Public Speaking Part 2

Public Speaking Part 2

Rayapeddi Vivekanand

More importantly you should have a STRONG DESIRE to make the presentation successful,

People listen to you, if they feel it is

Worth spending their time with you

Guess, what a leader should possess, more than anything else?

Can you guess any leader, without motivational speaking skills and public Speaking abilities?

Public speaking is an essential quality any leader should aspire for.

Being a leader you need to give motivational speeches.

You can inspire people through your motivational speeches. As a leader you can give the right direction to the teams, you can lead them the way you want them to be driven.

Public speaking is an art. However, anybody can master it. However one needs to have a genuine desire to get command over this art.

Always have a positive outlook and have empathy with audience. Once you understand what they expect, you can tailor make your talk. You can always win their heart through your address.

They are tuned. They are listening to your words. They are accepting you as you are echoing their sentiments.

It is the right time to present your view points in an agreeable way, your job will be quite easy, in this way.

“I will pay more for the ability to deal with people than for any other ability under the sun”

            -John Rockefeller.

In fact, at present, where globalization is in full swing, business opportunities are wide open; there are no businesses problems to the industries.

There are problems with people. The true leader is one who can motivate the people, who can generate trust in the minds of the people.

To get all these purposes served, public speaking is very essential for a leader.

Let me tell you one secret. For you to be a successful speaker, you must remember this fact.

“Audience do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care for them”. Yes this is a fact.

It has a direct bearing on your success as a speaker on any given day. Audience expect- ‘audience centric approach’ from the speaker. It is a fundamental rule and a universal truth.

So in your speech, “YOU” is more important than “I & ME.”

Give Importance to the audience

–     Do not hurt any individual during your presentation.

o   Public Speaking is the ultimate test for your communication skills. Let us suppose that, you are promoting a life insurance product to the audience. Here your objective is obvious; everyone in the audience knows that, you are going to talk about death etc.

o   You might have observed the commercials on television. How sensibly they deal with the aspect.

o   Precisely that is the kind of approach, euphemistic wordings you should use in your speech.

o   It is an unwritten rule, that you do not have the right to hurt the feelings of any body, through your speech.

o   Let me give you one example. Let us observe this phrase –‘You can win’, do you know that, this apparently harmless statement gives negative intonations. In a subtle way, we are hinting that “At present you are a failure. You can win in future”. Listeners are sensible enough to get the message. That’s why, if you want to be a successful motivational speaker, you should be choosy when it comes to words, phrases, ideas, examples and even the gestures that you make on the dais.

o   “You can be even more successful”, try using this phrase, instead of using  “You can win” and see the difference in the response. Because, here you are giving a strong message that “Yes, you are successful. You are in the right direction, with a little effort, you can be even more successful”.

o   This is what I meant by saying “Audience centric approach”

–     You should understand the sensibilities of your audience

o   Among your audience, invariably there are people with many political affiliations, people from different religions, people with varied interests, people with different ethnic variations etc.

o   You just cannot afford to take stands. Keep aside your political views, religious views, and other feelings.

o   You are here to give a professional presentation, you should stick to it. Do not deviate from the professional path.

“You-centric Statements – Play this psychological game”

Audience would like to listen these statements

•      “I will not waste your time”

•      “I know your needs”

•      “I am well organized”

•      “I am thorough with the subject”

•      “A very important  information for your need” etc

If not the exact wordings, if you can sound the similar feelings in your opening address, audience will get immense relief and they get psychologically hooked to your speech. Un-knowing they get attached to your speech and they look forward to listen further. It is a psychological game.

Let us now, understand how to split your contents and how can we deliver a meaningful seminar.

Your Speech should always be divided into three parts.

1.      The Head

2.      The Body

3.      The Tail

The Ratio (Time Allocation),  If you have 10 Min., Divide it as mentioned below.

1.      The Head ( 2 Min)

2.      The Body ( 6 Min)

3.      The Tail ( 2 Min)

Each of these parts can cover these aspects

1.      The Head  (2 Min)

•      Opening

•      Introduction

•      Understanding the audience

•      State the purpose.

2.     The Body  (6 Min)

•      All the main points

•      Related information

•      Important dates, etc relating to the topic

•      Interesting examples

•      Any scientific data  etc

3.     The Tail (2 Min)

•      Summary

•      A quick recap

•      Brief Interaction with audience

•      Thanking note

The Head

Opening Address:

Establish the objective of your presentation during the opening address itself.

Greet the audience.

–     An appropriate greeting like Good morning, Good evening etc, depending on the time. Based on the audience’s sensibilities you can customize the greetings. Be sure the audience will receive it positively, otherwise it may back fire.

–     Do you remember, how Swamy Vivekananda had mesmerized the American Community with his spell binding greetings, with which they instantly got attached with his powerful speech.

Thank the audience, the organizers and the management.

–     Never miss to thank the people in the top order of the management, mention their names with respect and in the order of hierarchy.

Appreciate the audience whole heartedly

–     The first few seconds are very crucial in getting the attention of the audience.

–     Before you start, first take audience in to your friendly zone.  Nothing clicks than a smile and a word of praise. So do it, whole heartedly. Dont sound artificial and rhetoric.

–     Always try to find something to appreciate the audience.

–     Add a word of praise depending on the nature of the meeting. If you are addressing the group of winners in any match etc, start with a note of congratulations.

–     If you are not very sure, you can appreciate them in general. Like, “I appreciate your interest level in attending this seminar, Or, I really need to appreciate you all for the fact that despite heavy showers, all of you made it a point to attend this seminar etc

–     Make them relax with statements like “I will take just few minutes of your time”

–     Before you state the purpose start with some interesting opening address

–     Avoid the temptation to start with a joke until and unless you are sure that all the audience are positive and they will take it funny and I repeat,

E V E R Y  O N E in the auditorium. Without knowing the sensibilities of the audience if you try to start with a joke, it will give bad impact.

Take into consideration, the following demographic details

–     Age

–     Sex

–     Income level

–     Knowledge level

–     Sensibilities

–     Occupation or professional level

–     Political, religious, ethnic, sentiments

–     Their likes and dislikes

It is a better idea to start asking question basing on their needs:

Your Question should be light in nature, don’t ask heavy duty questions, so that, to answer your question, some marathon research work should be commissioned.

Preferably ask close ended questions, where audience simply need to give, mono syllable answers like “Yes or No”, that’s it.

Don’t complicate the atmosphere, by asking some controversial questions either.

Just observe the following questions.

–     Would you like to get excellent success just by spending less than two hours a day?

–     Would you like to realize your dreams?

–     Would you like to be a winner?

–     Do you watch movies?

Of course, you should have the knack to ask these questions based on your topic and from there on you should be in a position to kick start and take off your presentation.

“Some of the proven ways to open a presentation.”

Need based/ topic based Questions

–     Ask some questions that are very much relevant  to their seminar topic, education, goal, age, objective etc.

–     Mystery opener

o   What does 2 plus 2 equal to? (Synergy)

o   Audience feel, it is very simple and harmless question, naturally with a smile on their face, they may answer that , it is 4.

o   Fine, appreciate the person who gives the answer

o   Then gently announce that there are different answers for this question. Audience get confused, naturally. They feel like listening to your further explanation. Then explain the concept of Synergy

Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary Says:

synergy /"sIn.@.dZi/ US /-@`-/ noun [U] (ALSO synergism) SPECIALIZED
the combined power of a group of things when they are working together which is greater than the total power achieved by each working separately:
Team work at its best results in a synergy that can be very productive

Then you can link this with your topic, “Team Work” and continue your speech.

o   Can you draw a Square with three lines (Lateral Thinking)

§  All the audience naturally get excited and they start thinking. Some of them naturally come forward to make a trial. See, what an effective way to start the presentation?

§  You are also guessing right?, the answer is at the end of the this article.

o   Today in Hyderabad there are no diamonds available why? (A subtle, yet very strong way of appreciating the audience)

§  You are also guessing right?, the answer is at the end of the this article.

–     The Compliment

o   “Before I begin, I’d like to thank all of you for reaching the auditorium in time..

o   It is indeed a pleasure to address the gathering like you, who have achieved very good fluency in less amount of time

–     Startling statements

o   How many of you still would like to face the problems – for want of English?

o   Look around- in Hyderabad, Eight out of ten still do not have any plans to learn English.

o   China is waging a war against India. But we can win - if we are good at English.

The Body

Now it is time for you to work on the body of the presentation. This is the most important aspect. Because your very purpose is to deliver the chosen stuff.

Understanding the audience, getting the pulse of the audience, starting with a purpose to attract them, taking them into your charm etc are OK.

But this whole ground work will go waste, if you do not work properly on your material or the content of your speech.

Be well equipped with the main points. Sort them in an attractive fashion.

Gather the data with anecdotes and suitable examples, where you can always quote these anecdotes and get the attention of the audience.

In the modern days, the speakers choose to narrate interesting stories in a crisp and attractive style. They relate these stories with the content that they planned to emphasize.

You can involve audience by giving suitable pauses, lowering the pitch of the voice, creating tempo and asking few suitable questions in between.

The audience will get spell bound with the charm of your contents as well as with the presentation style.

Audience shortly forget what you speak, But they do remember how you delivered it. In public speaking, the presentation skills count a lot.

That is the reason, you just cannot afford to miss the mock presentations before you go for the real one. Do as many mock presentations as possible, in front of your friends, relatives, closed associates and observe their feelings, feedback. Improvise further, in every mock presentation.

Gather the related information; gather supportive documents, photographs, etc to support your chosen topic.

The point to be remembered for ever:

The content is very important, it is the crux of your presentation, no doubt about it. However, with your practice, planning and attractive presentation you can make it a memorable experience. Honestly speaking, do you like to listen to boring seminars and lectures?

What do the audience expect from you?

Do you know one fact? They are ready to do what ever you instruct. Yes. Believe me. Personally I enjoy following the instructions of a speaker. If a speaker asks me to raise my hand, I do it, more importantly I enjoy it.

When I observed in most of the public speeches, audience feel that, they get lot of importance, and they are involved in the process, through out the meeting. Yes, they want this identity badly. They are here to get involved.

If you have the guts, go ahead, do it. They love it and they even say, you are the master speaker.

Think in their shoes, try to involve audience in your presentation, ask them some simple questions.

Involve them in some activities like “raise your hands if you agree with this point”, or “let us clap to renew our energy levels. Do you know the nerve endings in our palms will get rejuvenated when we clap?”, or “Stand up for a while and take three deep breaths, did you observe that your mind is now feeling refreshed”  etc. Don’t hesitate to instruct the audience in style. Whatever be their social status, professional cadre, audience love to follow the instructions of the speaker. They always expect something new from the speaker, they mentally become children when they are listening to a fantastic speech.

Thus you can involve them in a meaningful way and you can always win their hearts.

The Tail

A tail is as important as any other aspects of the presentation.

Just let me tell you one thing. Let us imagine that we watched a movie. The total movie is average and not so well crafted. However, the director has taken special care in designing the climax, he gave a fantastic twist at the end.

He has captured the attention of the audience and he gave a spell binding treatment to the movie in the final few minutes of the movie.

All the audience generously forget the flaws and pit falls in the initial parts of the story narration. They leave the theatre with a positive bent of mind frame. They even give very good word of mouth publicity among their friends and relatives.

The vice versa is also true. The whole movie is good, the climax is not impressive. The bad word of mouth spreads like a wild fire.

You can recollect your own experiences with the movies that you watched.

That is the power of climax.

Thus you need to be very careful, in crafting the tail of the presentation. In this section you have to give Summary of the whole presentation in a quick recap style.

Again involve the audience by asking some questions like ‘What one single point you liked very much’- kind of questions, ‘what one single decision you took’-kind of questions

Encourage the audience to ask questions

Finally give a thanking note.

In the coming article let us see how to answer the questions of the audience and other finer points.

All the best.