Public Speaking - Making it look easy (2)

In my last post I shared some ideas about how to prepare your mind and your material for public speaking, but when you actually get in front of the audience/congregation how will you go?  Speakers often find themselves embattled with thoughts like: 

• Will I fall apart with nerves? 
• Will I present as professional and competent, or bumbling and silly? 
• Will you be boring?

 Controlling nervousness

Understand that even the most accomplished of speakers have a degree of nervousness before speaking.  And it is important that they do; it provides the level of alertness and focus for a good delivery.  But the speaker must be in control of the jitters, and not the jitters in control of the speaker. 

There are myriad techniques that speakers use to control nerves, but they all come down to two basic principles; relaxation and cognitive restructuring. 

My personal approach is to pray for peace, do a quick relaxation exercise, take comfort in the fact that I have done all the preparation that is reasonable (Note the word “reasonable”.  There is no place for perfectionism in this!), and that if I mess up probably the most damage will be to my ego and not much else. (In fact some of my worst speaking experiences have resulted in the best responses.)

What are your non-verbals saying?

As you move to the rostrum all eyes will be on you, but don't be intimidated by that.  Step up confidently (even if you don’t feel it).  Smile and greet the person who introduced you.  Shake his hand and thank him if it is appropriate.  Don’t allow yourself to feel rushed arranging your notes.  Take your time. What seems like an eternity to you will be only seconds in reality.  When you are ready, look up, smile warmly and greet the audience. 

For the rest of the address, have a portion of your mind checking in on your non-verbals from time to time.  Here are some of the traps that it is easy to fall into:

• Rushing through the material (which usually affects diction and proper explanation),
• Looking down at the lectern and not up at the audience,
• Focusing on one or two friendly faces in the audiences (intimidated for the one or two, excluding for the rest),
• Fidgeting and fiddling,
• Moving about too much (can be very distracting, even disconcerting, especially to the people in the front row),
• Not moving about enough (can make you seem uninterested in your subject),
• Reading from full notes (can be done, but it is quite a skill to make it convincing),
• Being under-dressed (as a general rule dress a tiny degree smarter than audience),
• Being over-dressed (if you’re too formal a more informal audience will struggle to relate to you, especially in Australia and UK). 

Timing is everything

One of the worst ways to get your audience offside is to run overtime.  If you are not confident about timing develop a "Plan B" in case timing gets away from you.  One technique is to go through your notes highlighting those things that can be omitted.

Are you communicating or just talking?

Your audience will tell you if they are with you or not.  Watch their non-verbals.  By this means you will be able adjust your style and content.  If you suspect that you have lost them here are a few techniques you can try:  

• If it’s an interactive kind of event ask a question or two, 
• If it’s not, mix up your tone or non-verbals, perhaps move around the platform a bit,
• At a push you could stand in silence for a few seconds whilst looking around the audience, but you need a good reason ready; “In that five seconds about 28 people around the world died – and 4 of them died in poverty.”  

Closing

With speaking, as with many other things in life, the principle of “primacy and immediacy” applies.  That is, we tend to remember the first and the closest of something, and forget much of what came in the middle.  (Remember your first kiss?  Remember your last one?  Remember all the kisses in between? Point taken?)

Finishing strongly means wrapping up by reinforcing your main points and calling the audience to action. AS with the start, strong non-verbals, confident, warm and engaging, are the key.  You can use: 

• A moving story,
• A list of questions that challenge the audience,
• A simple expression of thanks for their attention and ask that they seriously consider your comments. 

You've got to be joking

Good use of humour is something that can make your presentation buzz, so in my next post I am going to share some ideas to make it work well for you and help you get round some of the pitfalls.