Tag Archives: talk

What You Should Know About Giving Great Presentations at Work – Part IV: Calm Your Nerves & Build Your Confidence

Calming nervousness before a speech
Photo by Ken Keirns

You may be wondering, “What’s up with the image for this blog post? Star Wars lover he must be.” Nope, that’s not it. Nancy Duarte, a marketing and communications expert and owner of the Silicon Valley design firm Duarte, Inc., reminds us to “Be Yoda” when we are speaking. You’re the one that’s imparting wisdom and knowledge to “Luke,” or in this case, your audience, to help them perform, react, or live better. You’re helping them take away nuggets of valuable knowledge and put them to use. As you share what you’ve prepared, model for the audience how you want them to feel…excited, concerned, proactive, etc.

Kayla Barrett’s (President/CEO of Organization Impact) mantra is short and to the point: “Prepare, Practice, Present!” This pretty much sums up everything I’ve covered in this series. But what else can you do to calm your nerves and boost your confidence as the time draws near to deliver your wonderful speech? 

As we touched on a few weeks ago, remember to imagine success! Never undertake anything you want to accomplish thinking about defeat. Have the attitude of “It’s easily in my power to deliver a compelling, persuasive, effective talk. I will succeed!” Believe this firmly, then do what’s necessary to bring about success.

Have you ever heard the expression, “Fake it till you make it”? Well, when you’re developing your presentation prowess, it’s definitely the time for this approach. Usually the best way to start feeling courage or confidence when you don’t have it is to act like you do until it is part of you. Also, the more presentations you do, the more the fear of the unknown will dissipate. You’ll know how to give a great speech, what works and what doesn’t, and will feel like more of an expert. This will lend to your confidence as well.

What do self-confidence and the ability to talk more effectively mean to you? Ponder what you feel is the answer to that question for you as you near the date of your presentation.

Remember that you are more qualified than any member of the audience to give this talk, and that you’re going to do your best to get the ideas across. You have EARNED the right to speak from experience and study. And you’ve put a lot of time into preparing this talk.

Before you go up to begin, keep your attention off yourself. I’ve never thought of this…it’s so simple but makes such sense. Swimming in your own pool of anxiety is not going to help you give a great presentation. Get your focus off yourself, and remember you are there to help your listeners. Visualize them as eager to hear what you have to say.

For some, a pretend state of mind can help. Expert speaker and creator of the famous course on public speaking Dale Carnegie recommends this: Imagine that everyone in attendance is there to petition you for an extension of credit.

Finally, know that once your speech is underway and you’re at ease with the audience, you’re not likely to hold yourself back when it comes to the normal, everyday expression of your opinions. From this point on it will be easier to express your ideas and talk naturally with the group—like you’re presenting to a bunch of folks you know and are comfortable being around.

I hope this series has been helpful to all of you who have speeches as part of your work. What have you done that’s helped ease tension before a presentation?

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What You Should Know About Giving Great Presentations at Work – Part III: Delivery

Delivering a great speech
Photo by The Parkie

In this section of my series on effective speaking, I’ll cover what you should know about giving your presentation. 

  • Never apologize for your newness as a speaker or mention that you’re nervous. You’ve researched, prepared, practiced and have every right to be speaking on this topic.
  • Show respect and (genuine) affection for the audience. Empty compliments or uniformed comments will not endear an audience.
  • Be excited about speaking and your topic. Speak with vitality, aliveness, and enthusiasm. If you believe a thing earnestly enough and say it sincerely enough, you’ll gain adherents to your cause.
  • Talk just as directly as you would in a one-on-one chat with someone but with greater energy. This is necessary when talking to a large group. Speak naturally but with force.
  • Be relaxed, confident, and engaging in your delivery—like you have chosen one person in the audience to talk to, imagining she has asked you a question.
  • Talk with your audience, not at them.
  • Use “you” rather than “they” as you present.
  • As we discussed in the last post, engaging the audience is always good and holds attention. If you know ahead of time that the audience will be small enough, you can prepare questions, ask them, and have them raise their hands and verbally answer. Start these questions about a quarter of the way in (when they’re comfortable with you and you’ve won them over!)
  • You want listeners to:
    – Feel what you feel
    – Enjoy and re-live the experiences you choose to share
    – Agree with your point of view
    – Do what you think is right for them to do

What has been effective for you in the way you deliver a speech? Has anything caused applause during or after your talk?

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What You Should Know About Giving Great Presentations at Work – Part II: Developing Your Ideas

Developing ideas for a speech
Photo by Moniellain

In this section of my series on effective speaking, I’ll cover what you should know about developing the ideas you’re including in your talk.

  • Sincerity, genuineness, and building out the topic you’ve chosen – Ask yourself, “What am I trying to prove? Why do I believe this? When did I ever see this point exemplified in real life? Exactly how did it happen?”
  • The structure – The best structure for your outline is: Open by getting your audience’s attention by giving a relevant example or telling a story. Avoid the “funny story” opening (stories that are funny but unrelated to your topic or first point). State the point of your talk (“I’m going to show you how to ___”), and tell the audience what you want them to do and why by highlighting the advantage or benefit of doing so…explaining how they can get what they came for by doing what you suggest.
  • The comparison technique – As you make your main points, one approach is to compare what is with what could be; have them imagine. “The current status quo is ___” contrasted against the goal you’re proposing. In closing, end with a call to action reiterating a rosy ending and the bliss that can result by following your advice.
  • Enumerate points – Number your points as you make them so listeners can generally keep pace with your talk and keep up with the overall points you make.
  • Details – Don’t get bogged down in details. Too much detail is worse than none.
  • Complex concepts – When presenting complex ideas, explain them in such a way that a child could understand. Do feel free to use industry key words or jargon, but just be sure to stop and explain each term when it’s used.
  • Visuals/object lessons – Visuals or can help make for a great speech since the mind exponentially remembers object lessons/visuals far better than explanations alone. Keep in mind that a long succession of charts will bore an audience.
  • Numbers and stats – These should ideally be compared to something that can help illustrate the point (for instance size or volume, “The amount of surface one kudzu plant can cover in a month is equivalent to two football fields.”)
  • Positive or negative – When pondering whether to state a point in a negative or positive light, decide by looking at it from the listener’s point of view. Not all negatively phrased points are effective.
  • Rhetorical questions – After a persuasive section, you can ask something like, “Do you want to help underprivileged children in Tulsa have gifts under the tree this Christmas?” Or “Would you like to nail that interview and be called back with a job offer?” This tactic holds the audience’s attention and keeps them engaged.
  • Effective endings – For a talk to go over well, it must have a great ending. Summarize at the end reiterating your main points. For example, “In summation, what we need is…” The final words you speak, the ones left ringing in the ears of the listeners, are likely to be remembered the longest. As stated earlier, in your ending, ask for action…for each listener to do something specific—but it must be something reasonable and within their power. And make it as easy as you can for them to do: for example by giving specific contact information so that they may contact someone in charge.
  • Practice – Go over your talk as often as possible. But know that it will flow more naturally to a real audience than when just speaking it to an empty room.

We’ll talk more about the delivery of your glowing presentation in the next post. Do you have any other suggestions on effectively developing ideas for a presentation?

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