Paul Brown Friendswood Speaking

Guidelines For Effective Public Speaking

Paul Brown Friendswood Guidelines By: Lee Dobbins.

Public speaking is something we cannot avoid in our life. The situation will arise when we are called upon to stand up and speak our minds out. When that situation comes are we ready deliver?

Public speaking is one of the most feared activities in a person’s lifetime. Anxiety and stress will usually attack once you get off your seat and start to speak. Sadly, this fear is the cause of lost promotions, low self esteem, miscommunications and similar situations. But why do some people excel on it? They make it look so easy – I guess through practice one can improve his public speaking skills but in the mean time here are 6 guidelines and questions that you will make your life easier when speaking in public.

Who?

Who are you talking to? Know your audience, their background, values and common interests that may help you in your presentation. If you are speaking to a group of accountants then it will help if you focus your speech on data and statistics, or if you are speaking to a group of teenagers, you should know the latest fashion or in-thing so you can establish rapport and make your speech lighter and simpler.

Knowing your listeners is imperative to a successful speech. It will also help you relax if you know the people who are going to listen to your presentation.

Where?

Knowing the venue and being there early is half the battle. Try to get a feel of the place. Stand on the stage or where ever you are suppose to deliver your speech. Try to visualize your audience listening to your speech.

Check the sound system and the availability of audio-visual aids if you need to use some. Being at the venue early will give you some time to prepare and compose yourself. You can also afford time for a last minute tweaking of your speech.

What?

What do you want to say? What is the speech for? If you are speaking to educate and inform your audience, make sure that you have accurate and updated facts in your presentation. It is not enough that you have prepared and have memorized your speech; you should also know what you are talking about and have made a thorough research about it.

How?

How can you deliver your message across? A sound language skill is not enough to ensure success as a public speaker. Choose your words carefully and be sure to enunciate them. Poor articulation and pronunciation weighs much in evaluating your presentation.

Visual aids are helpful to get your message across. You may use handouts or technical presentations to support your points. But the best visual aids are your facial expressions, hand gestures and body language. When practicing your speech, try to do it in front of a mirror to see how you look

Make sure that you have a solid opening, a good transition and a memorable conclusion.

When?

When is the best time to speak and stop? In communication, words are not the sole means of conveying a message. Your pause and stops also play an important role in delivering your point across.

Know when to start speaking and when to stop. Be aware of how long your speech is and tailor it to suit your audience. If you are speaking to a groups of seventh graders, then chances are their attentions span is shorter than that of a twenty something university student.

Why?

Why should they listen to you? Why were you chosen to speak in public? Determine the reasons why you were picked to deliver a speech. It may be because of your educational background, your work experience or your status in the community. What ever it is, they want something from you. Identify the reason and prepare your speech to answer the audience expectations.

Public Speaking: The Mother Of All Fears

Paul Brown Friendswood Fears By: Guy Baglow.

In a much quoted survey of the things people fear most, public speaking came out as the number one fear. Death came third.

So what is fear of public speaking and why does it generate so much fear in so many?

What is fear of public speaking?

Fear of public speaking is an intense and irrational fear of being judged by others when speaking in front of them – or of being embarrassed or humiliated in such situations – causing dread, panic and avoidance.

More accurately, it is not the scrutiny and negative judgements themselves but the sufferer’s own emotional response to them – the feelings of shame, rejection or humiliation.

Sufferers recognise that their fear is excessive or unreasonable but they feel powerless to do anything to change their responses. So the feared situations – such as presentations, wedding speeches, meetings or even one-to-ones – are avoided or else endured with intense anxiety or distress.

In work situations the fear most commonly occurs around formal presentations and meetings. It can then spread out to smaller groups, to conference calls, to informal situations like one-on-one conversations (especially with more senior people) and to things like introducing oneself on a course. It can then even spill into social situations with friends and family.

How it manifests

When sufferers feel that all eyes are upon them – “the spotlight effect” – their acute self-awareness makes it very difficult to focus on what is going on around them, to remember their speech, to read from notes or follow a meeting. Their mind goes foggy or blank. Their distress is further fueled by their efforts to hide or mask their discomfort which may become apparent through blushing, sweating, shaking, twitching, or an inability to speak normally or coherently.

Some of these feelings may be present for some time before the event – weeks and even months beforehand – and may be accompanied by sleeping problems and loss of appetite. Life becomes a nightmare from the moment they know they have to speak. It can feel like a death sentence. Not only that, but the feelings may linger afterwards as the sufferer analyses and ruminates on how they did and how other people may have judged them.

Fear of public speaking is distinguished from shyness by the intense, often debilitating, fear it generates. At its worst it will end in a panic attack. So it’s way beyond shyness or butterflies. This is hardcore fear.

Who does it affect?

Most people with a fear of public speaking are normal, intelligent, happy and well-balanced. They often come across to friends and colleagues as confident and outgoing.

Many people who fear public speaking are very successful, so they have risen to a level in their career where they are more and more called upon to share their knowledge and expertise and lead projects, teams and departments. But in these situations they come across as reserved, disinterested or unenthusiastic because they have got this phobia, this thing.

So it’s very frustrating because a part of them (the rational thinking part) knows that it doesn’t make sense. They know their subject – that’s why they have been asked to talk – and they know the situation is non-threatening. But they nevertheless find that when they are asked to talk in front of a group, another part of them (the irrational unconscious part) drives out rational thought and fear floods in.

It appears to be the more imaginative, creative or artistic people who are more prone to developing phobias. This is because phobias have a lot to do with the misuse of the imagination. So it can affect absolutely anyone.

The cause

Fear of public speaking can be caused by many things. It can be an extension of childhood shyness reinforced by bad experiences of reading aloud in class or presenting work at college or university.

It can also start later in life, often at a time when background stress levels have been raised by other things like relationships or work. Then something happens that the individual can usually cope with but because of the background stress they tip into a mild panic attack. This is frightening and embarrassing. It destroys self-confidence. And it builds into a phobia as the sufferer starts to fear it happening again and begins to panic about panicking – to fear the fear.

At the start it may take some time for people to recognise that they have a phobia. They may mistakenly put it down to excessive shyness. But then the panic starts to occur more frequently and consistently and a pattern emerges. The response is reinforced each time they speak in public and panic, and each time they avoid it and feel relief.

Why does it affect so many so much?

With some phobias – like snakes, heights and sharks – there is some element of real danger. But with public speaking there is no apparent threat. There are no enemy warriors in the room, no charging rhinos.

It seems likely that the fear of public speaking – a fear of humiliation and rejection – is a hangover from our evolutionary history when being accepted by the tribe was essential to our survival. If we did not have their approval we might be cast out. Then our chances of survival by ourselves would be slim. So the thought of rejection by the group generates high anxiety. It’s a primitive survival response that got stuck to wrong kind of thing.

Safety behaviours & avoidance

Safety and avoidance strategies are used by the sufferer to reduce the danger and to control, accommodate and conceal their panic and embarrassment.

Energy and time are used in planning and avoiding the presentation, meeting, call, seminar or speech. Elaborate ways are created to reduce or hide their distress or to produce distractions from it. Sufferers may self-medicate with alcohol. Sickness may be feigned. People and situations may be manipulated. Careers may be blighted: jobs and promotions may be turned down (because they may entail more presenting) or jobs may be left because of their fears of “discovery”.

Many people accommodate their phobia like this for a long time – typically for years, even decades. It is often surprising just how far people get in life and have still managed to avoid public speaking.

But over time these “solutions” become part of the problem, using up time, energy and attention needed for other things. Eventually the avoidance and manipulation becomes too risky – threatening jobs or relationships – or a presentation or speech (usually a wedding or leaving speech) just can’t be avoided. When this happens most sufferers think “enough is enough”. And do something about it. And get help.

Getting help

Things have moved on from old style exposure therapy and there are now a number of very effective solutions available.

These include The Fast Phobia Cure – a remarkable technique from Neuro Linguistic Programming which rapidly changes the patterns that drive the fear. Another relatively new technique is the Emotional Freedom Technique which also provides rapid change. Of the more traditional treatments, Cognitive Therapy – designed to change the way you think about public speaking – is also effective although it is likely to take longer.

Ten Steps to Fearless Public Speaking

Ten Paul Brown Friendswood Steps By Graham Jones.

There is plenty of dubious material which suggests you can combat public speaking fear. Much of it includes fancy techniques such as ‘visualization’ or ‘breathing techniques’. Well, they might work. But this ten step system is GUARANTEED TO WORK. That’s because instead of fancy tricks and techniques, this system of dealing with public speaking fear uses your body’s natural defences against fear.

STEP ONE

Prepare well. Naturally enough, the more prepared you are the more likely you are to feel in control, which will NATURALLY help your nervousness reduce.

STEP TWO

Practice, practice, practice. You can’t do too much practice. Don’t listen to those people who say you can over-practice. Tell that to circus artists who practice day in day out for decades, just to get their act right. You don’t hear actors and musicians complaining they had ‘too much’ rehearsal time. The more your rehearse, the better.

STEP THREE

Say your speech OUT LOUD. Whether you are in the car, the bath, or going for a walk with the dog, say it out loud. Going through your talk ‘in your head’ means you don’t benefit from something called ‘psychomotor memory’ – whereby the memory for what you need to say is partly embedded in the muscles of your mouth.

STEP FOUR

Get to the venue early. Get a feel for the room. Sit where the audience will sit so you can see it from their perspective. Walk around the auditorium. Practice your speech on the stage itself. The more comfortable you are with the room, the less your nerves will be.

STEP FIVE

Get some exercise. A walk, a swim, a session in the gym, it doesn’t matter what you do, as long as you get some exercise in the couple of hours before your talk. That way you’ll change the chemistry of your blood supply in your own favour. Exercise is essential in reducing nerves. Do not skimp on this.

STEP SIX

Chew some mints or sweets. While waiting to go on stage, chew something. This will produce saliva which also helps reduce nerves. If you drink water your saliva production will go down and your nervousness will rise. Avoid water when presenting.

STEP SEVEN

When you go up on stage, smile. No matter how false it feels to you, the audience won’t notice. Just smile. It helps produce hormones that lead to a more relaxed feeling.

STEP EIGHT

Be active on the stage. Move around, use big gestures and get as much body movement as you can. The more you move the more relaxed you will feel.

STEP NINE

Look people in the eye. Make as much eye contact as you can. The more the better. Eye contact is essential in helping you feel good and reducing your nerves.

STEP TEN

Use feedback. Always gain feedback on your speeches. You’ll soon discover you are a lot better than you think you are, which is bound to help boost your confidence.