As a manager you can not get away from the fact that sometimes you have to speak in public. The fear of public speaking is a very real concern for some managers when they asked for a demonstration for people they have never met or display in front of a large crowd. Sometimes it's even difficult to implement a sales meeting as all eyes are looking at you what you do.
Unfortunately, public speaking is part of a manager's life depending on where you work. But it does not have anything that you break out in a nervous sweat every time someone calls them like you give a demonstration for a few people.
You can ask first, what makes me someone who can give public speaking tips? Fair enough. Quite early in life at the high school level, I was involved in a lot of stage productions and usually I had a leading role. I had a religious upbringing and part of that was trained to speak in public. I have a lot of presentations, five minute discourses as well as twenty to thirty minute presentations to approximately 150 people, pretty much on a weekly basis.
I joined a band and we played a lot of weddings, receptions and parties, where I learned to use a microphone and how not to be afraid, but to use it to my advantage. The biggest audience I ever had was about 14,000 people once at a conference. I was nervous every time I had to do these things? Of course.Sometimes frightened.
Here are a few tips for you to help with your next public speaking engagement;
public speaking tips
1. The most important thing to remember is, always do your homework. You must understand what the topic is, what's important to you on the subject and more importantly, The fear of public speaking is not so much of getting in front of a more people. It is usually an imagined fear. By being prepared, you can minimize that.
2. Forget the old technique you heard perhaps even imagining your audience naked. That never worked for me. I tried that a few times, but if I was imagining the audience naked, there were a few in the audience that I fancied and thinking of them naked only gave me a standing ovation even before my speech was done. The whole idea of this technique is to think of your audience as normal everyday people. When a CEO is not wearing a suit, he's just like you and me. Sure, he may have a higher position than you, but in the end, he's just a man, no one really intimidated by if you're there on stage. He probably gets just as nervous as you when he speaks in public.
3. Control your breathing. If you're there, speak slowly, clearly and purposefully. Do not rush when you only slur your words and speak so fast that your audience will get lost and you will be able to get their response, One feeds on the other.
4. Be careful with humor. Jokes and funny stories in a presentation are great, All prepared in advance and if you are not sure about something, ask for someone's opinion. However, make sure that all your stories and jokes are important.
5. There is nothing more boring than sitting in an audience and the speaker is as monotone and impersonal as a computer generated voice. Believe me, I have literally fallen asleep on a plot of public speakers from the drone of their voice. Try and add highs and lows in your voice breaks as relevant to the point sink in and above all
6. Preparation is basically the key to becoming a great public speaker. You will probably always nervous before you 'go on'. All good public speakers. If you're not nervous beforehand, then you are either a very confident person or you're too cocky. The way to control nerves a few deep breaths before you move on and always in the back of your mind remind yourself to speak slowly, clearly and very precise. Once you are comfortable in talking to people, all these things shall be automatically and you will be yourself.
The more you talk to people, the better you'll get. Try and control your nerves, be prepared and make sure everything jokes or stories you have, be relevant to the topic. that way, you have the audience eating out of your hand.
