When he arrived at class, there was a video camera and television set up in the room. Child after child went without any major incident and the teacher called on the boy as he was the last one to go.
The boy went to the front of the room and started to recite his book report and then stopped suddenly. He could not remember the report and the teacher asked, "didn't you do your book report?" He replied meekly with "Yes." The teacher then said "You need to finish your book report and it needs to be 2 minutes like I assigned."
He tried to start again and for the life of him could not remember what he had read. After what seemed like an eternity, he started to cry as the camera rolled on. After what seemed like an eternity and a half, the teacher graciously turned off the camera and excused the boy back to his desk.
The next words from the teacher were "Now we are going to watch each book report and judge how they did as a class." When the tape continued to his section, the boy could only hope that the teacher would put a stop to it. As the boy on the television began to give the book report and froze, the boy had that same sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach again.
Time passed and the video eventually ended, but the feeling did not. For the remainder of the school year, this continued and he never did get past his fears.
In order to be an effective presenter and public speaker, you should follow the following process to reduce any possible anxiety you may experience.
- Own the material
- Know your audience
- Plan, plan, plan
- Practice, practice, practice
The confidence you bring will help your audience believe your content. The best way to describe this is why should your audience believe what you are presenting if you do not believe it yourself. Prepare by coming up with questions and answers that would come up from a person that does not have the same background as you or questioning each of your assumptions. This can be done in your practice sessions before your actual presentations.
Who you are presenting to is critical to ensuring you are using the right language profile. This coupled with the size of your audience and the benefit/value that this presentation will provide are major success indicators. Choosing the right language profile will allow you connect and build rapport with your audience.
A little splash of planning will go a long way. Print outs, presentation deck, laser pointer, cue cards, and other aids are all great as long as they are ready before hand. Get these items together an hour or two before your engagement. Make sure you do not compete with lunch and that there is adequate seating for your audience.
Last, but not least, practice often and much. This will allow you to be comfortable in speaking without reading the content off the screen. Additionally, you will be able to get feedback on your content and the manner in which you present which will only improve over time.
As with everything you do, be realistic in what you can handle and practice in increasing your scope over time. If you try to do your first presentation to a room of 1000s, the result will likely not be to your liking.
What other tricks have you learned to make you a better public speaker?
thnx......indeed a nice write up....
ReplyDeletei wil try implememting it in my life....
Dipti
I'd reiterate the have confidence. That has always worked for me and taken me farther with my perceived authority and expertise than anything else.
ReplyDeleteI would add from my own observations - don't rely on presentation materials as a crutch and don't just read them. Presentation materials should be an aid to help emphasize the point at hand. If you merely are reading off of them to your audience, you might as well just let the audience read them for themselves. Plus, if you put too much on your slides or notecards, you'll be tempted to read them off yourself - make an outline. Focus on the key concepts you are trying to communicate. Do not write down every word. In some instances, a single word should be sufficient to "trigger" you into the topic and help keep you focused on the objective.
Presentation materials should be visual. Pictures, graphics, charts, big text. Easy to read and understand. Use bang boxes and call outs to emphasize key take-aways.
Make eye contact. Look around the room. Attempt to make a connection and read your audience. You may need to emphasize points or slow down based on what you see. It'll help you to ensure that you have engagement. Good questions from the audience are a nice indication that they are engaged.
Enunciate. Make sure that people can clearly hear you and understand. Use variable intonation in your speaking. Monotone is always boring.
Don't use "uhs." Very distracting. Slow down and pause, rather than "uh" between sentences.
An Old Friend.