provide significant accomplishments that justify the audience's attention. Having said that, you can pique the audience's attention with unusual hobbies. Use it if you think it fits with the presenter's topic. For example, you can mention a COO's bee farming by showing the parallel with managing project team members.

You should reveal an incident, involving the presenter, that reveals her qualities. Again, the idea is to show how the presenter's handling of the event fits with the topic and audience.

Your role is to create a relationship between the speaker and the audience. That means you should not dwell on yourself and you should be brief. Make sure to properly welcome the presenter using applauses, if suitable. Greet the presenter with a handshake. (If it's cold and flu season, a fist bump is a great alternative.) When the speech is done, you should thank the presenter on behalf of the audience. Take time to point out something you found memorable in the presentation.

Your introduction will set up the presenter and the audience for a great event. Don't underestimate its importance. After all, we need all the help to influence stakeholders positively.