This article will help you become more confident when speaking in public. The article is based on Brian Tracy’s work “Performing with Confidence in Any Situation.”
Simple ways to interest your audience when speaking publicly.
First impression. Many of you have probably heard motivational phrases about the importance of making a positive first impression. After all, no matter how obvious it may sound, you can only make a first impression once. There is a well-known expression on this topic: “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
It is important to remember that the moment you go out in front of the public is fifty percent of a successful speech. You need to look and act in such a way that people will want to listen to you for a certain amount of time, even if your seminar lasts more than a few hours.
At one time, the great ancient Greek philosopher Plato argued that the beginning is the most important part of any work, especially for a young and immature person: at this time the character is just being formed, and the desired impression will be perceived more favorably.”
Basic Rules of Public Speaking
Follow the rules of decency
This doesn’t just apply to dirty jokes, which you should absolutely forget about during the performance.
- Don't be late.
Punctuality shows the seriousness of your intentions and generally presents you as a responsible person. - Do not interrupt
jury members when they ask questions, or team members (if we are talking about a case championship, for example). - Try not to impose your opinion too much
, especially don’t do it rudely and aggressively. - Thank
your team members, judges, interviewers, or anyone else you interact with during your presentation. - Pay attention to your appearance.
Under no circumstances come in a dirty suit, wrinkled shirt or unwashed hair. Although neatness says little about your intellectual abilities, it will help you win over your audience.
Prepare diligently
There is nothing worse for a speaker than ignorance about the format of the meeting, its objectives or, for example, the customer’s business.
- Understand your goals.
Understand what is expected of you: a short pitch of a new idea or a detailed report. Determine the criteria for success of your speech. - Find out where the meeting will be held and what equipment the room is equipped with.
Otherwise, imagine: you have prepared a presentation, but there is no projector or even a computer in the room. - Know your audience.
Find out how many people will listen to you and estimate how friendly they will be to you. Is this a “cold” audience you are communicating with for the first time? Or is this an old client who comes back to you regularly? Consider this information when preparing your presentation.
Check all your materials
- Proofread the presentation and handouts.
If you are not sure that you will find all the errors and typos, give the text to a proofreader. - Make sure to collect a complete package of documents
if they are needed at the meeting. Approve everything you need in advance, put stamps and signatures. - Before leaving, make sure you took the documents for the right project
, otherwise it will be awkward.
Set a backup target
Let's imagine that you are speaking to people for a charity program and you realize that your speech is not a success. In such a situation, people, as a rule, either begin to try too hard to still like the performance, or simply give up.
If your goal was to connect with your audience and you realize that this was not possible, try changing your goal. If you didn't achieve your original goal, think about what else you can get out of speaking.
Having a backup goal will help you stay positive and focused until the end of your speech.
Your audience
When speaking in front of an audience, especially in a case presentation format, you will most often encounter four types of people. They can be conditionally called mathematicians, ideological, visual and perfectionists. There is another type that is difficult to call the fifth, so let it be the fourth and a half - these are poker-face people, they are difficult to “read”. You'll never understand what they want anyway, so just ignore them.
Mathematicians
They are the majority. They clearly calculate your performance based on points. They like presentations that are full of facts and have concrete conclusions. They are rational, organized, but can be too meticulous and can easily get carried away by some minor details, forgetting about the main topic. Such people avoid confrontation, therefore, despite their meticulousness, they are unlikely to argue with the statements of other jury members.
Ideological
People of this type usually don’t pay attention to points: they just want to have a good time and get in a great mood. It is important for them to see your communication with the team, so your presentation should be the embodiment of this communication, its result. Ideological ones are usually open to discussions and are ready to listen to any opinions, acting as a moderator. Like mathematicians, they will not enter into confrontation and can often sacrifice their opinion in favor of others.
Visuals
For this group, the main thing is that everything is beautiful - from the presentation to the performance itself. It is important for such people to show the value of the material being presented. Don't be lazy and add a slide with general trends in your industry, use the division into special topics within the presentation. Visuals are more emotional than their colleagues, and no confrontation scares them.
Perfectionists
They are the ones to be most feared. It is these people who can overwhelm you if you make a mistake or demonstrate incompetence in any matter. At the end of the presentation, they want to see your action plan and how you arrived at it. They pay a lot of attention to issues of efficiency, especially financial. Perfectionists are independent, very stubborn and can be quite confrontational. Practice shows that such people are in the minority, but still be careful.
How to determine your personality type
A logical question arises: how to understand who is who? First, if possible, try to find out in advance who will be attending your talk. Often, personality type can be predicted by the position a person occupies. Thus, top managers are usually classified as ideological, consultants and permanent jury members are most often mathematicians, there are many visual people among FMCG managers, and perfectionists include technicians and people with extensive experience in the industry. If there is no way to know the jury in advance, personality types will become more or less obvious as you go through the first 2-3 slides of your presentation.
However, this typology, like any similar one, has limitations. People always combine several personality types, of which one predominates. In stressful situations, people tend to move to the far ends of the spectrum: thus, a mathematician can easily become picky, like a perfectionist. Therefore, structure your presentation focusing on the visual, while leaving in the application several detailed slides dedicated to analytics itself, which will help answer the mathematician’s questions.
It is important to remember that each person has an area of expertise. This could relate to his immediate specialty, a project he has recently worked on, or his interests. Let's call these "hot spots". You need to know them. Research the experts' interests, their reputations, the topics they often speak on, and remember to listen to them carefully. “Hot Spot” will help you attract an expert to your side, for example, if your opinions coincide. But they can also become an obstacle to a successful performance if, say, they shift the focus from the main task.
Create two backup plans
Typically, the biggest source of anxiety is the “What if?” question. What if your presentation fails, someone keeps interrupting you, or no one likes your ideas?
Take your two biggest fears and create a backup plan. What will you do if the projector breaks? What will you do if the meeting goes on too long and you only have a couple of minutes left to speak?
Even if your fears don't come true, having a backup plan will help you perform better. The better you think through all aspects of your presentation, the faster you will be able to figure it out if something unexpected actually happens.
Preparing for the performance
Storytelling
If everything is clear with the types of audience, it is not yet entirely clear how to compose your speech. It has been proven that public speaking in the form of a story or story is perceived better and imprinted in the mind.
What is history? When deconstructed, it is just a clear structure. Every story has a beginning, a climax and a denouement. Start with a short introduction, tell us about yourself, convince the audience that you are competent in the issue you have taken on. Show the essence of the problem, formulate it correctly. The solution to a problem is a story within a story, tell it using a regular structure. The culmination of your story should be an idea, that is, the actual proposal for solving the problem.
The most important thing is to know your material! Don’t try to jump over your head, talk only about what you really understand. This will increase the level of trust of the audience and just help you relax. After all, why be afraid if you know everything? In addition, a good understanding of the topic will help when answering questions from listeners.
Speech and posture
As all good speakers know, a successful presentation begins before you even enter the room. Plan your speech in advance. People like well-produced speech at a moderate pace without filler words and annoying sounds like “uh-uh” and “mm-mm.” If you have problems with this, try rehearsing in front of a mirror, watch your gestures, don’t wave your hands too much, but don’t keep them in your pockets. Stand in a position that is comfortable for you, but not too familiar. You should never cross your legs and arms. Ideally, it is better to film yourself so you can watch and analyze the shortcomings later. It is important that the verbal (what you say) and nonverbal (your gestures, posture and intonation) parts of your speech are balanced. So it's even better to give this video to two other people. If they understand everything in the same way and the style of your presentation does not cause rejection, then everything is in order. Moreover, rehearsal is a good way to find out if you are on time.
Improvisation is very beneficial during public speaking. But don't overestimate yourself. As we know, the best improvisation is a well-prepared improvisation. Some things should just look like you didn't think about them and said them right away. If this skill is not given to you, it is better to prepare thoroughly.
Share an emotional story
Many speakers tell real-life stories, but this does not always bring obvious benefits. If the story of your failure is told only to show how far the storyteller has come, it will not resonate with the audience.
It's another thing to tell a story that makes you emotional. If you were sad, show it. If you shouted, tell the story in a raised voice. If you felt remorse, let it come out.
When you show genuine emotion, there is an immediate and lasting connection with your audience. Emotions make your performance heartfelt, impressive and memorable.
To avoid forgetting anything during a speech, you can use a number of tricks:
- Read a prepared text. This is a bad option, but if you can’t control your nerves at all, you can do it this way.
- Look at the cards. It is quite normal practice to use cards with short abstracts for each part of the presentation. This way you won't stand there staring at the text, but will always know what to say next.
- Learn everything by heart. An option for those who have a lot of free time.
- The most effective way is to use clear visual images on handouts to help you remember what to talk about.
Replace superstitions with healthy habits
Superstitions are invented to give you a sense of control over your fears. “Lucky” socks will not help you run better in races. By putting on a “lucky” thing, you are trying to magically influence future events over which you have no control and which inspire fear.
Instead of creating superstitions, engage in activities that will help you calm down. Walk around the room you will be speaking in and find the best vantage points. Check your microphone. Go over your presentation to double-check that you are ready to speak.
Pick a few really useful actions and get into the habit of doing them before every performance. Familiar activities will help you gain confidence in your abilities.
How to make the right impression
To properly think through your public speaking strategy, you need to understand how public attention changes over time.
As you know, people listen most attentively at the beginning of a speech, so it’s better to say all the most important things in the first minutes. Try to please people from the very beginning - then it will be difficult to convey information to listeners effectively.
Closer to the equator, the public's attention dissipates. To maintain interest, it’s worth regularly shaking things up: ask questions, tell a story, such as a real case or real-life incident, actively use visual materials (presentation, flipchart or whiteboard).
The audience's attention will automatically increase towards the end of the speech, and if you say in advance that you are finishing, everyone will become more active even faster. Briefly summarize your presentation, recap the key takeaways, and end your presentation on a positive note.
If you want to leave a good impression of yourself, pay attention to how you communicate with your audience. Address the judges exclusively by your first name or patronymic name; it is also acceptable to address them as “colleagues”. Watch your speech rate, timbre, intonation and body movements. Most often, such nonverbal signals are perceived by people much better than words. Remember to make eye contact, but don't stare at one person - maintain contact with all members of the jury. Keep your back straight, chest out, and stand centered on the stage or directly in front of those you are presenting to. To get rid of anxiety, you can, for example, arrive at the performance site in advance, stand a little behind the podium or where you will be giving the presentation. You can sit for a while in the auditorium or in the jury place. Once the presentation has already begun, there is no point in telling your audience about your excitement, it looks rather pathetic.
Introduce yourself to the audience
If someone introduces you to the audience before your talk, their words will have a huge impact on whether the audience is interested in you. This person's job is to create some strong expectations from the audience about your speech. The public should be in anticipation that right now they will receive from you the most relevant and interesting information that they would not hear from anyone else. Therefore, you should plan your presentation in front of the audience in advance.
How should an official announce you to get the public interested?
- First of all, it describes all your skills, awards, abilities and achievements
- He then introduces the topic of your speech or presentation
- And lastly, announces your first and last name
An example of a good presentation to the public: “Our guest today is a speaker of forty-six languages of the world, ten of which are rare languages. Today he will tell us about his success story and demonstrate how to learn three world languages in two months, without the help of teachers and expensive textbooks. Please give a warm welcome to Mr. George Brown."
This is the most profitable presentation. It will allow the audience to trust the speaker and look forward to him before he takes the stage.
Simple ways to interest your audience when speaking publicly. Walk and move with confidence.
How to perform with a team
In the context of case championships, the issue of performing in teams is relevant. In fact, all of the previous comments can be applied to team performance. With a couple of exceptions.
The main mistake that almost all teams make is separate rehearsals. Remember: if you are not performing alone, then it is better to run through the performance together. Discuss in advance who speaks what, how much and when to avoid awkward pauses and confusion during the presentation. The best option is when everyone speaks, but everyone has their own section of text and a different amount of time.
In any team there are people who speak better than others; it is better to entrust the most important moments to them. Of course, everyone can talk for an equal amount of time, but in this situation, less eloquent team members can drag the rest down with them.
As a last resort, you can choose one representative from the team and entrust him with the entire presentation. With this option, there is a risk of creating the impression that it was he who was carrying the case while the others were having fun somewhere. You understand that no points are given for lack of teamwork at case championships.
Repeat key points
Structure your speech so that you can repeat key points from time to time. First explain the point, then give examples of how you can apply this information in your life, and end with a description of specific actions in accordance with what was told.
Since no one can remember absolutely everything you said, the more you repeat key points, the greater the chance that they will stick in your listeners' memory and be used in life.
How to answer questions
The final stage of almost every public speech is answering questions from the audience or jury. As mentioned earlier, if you have excellent command of the topic, they will not take you by surprise. Another thing is that sometimes questions can be unpleasant and even tricky. What should a speaker do in such a situation?
First rule: always remain calm and polite. If you need time to collect your thoughts and give a decent answer, ask your opponent to repeat the question. This will gain you a few seconds.
Don't forget that even in the most unpleasant situations, your answer should be 100% to the point. Do not indulge in lengthy discussions that lead away from the essence of the issue. Keep your answers short and to the point. Support your ideas with examples and, if possible, excerpts from the speech.
And of course, always thank you for your questions. This is a chance for you to expand on the topic, show the depth of your knowledge and work out the audience’s objections. This means that no matter how tricky the question may be, it will play into your hands.
Burn some cortisol
When you're anxious, your adrenal glands produce cortisol. This hormone limits your creativity and ability to work with complex information.
When you're under attack from cortisol, it's nearly impossible to read or respond to what's going on with your audience.
An easy way to reduce cortisol is to exercise. Exercise outside before heading to work, take a walk during your lunch break, or hit the gym shortly before a performance.
Rhythm and stress
A common way is to use repeated constructions in several phrases so that they are built the same way. Winston Churchill's famous "We Shall Fight" speech is a great example. Here is a quote from it: “We will fight on the beaches, we will fight on the airfields, we will fight in the fields and in the streets, we will fight on the hillsides, we will never surrender.”
By listing various ideas but beginning each part of the sentence with the words “we will fight,” Churchill created a rhythm that was felt by listeners as building tension. The climax and release of tension is achieved through a change in concept, at the moment when he says “We will never give up.”
Use rhythm to emphasize one or two important sentences, nothing more. Listeners will feel the effect without even noticing the intended effect.
Development of oratory: the basics of the skill of creating speeches that change the situation in the team
- Decide what goal you want to achieve with your speech: communicate something or force the audience to change their point of view, to do what you want. These goals can be synthesized, but you must think in advance what kind of reaction you want to achieve and choose techniques based on this.
- Evaluate the listeners: how educated they are, in which area, humanitarian or technical, they are better, what interests they have. Gender and age are important. The youth audience is sensitive to flattery, negatively perceives hints of their incompetence, and they are disgusted by flirting and lisp. Be prepared to discuss sensitive issues and painful topics. Listeners with a high level of scientific training do not perceive well speakers who cannot offer them anything new: innovative technologies, fresh views and approaches to solving a problem. It's always easier to talk to a homogeneous audience: students, doctors, liberals. It will be easier for you to predict their reaction. If the audience is diverse, address specific parts of the speech to specific groups. Decide in advance what you will say to certain important people.
- Find out how many people will come to listen to you. The more, the easier it will be to manage the emotional background: the crowd divides statements into black and white, is prone to depersonalization, and is inert. You should speak simply, figuratively, and use visual aids. If you are speaking to a narrow circle of people, preliminary preparation is important: think about how each listener will react to your speeches, prepare “targeted fragments” designed for specific people.
- Use the knowledge of proxemics - the science of the temporal and spatial organization of communication. If you sit at a common table, as at conferences, you should respect the chain of command and speak in formal language. Be prepared for confrontation and opposition of opinions. Classroom placement separates the speaker from the audience, makes feedback difficult, and involves a large number of participants. The horseshoe placement gives good control and visual contact.
- Find out who you will be speaking after. For your speech to have the desired effect, it must be more interesting and imaginative than the previous one.
Effective Persuasion Techniques
- mention of authorities and references to them;
- figurative comparisons from an area well known to listeners: among film critics - from films, among doctors - from medical practice.
- poll – ask listeners to share their opinions;
- conditional consent - admit that your partner is partially right and gradually win him over to your side;
- paraphrasing - say the same thing, but in a softer form;
- Accepting a comment is acceptable if it does not significantly affect the further development of the conversation.
We told you why the head of a company needs oratory skills, and gave examples of effective exercises and methods that will help your speech turn into a work of art. But this is only a small part of what a real speaker should know. If you want to be quoted after every public speech, contact practical business coach Vladimir Khmelev. You will receive theoretical information and learn how to competently apply it in practice, learn the intricacies of communication with your team, business partners and competitors.
