Stand and Deliver

HOT READS FOR THE PRACTITIONER

Title: Making Your Next Speech Your Best

Competency: presentation skills

Who benefits: those giving a public speech

Consultant Usage: background material for executive speaking coaches and trainers of presentation skills

What’s it about? I remember my first public presentation.  Oh do I remember it.  I was just a skinny wet-behind-the-ears 17-year-old kid working as a volunteer for a congressional candidate.  On this fateful day, about 3:00 PM he called me into his office and said he couldn’t make his scheduled speech before the League of Women Voters that night.  Would I go and represent him … to more than 300 people.

That night I gave my first “speech” outside of a high school classroom.  How did I do?  I have no idea!  I do remember going straight home, entering the bathroom, kneeling and praying to the porcelain god in front of me. 

I did go on to become a pretty good public speaker.  I suspect it was something I needed to do to overcome the indescribable fear from that first presentation.  I taught presentation skills for many years in public, private and university settings and have watched the struggle most of us have learning how to communicate effectively with a group of people.

By the way, how did your first public presentation go?  Author Nick Morgan, Trust Me: Four Steps to Authenticity and Charisma, says most public speeches are pretty average and most of us are content to just survive the ordeal.  It doesn’t have to be that way.

There are a lot of books on public speaking available.  I have read the first couple of chapters of this relatively new book (12/08), enough to know that the author knows his stuff and he writes in that special way that makes you want to keep reading.  He tells interesting stories.  I like that.

But what separates this book from all the others I have perused throughout the years is the focus on non-verbal communication (body language) as the starting point for successful presentations.  I have always emphasized non-verbal communication in my classes but until I read this book I never thought of using it as the starting point.  And he is absolutely right. (See, old dogs can learn new tricks!)

Have you ever heard someone scream to another person “I am not angry!”?  Did you believe the words (“not angry”) or the voice and body language (“very angry”).  Well, audiences are the same way: they believe your tone and body language and then check to see if the words match.  (Many a liar has been caught because he couldn’t match his words to his body language.)

He also has an interesting chapter on charisma … what it is and how to get it.  My first reaction to the chapter title was negative, but after reading and considering his version of charisma, I think he has added something special to this already good book.

So, bottom line, if you are or are going to be doing some public speaking and want/need to read about the topic, this book is one of the best bets books for improving your performance in front of others.  Highly recommended.

Catch you later.

[tags]speaking, public speaking, speaking in public, presentation skills, oral presentations, non-verbal communication, body language, charisma, bill bradley, william bradley, bradley[/tags]

Bill Bradley

Bill Bradley (mostly) retired after 35 years in organizational consulting, training and management development. During those years he worked internally with seven organizations and trained and consulted externally with more than 90 large and small businesses, government agencies, hospitals and schools.