Monday, June 29, 2015

'CONNECT' 57 - Tips on Public Speaking - Prepare and Prepare....

Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
Practice, practice, practice....

There is a lot of truth in the saying 'practice makes a man perfect'. Your performance in any event is decided by the amount of practice you put in. It applies to public speaking also.

The following tips will be useful to you:
Ø  Once the written matter of what you are going to speak is final, go through the same several times aloud to check if all the parts have come out well. Check the introduction, the body and the conclusion.
Ø  Is the material interesting? Can you make it even better?
Ø  Is it easy to read and understand? Are there any complicated words?
Ø  If you are going to make use of visuals, are they relevant?
Ø  Practice your speech several times before a friendly audience such as your friends and relatives and ask them to comment critically.
Ø  Speak in front of a mirror and notice your facial expression and gestures.
Ø  Record your voice and listen to notice how it sounds, the diction, the pronunciation, inflection, emphasis etc.
Ø  After listening to it several times, polish the same with necessary final correction.
If the event is very important, it will be useful to give a 'dress rehearsal' under conditions very close to the main event!
N C Sridharan


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Thursday, June 4, 2015

'CONNECT' 56 - Tips on Public Speaking - Be the audience


It requires wisdom to understand wisdom: the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.
Becoming the audience yourself!
Sometimes you would have delivered an excellent speech; you would have given enough stories and jokes. You may also be very satisfied. But the key issue is: how about the audience?

You should know that your audience have some specific expectations from you. You need to know clearly what the audience want from your speech. Your primary goal is to connect with what they want. While writing the specific purpose of your speech, you should have this perspective in your mind. This is called 'audience adaptation'.
You could ask the following critical questions to yourself before your speech:
  • Who are my audience?
  • If I were my own audience, what will I expect from the speaker?
  • Will my jokes be relevant to my audience?
  • Will my stories and anecdotes be interesting to them?
  • What pace will be comfortable to my audience?
  • During the entire process of my delivery, will my audience be interested in my speech?
Compare the role of a shoe salesman. When a customer enters his showroom, he should show what the customer wants and not what all he has! Understanding this and delighting the customer is the art of salesmanship. This principle applies to public speaking also!
NC Sridharan


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'CONNECT' 55 - Tips on Public Speaking - Structuring Your Speech


Discretion in speech is more than eloquence.
Structuring your speech
You need to be very focused in structuring your speech. For this you have to be clear what you want to convey and to whom. It will be a good idea to divide your speech into three part: the topic, the general purpose and the specific purpose. For this you should take into account the context and the profile of the audience before whom you are going to deliver your speech.

For example, if you are called by a school management to address a group of teenage students on the ill effects of social media. You can structure your speech as follows:
Topic: Facebook
General Purpose: To inform
Specific Purpose: To inform the students on the ill effects of the Facebook if they are
                           not careful while sharing their personal information.  
Again you have to be very specific as to whom you are going to speak to - boys or girls. This means you will end up preparing two completely different speeches, one for the boys and another for the girls. What you share with the girls will be completely irrelevant to the girls.
Once you are clear about this aspects, then you can write down your speech. You would have delivered a very meaningful speech!
NC Sridharan

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'CONNECT' 54 - Tips on Public Speaking - After the Speech


The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.

After the speech....
For a singer every concert is an experience. For a lawyer every case and for a surgeon every operation is an experience. It is so for a speaker also! There are occasions where I will be extremely happy after giving a speech. There are also occasions when I felt that I could have done better. I introspect my own performance after every speech.

The following checklist could be useful:
·         What was the theme of my speech? Did I do justice for the theme?
·         Did I manage my time effectively? Did I take more time or less time?
·         Did I effectively reach out to the audience?
·         Were the stories and jokes I gave relevant? Could I have used some other?
·         To what extent I met the expectations of the audience? Could I have done better?
·         Did I match the wavelength of the audience? Was it too high or too low?
·         If there were other speakers along with me, how did I fare compared to them?
It will be a good idea to write down three areas of improvement after every speech. A friend of mine has a journal in which he has his audit findings for the past 20 years!
NC Sridharan


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'CONNECT' 53 -Tips on Public Speaking - Using flash cards


'Only the prepared speaker deserves to be confident'.

Using flash cards....
How well you are organised while giving your speech is also very important. It is like travelling. If you are well organised during the travel, you will enjoy the same.

While giving your speech the most important issue is how you handle your notes. Your notes should be handy and organised properly. Small handy flash cards are better than papers. If you are holding the paper in front of your face and speaking, you may be hiding your face and this will stand in the way of making eye contact with the audience.
The number of words per flash card is also very important. The font size of the notes should be large enough that you can access it without any difficulty. You should not 'read' from the flash card. You should 'glance' it and mention what is in the flash card. It should not be very obvious that you are reading from the flash card. This means that you should have read the cards couple of times and taken the contents into your memory so that the cards are there just a memory aid.
This small preparation will go a long way in building your image as a good public speaker!
NC Sridharan


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'CONNECT' 52 - Tips for Public Speaking - Preparation


'By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.' 
 Benjamin Franklin
Getting organised for your speech
One important aspect in public speaking is getting organised to deliver your speech. The preparation that you do before getting on to the stage is very critical to dleiver a quality speech. It is part of your planning portfolio.

For example, making notes to refer during the speech. Flash cards are very good. If you are used to note pads, it is better. However, I always find a flash card even more comfortable since it is easy to spread the card in front of you for easy eye access. Moreover the fact that you write a joke or a quotation on flash cards helps you register the same into your memory better than typing on a note pad like gadget.
May be you can choose a few jokes, quotations, stories and anecdotes and ensure that what you have chosen is appropriate for the topic you are going to speak on. Once you have chosen the same, ensure that you have them in front of you, especially the most appropriate ones. Sometimes you may forget give them during your speech and regret that you should have done.
It is also a good idea to have a check list on how you want to deliver and in what sequence. 
N C Sridharan

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