How can you best emphasize the key points of your presentation so that your audience hears, digests and remembers your message? What are you doing to ensure that your listeners remember the right parts of your presentation?

Picture yourself delivering a presentation to your management team, a proposal to the evaluation committee or instructions to your staff. Guess what? They aren't hanging on your every word. However, when you present your key points - you want people to listen, believe and remember your message. How do you do that? Use the following techniques to give the key words of your presentation more impact.

1. Announce, "This is important." Then deliver the important line. Teachers grab attention by saying, "This will be on the exam." You could state, "This is a million dollar tip."

2. Pause, just before, and after, you say the important point. This is similar to placing quotation marks around the important line. Notice the effect of the pause at an awards presentation when the MC says, "May I have the envelope please?"

The best-laid strategic plans often go awry once exposed to the light of day and the rudeness and ruthlessness of reality.

Former President Lyndon Johnson understood that. He often told a story of a man who had applied for a job as a flagman at a railroad crossing. The man was told he'd be handed the job if he could pass a test consisting of just a single question

The applicant was told to imagine that he was a flagman at a crossing consisting of a single track when he suddenly observed the Continental Express bearing down from the east at 95 miles per hour. Coming from the other direction was the Century Limited at 100 miles per hour. With the trains only 500 yards apart, the man was asked, what would he do under these circumstances? Without hesitation, the would-be flagman responded that he would go and get his brother-in-law.

Puzzled, the railroad examiner inquired, "What good would that do?"

The job applicant promptly replied, "He ain't never seen a train wreck."

Clearly the would-be flagman didn't understand the overarching strategy of his potential employer (prevent accidents) nor his potential role in executing that strategy. Unfortunately, this is not unlike the current state of corporate strategic execution as evidenced by the train wrecks (AIG, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, and the automotive industry) we see everyday in the marketplace.