Public Speaking

Public Speaking Training

2009-04-30T05:51:00.000-07:00

Get a coach

Whatever the presentation public speaking is tough, so get help.

Since there are about a zillion companies out there all ready to offer you public speaking training and courses, here are some things to look for when deciding the training that's right for you

Focus on positives not negatives

Any training you do to become more effective at public speaking should always focus on the positive aspects of what you already do well.

Nothing can undermine confidence more than telling someone what they aren't doing well.

You already do lots of things well good public speaking training should develop those instead of telling you what you shouldn't do.

Turn your back on too many rules

If you find a public speaking course that looks as though it's going to give you lots of dos and don'ts, walk away! Your brain is going to be so full of whatever it is you're going to be talking about that to try to cram it full of a whole bunch of rules will just be counterproductive.

As far as we're concerned, aside from physical violence or inappropriately taking off your clothes, there are no hard and fast rules about public speaking.

You are an individual not a clone

Most importantly, good public speaking training should treat you as a unique individual, with your own quirks and idiosyncrasies. You aren't like anybody else and your training course should help you bring out your individuality, not try to turn you into someone you're not.

Presentation Tips

2009-04-28T16:46:00.000-07:00

Know the needs of your audience and match your contents to their needs. Know your material thoroughly. Put what you have to say in a logical sequence. Ensure your speech will be captivating to your audience as well as worth their time and attention. Practice and rehearse your speech at home or where you can be at ease and comfortable, in front of a mirror, your family, friends or colleagues. Use a tape-recorder and listen to yourself. Videotape your presentation and analyze it. Know what your strong and weak points are. Emphasize your strong points during your presentation.

When you are presenting in front of an audience, you are performing as an actor is on stage. How you are being perceived is very important. Dress appropriately for the occasion. Be solemn if your topic is serious. Present the desired image to your audience. Look pleasant, enthusiastic, confident, proud, but not arrogant. Remain calm. Appear relaxed, even if you feel nervous. Speak slowly, enunciate clearly, and show appropriate emotion and feeling relating to your topic. Establish rapport with your audience. Speak to the person farthest away from you to ensure your voice is loud enough to project to the back of the room. Vary the tone of your voice and dramatize if necessary. If a microphone is available, adjust and adapt your voice accordingly.

In public speaking, body language is important. Standing, walking or moving about with
appropriate hand gesture or facial expression is preferred to sitting down or standing still
with head down and reading from a prepared speech. Use audio-visual aids or props for
enhancement if appropriate and necessary. Master the use of presentation
software such as PowerPoint well before your presentation. Do not over-dazzle
your audience with excessive use of animation, sound clips,
or gaudy colors which are inappropriate for your topic. Do not torture your audience by
putting a lengthy document in tiny print on an overhead and reading it out to them.

Speak with conviction as if you really believe in what you are saying. Persuade your audience effectively. The material you present orally should have the same ingredients as that which are required for a written research paper, i.e. a logical progression from INTRODUCTION (Thesis statement) to BODY (strong supporting arguments, accurate and up-to-date information) to CONCLUSION (re-state thesis, summary, and logical conclusion).

Do not read from notes for any extended length of time although it is quite acceptable to glance at your notes infrequently. Speak loudly and clearly. Sound confident. Do not mumble. If you made an error, correct it, and continue. No need to make excuses or apologize profusely.

Maintain sincere eye contact with your audience. Use the 3-second method, e.g. look straight into the eyes of a person in the audience for 3 seconds at a time. Have direct eye contact with a number of people in the audience, and every now and then glance at the whole audience while speaking. Use your eye contact to make everyone in your audience feel involved.

Speak to your audience, listen to their questions, respond to their reactions, adjust and adapt. If what you have prepared is obviously not getting across to your audience, change your strategy mid-stream if you are well prepared to do so. Remember that communication is the key to a successful presentation. If you are short of time, know what can be safely left out. If you have extra time, know what could be effectively added. Always be prepared for the unexpected.

Pause. Allow yourself and your audience a little time to reflect and think. Don't race through your presentation and leave your audience, as well as yourself, feeling out of breath.

Add humor whenever appropriate and possible. Keep audience interested throughout your entire presentation. Remember that an interesting speech makes time fly, but a boring speech is always too long to endure even if the presentation time is the same.

When using audio-visual aids to enhance your presentation, be sure all necessary equipment is set up and in good working order prior to the presentation. If possible, have an emergency backup system readily available. Check out the location ahead of time to ensure seating arrangements for audience, whiteboard, blackboard, lighting, location of projection screen, sound system, etc. are suitable for your presentation.

Have handouts ready and give them out at the appropriate time. Tell audience ahead of time that you will be giving out an outline of your presentation so that they will not waste time taking unnecessary notes during your presentation.

Know when to STOP talking. Use a timer or the microwave oven clock to time your presentation when preparing it at home. Just as you don't use unnecessary words in your written paper, you don't bore your audience with repetitious or unnecessary words in your oral presentation. To end your presentation, summarize your main points in the same way as you normally do in the CONCLUSION of a written paper. Remember, however, that there is a difference between spoken words appropriate for the ear and formally written words intended for reading. Terminate your presentation with an interesting remark or an appropriate punch line. Leave your listeners with a positive impression and a sense of completion. Do not belabor your closing remarks. Thank your audience and sit down.

A Short Guide to Effective Public Speaking

2009-04-28T16:22:00.001-07:00

Delivering an effective presentation to 20 or to 200 people is difficult. Because listeners have better access to information since the internet became commonplace, audiences expect more content from speakers today. In addition, because of the entertainment slant of most media today, audiences want a presentation delivered with animation, humor, and pizzazz.

If you would rather spend your time preparing your content than reading a book on public speaking, this is an article especially for you! From my experiences in delivering over l500 speeches during the past 20 years, here is a quick guide to giving an effective and interesting presentation your very first time.

Begin with something to get the attention of the audience. This might be a startling statement, statistic, or your own story. Listeners pay close attention when a person begins with, “Two weeks ago as I was driving to work a car pulled out in front of me….” You could begin with a current event: “You might have read in the paper this morning about the flood that….” A question is another way to make people listen. “How many of you feel our society spends too much on medical care?” might be a way to begin a presentation about curbing costs. Whatever technique you use, when you grab the attention of the audience you are on your way to a successful speech.

Second, be energetic in delivery. Speak with variety in your voice. Slow down for a dramatic point and speed up to show excitement. Pause occasionally for effect. Don’t just stand behind the lectern, but move a step away to make a point. When you are encouraging your audience, take a step toward them. Gesture to show how big or wide or tall or small an object is that you are describing. Demonstrate how something works or looks or moves as you tell about it. Show facial expression as you speak. Smile when talking about something pleasant and let your face show other emotions as you tell about an event or activity. Whatever your movements, they should have purpose.

Structure your speech. Don’t have more than two or three main points, and preview in the beginning what those points will be. With each point, have two or three pieces of support, such as examples, definitions, testimony, or statistics. Visual aids are important when you want your audience to understand a process or concept or understand a financial goal. Line graphs are best for trends. Bar graphs are best for comparisons and pie graphs are best for showing distribution of percentages.

Tie your points together with transitions. These could be signposts such as “First,” “Second,” or "Finally." Use an internal summary by simply including the point you just made and telling what you plan to talk about next. “Now that we have talked about structure, let’s move on to the use of stories,” would be an example. When you have an introduction, two or three main points with support for each, appropriate transitions, and a conclusion, you will have your speech organized in a way that the audience can follow you easily.

Tell your own story somewhere in the presentation--especially in a technical presentation. Include a personal experience that connects to your speech content, and the audience will connect with you. You want to help the audience link emotionally with what you are talking about, and the personal experience does that. With almost any topic you might choose, you have at least one “war story” to relate to the topic. When you tell the story, simply start at the beginning and move chronologically through the narrative, including answers to the “W” questions: “Who,” What, “When,” "Why," and “Where.”

To add interest and understanding to your speech, include a visual aid. A visual aid could be an object, a flip chart, a PowerPoint presentation, overhead projector slides, or a dry erase board. Whatever visual you are using, make sure everyone can see it. The best way to insure this is to put the visual where you will be speaking, and then find the seat farthest from it and determine if you can read the visual from that seat. Introduce the visual properly rather than simply throwing it at your audience; explain what the visual will do before you unveil it. Don’t allow the visual to become a silent demonstration. Keep talking as you show the visual. You are still the main event and your visual is an aid. Look at your audience, not your visual. When the visual is not in use, hide it from the audience. Humans are a curious lot, tending to keep looking at the object and losing track of the speaker—you!

If you are delivering a persuasive speech, in addition to your own stories include testimony of experts whom the audience respects and whose views reinforce your points. Add a key statistic when possible to show the seriousness of what you are discussing. For example, if I were discussing the need for improved listening to better serve your customers, I might add that although we spend half of our communication time in listening, our listening efficiency is only about 25%. By using stories, testimony, and statistics in your persuasive talk, you add depth to your evidence.

Look at the audience as you speak. If it is a small audience, you can look at each person in a short period of time. If it is a large audience, look at the audience in small “clumps” and move from one clump to another. One way to insure good eye contact is to look at your audience before you start to speak. Go to the lectern and pause, smile, look at the audience, and then speak. This will help you maintain good eye contact throughout your presentation as well as commanding immediate attention.

One of the ways to have consistently good eye contact is not to read your speech. Use note cards that have key words on them. The word or phrase should trigger the thought in your mind and then you can speak it. If you are including a quotation or complex statistics, reading from your note card actually lends credibility. If you write out your speech you will tend to read it and lose eye contact with the audience, as well as not being as enthusiastic in delivery as when you speak from note cards.

Include a “wow” factor in your speech. Something in your speech should make your audience think, “Wow!” It could be a story, a dramatic point, an unusual statistic, or an effective visual that helps the audience understand immediately. With a “wow” factor, you then have something to look forward to in the speech that you know will have an impact on your audience. You’ll become a more enthusiastic speaker because the “wow” factor will get you as well as your audience pumped for the speech.

Consider using a touch of humor in your speech. Don’t panic at this suggestion; you are not becoming a comedian but rather lightening up a serious speech so that people will be more accepting and interested in your ideas. Humor will help you to be perceived as an amiable person, and it is hard for people to disagree or be bored if they are smiling at you. Until you have lots of experience, keep your humor short. Perhaps inject a one-liner or a quotation. Yogi Berra said a lot of funny things. “You can observe a lot just by watching” for example. Tell a short embarrassing moment in your life that you might have thought not funny at the time. Now that you can laugh at the experience, you understand the old adage, “Humor is simply tragedy separated by time and space.” Don’t poke fun at your audience; you should be the object of any shortcoming, showing that you can laugh at yourself. Avoid long stories or jokes. Even seasoned speakers know that funny stories soon become unfunny if they go on too long. Probably the least risky use of humor is a cartoon. The cartoon is separate from you and if people don’t laugh, you don’t feel responsible. (Be sure to secure permission to use it.)

Finally, leave the audience with something to think about. People remember best what you say last. You might summarize your main points, or you might complete the statement, “What I want you to do as a result of this presentation is....” But beyond that, make your last words a thought to ponder. For example, I might end a speech on becoming a better speaker with “As Cicero said centuries ago, 'The skill to do comes with the doing.'”

A more modern guide to effective public speaking was penned by some unknown sage: "Know your stuff. Know whom you are stuffing. Know when they are stuffed."

One never becomes a “perfect” speaker; developing public speaking skills is a life-long experience. But the points discussed here will get you started in becoming the speaker you want to be and the speaker your audience wants to hear.

Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is a professor of speech communication at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. He is also a trainer in communication who presents more than 60 seminars and workshops a year to corporations and associations. See additional articles and resources at http://www.sboyd.com. He can be reached at 800-727-6520 or at info@sboyd.com.

Breathe Life Into Your Delivery

2009-04-26T20:15:00.000-07:00

Your content maybe great but if your delivery is like a robots you risk losing the interest of your audience. The basic aim of your delivery is to please your audience and interested in what you have to say.

Your physical gestures, movements, vocal expressiveness and body language add more force, credibility and interest to your speech. They breathe life into it.

Here are some tips to breathe life into your public speaking.

Appearance

A speaker's appearance is important. It is your ideas that you want to promote, so avoid any eccentricities that could detract from them. Ordinary clothing of good quality and properly adjusted will make the right impression.

Posture

Confidence is best expressed by standing straight and tall. Stand firmly on both feet and distribute the weight of your body evenly. Holding on to a chair or leaning on a table can give the impression of laziness and/or nervousness.

Facial Expressions

The facial expressions used should be a natural expression of your personality and by relaxing your face you will naturally show meaning. There is a tendency to look down when starting out to avoid eye contact at all costs but this demonstrates a lack of confidence. Look out at your audience and you will find a few friendly faces that you can make eye contact with. Smile, it will help you relax. Smiling is contagious and helps the audience to like you. Movement

Move when it is natural for you to move, for example when you are making a point. But do not move excessively from side to side as this can distract the audience. Move with a purpose and you will hold the audience's attention.

Gestures

It is natural for speakers to gesture when speaking as it is in day to day conversation. If you avoid gestures your delivery becomes boring. The gestures to use are those that are a natural expression of you.

However, hands can be difficult to control. Some "natural" gestures can be the result of nerves and can drive your audience to distraction. Some gestures to avoid are touching your nose, pulling your lip or fidgeting. When you are not using your hands to gesture - clasp them gently across your stomach but available to be used.

Voice

Your voice is a wonderfully expressive instrument but through neglect it can repel your listeners - if you have a strident tone it will irritate them or you might put them to sleep if your voice is dull and monotonous. By keeping your voice flexible by changing the volume, pitch and tempo it will convey meaning and keep the audience interested. For example by changing the pace of your speaking you show enthusiasm by speeding up and by slowing down emphasize a point.

Types of Speeches

2009-04-26T20:14:00.002-07:00

Have you ever tried to create a speech, but the ideas just didn't seem to gel? You know: they seem good enough, they support your message, but they just don't go together.

When preparing your speech, it helps if you know what type of speech you want to create. There are four types:

Informational: this is the most prevalent type of speech. Your goal is to provide information to your audience. It is often presented with a series of numbers, statistics, and many PowerPoint slides... which tend to make it overdrawn and boring.
Inspiring: in this type of speech, you seek to inspire your audience to change something in their lives. This is often called a "motivational speech". In fact, that is a misnomer. Motivation comes from within, nobody can give it to you. Inspiration seeks to draw that motivation from audience members in order to get them to act.
Entertaining: the main goal of this speech is to make the audience laugh and to enjoy themselves. These ais the format of most after-dinner speeches. Notice that an entertaining speech is not the same as a standup routine. It is much smoother and logical in its flow. In an entertaining speech, the message comes second to the enjoyment of the audience.
Persuasive: it aims to convince an audience of your point of view.Typically, this is a sales presentation. Your goal is to convince an audience of the benefits of your product or service, and your speech is constructed accordingly.

Although your speech focuses on one of these types, it helps if you can include aspects of each type in your final delivery. A sales speech will be much more effective if it contains information, is entertaining, and inspiring.

How to Master the Art of Public Speaking?

2009-04-26T20:14:00.001-07:00

Have you ever noticed that arts and sciences seem to be polar opposites, and yet if you walk onto just about any college campus, you will see a department called Arts and Sciences? Why don't they just call it "everything?" I mean, there isn't much that can't be classified as either an art or a science, right? One of the things in his world that is scary to a lot of folks but is definitely an art, is the art of public speaking. If your palms start to sweat and your lunch feels like it is going to come back up on you every time you have to get up in front of people and talk, you may just need a bit of help with the art of public speaking.

There is nothing quite as extraordinary and powerful as being able to speak well in public; just ask Obama or McCain, who was not quite so good at it as his opponent was. Sometimes it is more about how you say something than what you actually say; scary but true.

If your profession or civic duties require you to take up residence behind a podium or explain charts and figures on a set of PowerPoint slides or sell the world's best (or worst) product, it will behoove you to brush up on - or actually start learning - the art of public speaking.

Whether you decide to take a traditional class on a school campus, attend some private group classes, read some books, hire a professional for one-on-one assistance, or find some other means to improve your speech-making skills, it will be well worth your time, effort, and expense. When you gaze out into the faces of those listening to your every word and nodding their heads in agreement or laughing at your joke or wiping a tear after your inspiring anecdote, you too will realize that improving your public speaking skills was one of the best things you ever did.

Fear Tips - And How to Avoid Them

2009-04-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

It can be intimidating to do public speaking with a large room full of people. Not knowing what might happen once your on stage can cause even some season professionals stress with giving speeches.

Therefore in order to give a good professional speech you need some tips to help you over the rough spots. First of course is to know your topic well. A structured speech is one that is focused on the topic and gives the audience some good content. Knowing that you are well adverse in the topic will help settle some of your fears.

Another tip some speakers use is to give an opening comment that includes to topic a brief outline of the speech and then a small joke to introduce some humor to the audience. This help the speaker break the ice with the audience and at the same time reduce some stress for the speaker.

Probably the best tip is just gaining more confidence in your speaking ability. The more times you speak the more your confidence will increase. This also will show with the audience. When you get up in front of a crowd and you show enthusiasm, not only does it take away the fear of specking in front of a large crowd, but it also makes the audience eager to listen to your speech.

A tip that a friend of mine uses to clam his fears is to have a mental outline of his speech in his head. That way he is always thinking back to his outline while giving the speech which lends his interaction with the audience come naturally. With this outline in his head, he is also able to transition from point to point within his speech. This keeps his mind busy and reduces the fear factor for him.

One last tip that many speakers use is when addressing the audience, is not to stare at them or any one person. By this I mean you basically have a glaze look at the audience as if they were just one large sea of faces. This way the audience seems less threatening to you, which in turns reduces your fear.

Public Performance

2009-04-26T18:58:00.000-07:00

Public speaking is an important skill in today's business environment. So, the issue becomes just how do you overcome inhibitions, fear and anxiety to discover your inner confidence, positive energy and the ability to influence others. Let's look at three key ways to address this issue:

1. Accept and love yourself

2. Accept and love others

3. Let go and have fun

Your presentations become authentic and charismatic when you first accept and love yourself. Take time to think about all your really good qualities, whatever they are. Celebrate these qualities and encourage a smile to spread across your face. Write these good qualities down and read them out loud with a clear strong voice. Now, think about your not-so-good qualities. Rather than get down about yourself, celebrate these qualities too. This is you. This is all of you, both good and not-so-good. Bring compassion to any parts of yourself that may feel shame or hopelessness as you look at the qualities of yourself that may have been labeled as not-so-good. My guess is that you developed these qualities to protect yourself from being hurt in some way. Breathe in love. Anxiety, fear and self doubt come out when you let the inner battle between your good and bad qualities rage. It takes a lot of energy, in the form of anxiety to push away parts of yourself that you may not like. Instead, embrace all of who you are with love.

As you fill with love to yourself, you are now able to reach out to others with the same love and compassion. Let your eyes twinkle as you connect to them. Whether you're making a sales pitch or doing a presentation, remember it's not about you. It's about your audience. Everybody just wants to be seen, heard and loved. Connect with others from a place of compassion, understanding, patience and an acknowledgment of "we're all just being human". Listen to your audience with your whole being, with your soul. Radiate your inner love and let your audience know you care. Feel your confidence grow as you focus your attention and connection to your audience from a place of honest, loving communication.

Finally, with love for yourself and others, remember that life is short. So let your hair fly loose and have fun! Try a little humor. Let yourself feel everything. Really breathe deeply and discover the joy in being alive. Smile and imagine that smile moving down through your whole body and then reaching out to others. Trust that the Universe is guiding you and don't try to control the outcome. No more "white knuckling" it through life, release your grip and let go.

Effective Speech Delivery - 4 Tips

2009-04-26T18:57:00.001-07:00

Public speaking is a dreadful thing to do for an inexperienced one. Oftentimes, you are put into a shameful situation especially when you are not ready to face the crowd. Now, worry no more. Here are some of the few tips:

1. Be confident

Speak like nobody is around. Focus on the idea you are going to deliver. Accept the fact that no matter how good speaker you are still there are some listeners whom you can never please. Do not mind them. Instead consider it as a challenge to strive more for your future speaking engagements.

2. Be natural

As much as possible feel what your audience feel so that you can win their sympathy. Be positive. You don't need to be superman who can make promises of changing the situation in an instant. But what matters most is that there is a driving force that would make your audience to move.

3. Be direct to the point

Always consider the situation that your audience will easily get annoyed/bored with a very long speech yet they can get nothing from it. As much as possible make it simple, precise and to the point. A good speech therefore does not require a long period of time.

4. Sharpen the saw

As often quoted "constant practice makes ones work perfect". Indeed it is. So, I suggest do not face the crowd without even have an ounce of practice or else, you'll be in big trouble.

So, to become not just a good but effective speaker you need not just to ponder but apply these simple yet powerful tips.

Don't Wait! Grab Your Audience's Attention 'Right Off the Bat!'

2009-04-26T18:56:00.000-07:00

How quickly do you think your audience evaluates you when you begin your speech or presentation? Do you think it takes 5 minutes? Perhaps 10? Do you believe that your audience has the patience to wait until you finish to decide if they like you as a speaker?

The truth is that your audience will decide with your opening statement whether they want to listen to you or not. Thus, your opening statement is as important, if not more so, than everything that is to follow.

Often, we are so concerned with covering all the material possible in our presentation or speech that we forget or are even unaware of the value of our opening. If you want to be memorable in your audience's eyes, then you must grab their attention with your opening remarks. Remember, they are not sitting there saying to themselves, "Let's give this person 5 minutes to warm up!"

When I was still teaching Public Speaking at both the college and graduate school levels, I would fail any student who began his/her speech with the words, "Today, I am going to talk to you about..." Why?

1. As an audience, we know it is today! The word is redundant.

2. We know that it is you speaking and not someone else because we can see you standing there!

3. Explaining what you plan to talk about is the purpose of your speech or presentation. If you have an overhead slide with the name of your presentation on the title page, for example, they already know your subject. In most cases, however, those who have come to hear you speak have an idea about your topic anyway. That is why they are attending.

So instead of opening your delivery with the less than stellar words, "Today, I am going to talk to you about..." why not begin your delivery with a question, a joke (if it is relevant to your topic), an anecdote, a quote, or a brief story?

Questions are wonderful because they physically involve your audience: they must respond to you. Questions also give you a chance to breathe during the most difficult part of your presentation. (There is no doubt that breathlessness is a major problem for many presenters.)

Jokes are appropriate because they make your audience laugh, which relaxes them as well as you and makes them want to hear more. Their laughter also gives you a breather, again an important avenue in helping you control your nervousness.

Anecdotes, quotes, and brief stories are also valuable openers because your audience relates to them. Quotes bring recognition to your topic; and, everyone likes a good story or anecdote!

In all of these cases, you have set the stage for what is to follow. Your audience will want to hear more because you have already personalized yourself to them.

While your development is certainly the heart of your presentation or speech, your opening is the reason for your development. So the next time you are scheduled to speak, pay particular attention to your how you plan to begin your delivery, because once you capture your audience's attention, it will be much easier to keep them centered on you throughout the rest of your presentation or speech.

The Key to Success is in the Preparation

2009-04-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

While research has pretty well established that the majority of your communication impact comes from how you look and sound, it doesn't mean your verbal content isn't important. How you look and sound-or your delivery-determines how your message is received, perceived, interpreted and reacted to. If in fact your delivery is powerful and dynamic, then audiences will be hanging on your every word. So it makes sense to ensure that your content is understandable and easy to follow.

Be honest, have you ever experienced any of the following?

You have to prepare a speech and have no idea where to begin.
It all seems to flow as you're preparing, but you discover the talk is three times longer than the time you've been allotted.
Despite the fact that you make extensive notes, during the presentation you find yourself rambling or you draw a blank and can't seem to pick up the thread of your thoughts.
It takes you forever to prepare because you revise it over and over. Then when it's time to deliver it, you feel panicked and confused because you just can't keep straight what you wanted to say.
You write out every single word and end up reading the speech verbatim.

These dilemmas are all symptoms of poor preparation. Yet it's in the preparation that we're going to create content that's understandable and easy to follow.

For an audience to understand and connect with your message, it must:

have a clear purpose
relate to the audience
not run over the limit frame allotted

In order to fulfill these criteria and create an understandable message, follow this formula:

Get Everything Down PAT.

Purpose.
What do you want to accomplish? Are you providing information? Showing the solution to a problem? Proving a fact? Do you desire to create action, change behavior or influence opinion? You must be clear on what your objective is so that you can get the desired result from the audience.

Audience.
Who is your audience? What is their knowledge of, interest in and attitude toward the topic? Toward you? Are they more likely to be big picture- or bottom line- oriented? Or will they want to know all the detail? Failure to understand and relate to your audience can derail an otherwise great presentation. For example, if you were a gardening expert, can you imagine how self-defeating it would be if you gave the same presentation on gardening to a group of botanists, a sixth grade class, and some homeowners who wanted to learn how to start a garden? The audience will determine how you approach your topic, so invest time in gaining some insight into who will be sitting in that room listening to you.

Time limit.
How much time to you have? By far, the most common error I see in presentations is the speaker trying to cram in more information than time will allow. Honoring time limits is the mark of a well-prepared and respectful speaker. Think of all the times you've been in an audience-or on the agenda-when a speaker or series of speakers all went over their allotted time. Audiences get antsy and start to tune out. It throws off the agenda of an event where several presentations are scheduled. It leaves the impression that the speaker didn't care enough to plan ahead, that he doesn't respect the audience members' time. Keep in mind, though, that the shorter your talk needs to be, the more preparation time you'll need.

Once you know what you want to accomplish, who your audience is and how much time you have, this will drive your remarks and make it so much easier to prepare. Plus, it will ensure that your remarks relate to your audience and make it that much easier for them to understand.

Practise Make Perfect

2009-04-26T18:54:00.000-07:00

Giving speeches are tasks that we cannot pass through life without doing. Speeches are required in school. Speeches are required during birthday parties when you have to give out your personal message to your guests and speeches are assigned at the workplace. I am sure if you are a lot like most people, it would be a wish granted if you could skip giving speeches in your life.

If you are about to give a speech soon, take yourself out of your misery and do something about it. Read up on tips on how to have better public speaking skills. It is like driving, you just need to learn and practice. Pretty soon you will get the hang of it. Although, I am not saying that the butterflies in your stomach will go away. It will always be there especially before a presentation. I am just saying you will become better in giving speeches and generally in public speaking that there may even come a time when you will enjoy giving speeches even if you do not want to admit it.

There are times when we think we had it going and then we suddenly make a mistake. Never apologize for it. The truth is you are the only one who knows about your speech anyways, why apologize? If you apologized, that's when they take notice of your mistake. Plus, it will always help you to take a few minutes to relax before you give out your speech. Being nervous is normal, just channel to that energy to giving a great speech. Remember your audiences are human beings too and they are not out there to watch you make a fool of yourself. They are there to listen to what you have to say.

Boost Your Communication Skills

2009-04-26T18:53:00.000-07:00

Developing good communications skills is important, so that we convey our messages clearly and prevent any misunderstanding. When we have communication breakdowns at work, we spend time and energy trying to make amends. It is hard for anyone to admit that their unclear communication caused the breakdown, and thus apologize. It's wiser to make a conscious effort to prevent communication breakdowns instead.

One way to avoid conflicts at work is to communicate clearly and frequently with your colleagues on the following:

• what you are currently doing for the company

• what are some goals you are striving for at work, and even some of your personal ones that may affect work

• some of the difficulties you are facing with customers, management, colleagues etc (without sounding like you are whining and complaining)

With the increased use of e-mails and text messages, we may forget the value of face-to-face interactions. When we communicate with a person face-to-face, we can build trust and open-ness with our verbal and non-verbal cues. We can also sense and understand the other person's point of view and what they feel.

Use e-mails if you have specific requests or updates for a colleague, and the message can be read at their convenience. With e-mails, you can still sound cordial, instead of distance. Just a few more seconds of typing some niceties like "Have a great day!" can bring a feeling of goodwill to the reader.

At work today we tend to communicate more via e-mail and this has an impact on our interpersonal communication. For example, if you communicate your unhappiness or anger via email, pause a moment before you hit the 'Send' button! Cool down, review what you have written, and edit it so that it sounds more objective. Stick to the facts and avoid character attacks. Be objective and constructive. If you are criticizing something, offer a solution to improve the situation, if possible.

As you learn to communicate more effectively at work, you will be better able to achieve your goals, garner more support during setbacks, and feel much happier at work.

Communication is an art of conveying message to the other party. Imagine in the game of "Pass it on". One has to convey the hidden message that he received to another party without uttering a word. Similarly, an email message can only convey the content over but not the emotions.

A face-to face communication is crucial. In some books, there are some eye assessing cues that tell us the eye can indicate the truth being said by the party.

In fact, 55% of the communication is actually done through visual communication. 38% is done through vocal communication. The remaining 7% will be through verbal communication. This clearly indicates that the body language - a combination of visual & verbal gives a very high percentage while communicating with one another.

Why Speaking is a Good Idea?

2009-04-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

One way that you and your business can be seen as the expert in your niche, is to take advantage of public speaking opportunities. There are so many different venues and types of speaking engagements that there's sure to be one that fits you!

Speaking (in person) to groups can be a very powerful marketing strategy. Listed below are many of the benefits and results you can reap when you add speaking to your marketing plan:

1. Expand your visibility and increase your exposure

Get known locally, nationally, internationally - whichever one you're aiming for. Gain visibility amongst prospects, clients, your community, referral partners, peers, joint venture partners and affiliates - anyone really that you come in contact with in business.

2. Be seen as an expert

When you share your expertise and knowledge while speaking, you gain recognition as an expert in your specific field.

3. Give people a taste of what you offer

Speaking in front of people lets them hear first-hand what you do and how you can potentially help them. You can answer people's questions and leave them with a very clear picture of what you have to offer to them.

4. Build business and personal relationships

Speaking is another form of networking, as you can forge relationships before, during and after your talk. The people you meet at your talk can become your partners, referrers, customers, clients and friends. 5. Grow your list of prospects and clients

Let's face it, that's a big part of why a person would add speaking to their marketing repertoire - the chance to get in front of large groups of people - some of whom will become paying customers, then and/or later.

6. Open the door to bigger and more opportunities

As you get known as a speaker, other doors will open to you: you'll be asked to contribute to books, be interviewed by media, invited to speak at someone's event, be offered higher paid speaking gigs

7. Increase your skills

The more talks and presentations you write, prepare for and give, the better your professional skills get. You'll hone many skills that you can use in all facets of your business - not just speaking.

8. Leverage your time

You can better leverage your time by spending a few hours and connecting with a large number of people at once.

9. Build connection

A great presentation will move, inspire, motivate people and help them get to know, like and trust you. A face-to-face talk with a room full of people can establish instant rapport and help them feel they've built some kind of connection with you.

What is Charisma?

2009-04-26T18:50:00.000-07:00

Charisma:

What is is about great public speakers like Barack Obama that allows them to hold, interest, and arouse a crowd so well? There are probably multiple factors, some of which we don't fully understand yet, but 'charisma' is the label we give some of them. So what is charisma? One definition of charisma is 'A rare personal quality attributed to leaders who arouse fervent popular devotion and enthusiasm', but what does that really tell us?

Some people believe that charisma is an undefinable thing, an 'it' quality that you either have or don't. But others are convinced that charisma is actually something that can be broken down and understood, and maybe even replicated by someone who doesn't naturally have it. The logic is that all inspirational speaker, even Barack Obama, have at their disposal the same basic tools for communicating: tone of voice; cadence; the words themselves; eye contact; posture; dress, and so on.

Research appears to indicate that some factors are more important than others in being a charismatic inspirational speaker. For your consideration, here we present three of them:

#1. Message

Interestingly, it appears that in order for someone to be perceived as very charismatic, they need to first of all be communicating a message that is at least a little controversial. We don't tend to find people as charismatic when they simply reinforce the status quo, no matter how well the message is delivered.

#2. Posture and gestures

When speaking, a charismatic person will adopt an erect but relaxed posture, with their hands away from their face and their palms pointing either forwards towards their audience or up towards the sky. Their torso will face the audience directly, and not from an angle.

#3. Speech

Keynote motivational speaker will generally speak with an upbeat, positive tone,that slows for emphasis. Also very important is clear, simple language that invokes imagery. A charismatic person will speak fluently and articulately, with no unnecessary pauses, use of 'filler' words, or any other distracting speech habits.

The next time you watch a motivational speaker, pay attention to these things and see for yourself if they ring true. If so, you could try adopting them yourself the next time you are called on to give a speech or presentation.