A Short Guide to Effective Public Speaking

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 1500 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.

There may be many things you can do on the job by yourself, but communicating is not one of them. To communicate it takes at least two people. And one of you has to be willing to listen! Problem is, listening is tough work! We only retain about 20% of what we hear. Want to know how to listen better? Here are several suggestions:
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Mentally tune in to the speaker. Consider the speaker's background. Be aware of the speaker's job-related concerns, including pressures and deadlines, and length of time on the job. Be aware of social and ethnic overtones. Don't inject your own experiences when interpreting the conversation. Avoid jumping to conclusions about what the speaker is saying. Take an active part in the communication. Mentally visualize what the speaker is saying. Make it a habit to count slowly to three before responding to the other person. Get into the "listening position" by leaning slightly forward, making eye contact with the speaker, and nodding your head to show you are receiving the message.

Give the speaker your full attention. You may be able to do something else while you listen, but how do you think that makes the speaker feel?

If you learn to listen better, you'll communicate more effectively

HOW TO LISTEN EFFECTIVELY? 1.A good listener has to exercise mental discipline over himself. Only if you concentrate properly can you be a good listener. 2.If you are attending a meeting, talk or lecture see to it that you arrive early so that you can settle yourself physically and compose yourself mentally before the speeches start. 3.Do not allow yourself to be distracted by noises or other things like a pretty girl or handsome boy entering the room or the perfume of your neighbor. Do not distract the speaker yourself. 4.Find an area of interest and listen for ideas. 5.Avoid thinking too much about a point that has just been made by the speaker as this will prevent you from paying attention to the next. You can take notes and think about the matter later. Try to understand first, evaluate later. 6.Keep on open mind and be patient. 7.if you find that an informal talk or discussion has been going on for a very long time then do not hesitate to suggest a break so that the participants may refresh themselves and be able to concentrate better after the break. 8.Avoid listening to several people at the same time. If your telephone rings in the middle of an important conversation do not interrupt the conversation but request the telephoning party to ring you up later. 9.Show interest in the person who is talking to you by looking at him and by either nodding your head or by short encouraging A friendly and patient attitude helps you to get a real insight into the thoughts and feelings of the speaker. You could also restate the speakers feelings briefly. 10.Do not contradict openly with words like I think you are wrong as this discourages the speaker or forces him to use false insincere arguments. 11.Listen to the feelings of the speaker and not only to his words. 12.Make sure that there are no emotional barriers on your own side which prevent you from listening attentively. Do not interrupt, unless it is absolutely necessary. Do not be in a hurry to talk

How to Engage Your Audience

Todays article is by request of reader who asked, How do I make my presentations more interactive? How do I involve and engage the audience? Its interesting to me that this relatively new question is coming up more and more frequently. With the interactive social media gaining popularity and momentum, audiences, particularly younger and more technical audiences, are demanding more and more interactivity. No longer will they accept speakers talking AT them; they want to be part of the conversation. So today Ill talk about a few ways to add more interactivity to your presentations.

How to Make Presentations More Interactive

My first tip may seem really obvious, but it turns out it makes a big difference. If you want your audience to interact with you, you need to tell them that. I usually put up a slide that says, Please, interrupt me! (Really!) Then I usually say something about how much more interesting a presentation is when the audience actively participates and asks the questions they want to know. When I forget to say that, there is always less interaction. I also recently added another beginning slide that has an image of a mobile device and it says, Text or tweet your notes! Ask and answer questions, please! I also include a Twitter ID and hashtag for the session. Next, I put up a slide that reminds the audience to tweet respectfully (see my last episode for more on presentweeting).

Set the Ground Rules for the Presentation

In addition to asking people to interact with you right off the bat, its also a good idea to set some ground rules, particularly if youre encouraging people to tweet during your presentation. My rules are along the same lines as Jeff Hurts Conference Organizer, Presenter and Attendee (COPA) Agreement or The Four Freedoms card created by Adrian Segar. The bottom line is that the rules for presentations are changing and at least for now, its important to be sure everyone is on the same page by explaining how youd like for the audience to interact and engage.

Engage the Audience with Activities and Questions

Aside from having audience members ask questions and tweet during a presentation, you can also engage the audience by including a physical activity. Keep in mind that physical activities take a bit of time, so you need to weigh the benefits of the interactivity with the amount of time it will take to complete the activity. One option is to ask everyone to stand up. Then begin asking questions designed to get people to sit down. Sit down if you have less than one year of experience. Sit down if you have less than five years experience. That is a very simple way to poll the audience without the use of technology. Just be sure that whatever you ask is relevant and adds value to the overall discussion. In fact it is important to plan, prepare, and test all questions and activities ahead of time to be sure you understand the possible responses and are sure these responses genuinely add to the learning process. Many people go wrong here. They ask a trite question that doesnt advance the topic or add any value or sometimes they get an unexpected answer and dont know how to move on with the program.

Ask Participants to Group Themselves

Another way to get your audience to physically move around is to ask them to group themselves in different parts of the room. For example, when I do a program relating to communication styles, I describe four different styles then I ask the participants to go to the corner of the room that best describes their style. You can also set up a scale or continuum (from strongly disagree to strongly agree) using chairs. Then as you ask questions, have participants line up near their chosen response chair. If you do this, its important to get people to move quickly but safely and to clearly mark the chairs so there is no confusion.

Ask For Examples and Explanations

A good wrap up-activity is to ask participants to share one or two things they found useful or what they might do differently as a result of hearing the talk.
If you dont have time for physical activity, youll want to at least engage your audience by asking them questions. For example, in one of my public speaking presentations I ask the audience How do you do overcome nervousness? As participants share different approaches, I use each response as an opportunity to talk about the research related to the approach they mention. I have all the approaches listed in my notes and mentally check them off as I get responses from the audience.

Typically when I use this approach, I prepare a summary slide ahead of time of the possible responses. Once the audience has enumerated most or all the items on my list and weve discussed them, I then put the summary slide up as a review. Questions like the one I just mentioned about overcoming nervousness are excellent ways to generate audience interaction. I use this technique frequently. Besides, when the summary slides go up, youll look like a mind reader!

Ask Questions Using the Backchannel

Another way to get audience participation is to embed the questions you want to ask within your presentation so theyre automatically tweeted out to the backchannel as you are presenting. I mentioned in last weeks article that this can not only engage those in the room, but can also create interaction with a broader audience beyond those in-person attendees
Here are nine reasons why people don't listen to a speech. 1. Message overload. If you are at a seminar and spend most of the day listening, you simply have too much information in your brain to retain all of it. Most presenters make the mistake - myself included - of putting too much content into their speeches. 2. Preoccupation. Many in the audience are thinking about other issues - when is my pay due, what will I do on the weekend, I must finish that pressing business proposal etc. 3. Rapid thinking. How often have you sat in the audience and your mind races ahead? We think at about 600 words per minute. On average, people talk at about 140 words per minute. 4. Effort. Active listening is just plain hard work. When you're actively listening, your respiration rate goes up and your heart starts to beat faster. Remember people can't keep it up for long - so give them a break. Use some humour and audience interaction.

5. External noise. This could be noise from another room you hear or visual noise. Take for example distracting gestures or appearance which can distract the listeners attention. 6. Hearing problems. Fifty per cent of people have hearing problems. One of the things I learnt from working with the Better Hearing Association is to start a speech with "can everyone hear me clearly". 7. Faulty assumptions. The audience assumes you said something you didn't. 8. Lack of apparent advantage. The listener does not recognise the benefits. Always highlight the benefits for the audience. 9. Lack of training.