by Gilda Bonanno LLC www.gildabonanno.com
Public
speaking is a skill, which like any skill, can be learned and improved. If you think of it as a public speaking skills as a continuum, where
you may start off not being particularly
skilled at presentations, and then continue along the line to being fairly
skilled and then very skilled and finally, you are extremely skilled.
Wherever you
are on that line, you want to keep moving forward and continue to develop your public
speaking skills.
Here are
four actions you can take to ensure you continue to make progress:
FOCUS
You can’t
work on ten areas of improvement at once so select the one or two elements that
you’re going to work on. Pick the areas
that will yield the most return and where you’ll see the most improvement in
your presentation. Find ways to practice
them and focus on them during your presentations.
For
example, if you want to work on crafting a message that’s clear and relevant to
your audience, then each time you give a presentation, write the message at the
top of your notes. Make sure you state it in the introduction and the
conclusion, and then follow up with people afterwards to see if they understood
the message.
OBSERVE OTHERS
Listen and
be attuned to others’ presentations: what works for them and what doesn’t work?
By
observing other presenters, often you can learn about what works from an
audience’s point of view more effectively than if you just thought about it
yourself.
For
example, I recently attended a presentation in a long, narrow room, full to
capacity with three hundred people. The
speaker stood behind a podium which had an attached microphone. Early on, it became obvious that the back
half of the room couldn’t hear her. She
tried speaking louder but that didn’t work and I could see people around me
getting antsy.
She
finally realized the situation was getting a little out of hand and said, “You
know what? I think I’m going to take the microphone out of the stand and hold
it myself.” She pulled it out of the stand and held it close to her mouth. And she got a round of applause because it
was so much easier for people to hear and now they could actually understand
her content. Observing that example
really drove home to me the point that if the audience can’t hear you, they get
restless and can tune out.
Be careful
while observing, however, not to copy somebody else’s presentation style
completely. You have your own unique style and you want to develop that.
GIVE YOURSELF FEEDBACK AFTER EACH PRESENTATION
After each
presentation, take the time to reflect on it.
If you recorded yourself (while video is best, audio alone also can be
helpful), make time to review the recording.
Write down the date, the presentation, the number of people in the audience
and what happened. Start off with what went
well. For example, you were
well-prepared or you handled difficult questions with ease.
Then think
about what you could improve for next time, particularly in light of the areas
you’re trying to focus on. Be specific
and non-judgmental. For example, you need to practice your transitions between
slides so you use fewer pause words like “um” and “ah.”
GET SPECIFIC FEEDBACK FROM OTHERS
Select
someone to give you feedback who is capable of being specific. You don’t want to hear, “Oh, you did great!”
because that’s not helpful. You need to know what specifically was “great”
about your presentation. For example, “You handled those questions confidently.
You were able to say ‘I don’t know the answer,’ without stumbling.”
You also
need someone who is capable of giving you constructive, specific
criticism. If the feedback is, “Well,
you didn’t sound confident,” you need to ask, “What did I do or say that didn’t
appear confident?” You will only be able to improve if you understand
specifically what you did, for example, your voice was shaking or you stared at
your notes rather than looking at the audience.
So don’t
just accept random feedback – make sure you get specific, focused feedback both
on what worked and what you can do better.
Use every
opportunity you have to take action to improve your public speaking
skills. Like with any skill, the more
you practice and get feedback about your public speaking, the more you will
improve. And if you’d like information
about my public speaking coaching program, email me at info@gildabonanno.com
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