Basic Rules of Public Speaking
Follow the rules of decency
This doesn’t just apply to dirty jokes, which you should absolutely forget about during the performance.
- Don't be late.
Punctuality shows the seriousness of your intentions and generally presents you as a responsible person. - Do not interrupt
jury members when they ask questions, or team members (if we are talking about a case championship, for example). - Try not to impose your opinion too much
, especially don’t do it rudely and aggressively. - Thank
your team members, judges, interviewers, or anyone else you interact with during your presentation. - Pay attention to your appearance.
Under no circumstances come in a dirty suit, wrinkled shirt or unwashed hair. Although neatness says little about your intellectual abilities, it will help you win over your audience.
Prepare diligently
There is nothing worse for a speaker than ignorance about the format of the meeting, its objectives or, for example, the customer’s business.
- Understand your goals.
Understand what is expected of you: a short pitch of a new idea or a detailed report. Determine the criteria for success of your speech. - Find out where the meeting will be held and what equipment the room is equipped with.
Otherwise, imagine: you have prepared a presentation, but there is no projector or even a computer in the room. - Know your audience.
Find out how many people will listen to you and estimate how friendly they will be to you. Is this a “cold” audience you are communicating with for the first time? Or is this an old client who comes back to you regularly? Consider this information when preparing your presentation.
Check all your materials
- Proofread the presentation and handouts.
If you are not sure that you will find all the errors and typos, give the text to a proofreader. - Make sure to collect a complete package of documents
if they are needed at the meeting. Approve everything you need in advance, put stamps and signatures. - Before leaving, make sure you took the documents for the right project
, otherwise it will be awkward.
Possible mistakes of speakers
Speakers are not born, but made. And at the same time, most even the most experienced and famous speakers went through trial and error, which is quite typical.
Key points of the errors:
Your audience
When speaking in front of an audience, especially in a case presentation format, you will most often encounter four types of people. They can be conditionally called mathematicians, ideological, visual and perfectionists. There is another type that is difficult to call the fifth, so let it be the fourth and a half - these are poker-face people, they are difficult to “read”. You'll never understand what they want anyway, so just ignore them.
Mathematicians
They are the majority. They clearly calculate your performance based on points. They like presentations that are full of facts and have concrete conclusions. They are rational, organized, but can be too meticulous and can easily get carried away by some minor details, forgetting about the main topic. Such people avoid confrontation, therefore, despite their meticulousness, they are unlikely to argue with the statements of other jury members.
Ideological
People of this type usually don’t pay attention to points: they just want to have a good time and get in a great mood. It is important for them to see your communication with the team, so your presentation should be the embodiment of this communication, its result. Ideological ones are usually open to discussions and are ready to listen to any opinions, acting as a moderator. Like mathematicians, they will not enter into confrontation and can often sacrifice their opinion in favor of others.
Visuals
For this group, the main thing is that everything is beautiful - from the presentation to the performance itself. It is important for such people to show the value of the material being presented. Don't be lazy and add a slide with general trends in your industry, use the division into special topics within the presentation. Visuals are more emotional than their colleagues, and no confrontation scares them.
Perfectionists
They are the ones to be most feared. It is these people who can overwhelm you if you make a mistake or demonstrate incompetence in any matter. At the end of the presentation, they want to see your action plan and how you arrived at it. They pay a lot of attention to issues of efficiency, especially financial. Perfectionists are independent, very stubborn and can be quite confrontational. Practice shows that such people are in the minority, but still be careful.
How to determine your personality type
A logical question arises: how to understand who is who? First, if possible, try to find out in advance who will be attending your talk. Often, personality type can be predicted by the position a person occupies. Thus, top managers are usually classified as ideological, consultants and permanent jury members are most often mathematicians, there are many visual people among FMCG managers, and perfectionists include technicians and people with extensive experience in the industry. If there is no way to know the jury in advance, personality types will become more or less obvious as you go through the first 2-3 slides of your presentation.
However, this typology, like any similar one, has limitations. People always combine several personality types, of which one predominates. In stressful situations, people tend to move to the far ends of the spectrum: thus, a mathematician can easily become picky, like a perfectionist. Therefore, structure your presentation focusing on the visual, while leaving in the application several detailed slides dedicated to analytics itself, which will help answer the mathematician’s questions.
It is important to remember that each person has an area of expertise. This could relate to his immediate specialty, a project he has recently worked on, or his interests. Let's call these "hot spots". You need to know them. Research the experts' interests, their reputations, the topics they often speak on, and remember to listen to them carefully. “Hot Spot” will help you attract an expert to your side, for example, if your opinions coincide. But they can also become an obstacle to a successful performance if, say, they shift the focus from the main task.
Preparing for the performance
Storytelling
If everything is clear with the types of audience, it is not yet entirely clear how to compose your speech. It has been proven that public speaking in the form of a story or story is perceived better and imprinted in the mind.
What is history? When deconstructed, it is just a clear structure. Every story has a beginning, a climax and a denouement. Start with a short introduction, tell us about yourself, convince the audience that you are competent in the issue you have taken on. Show the essence of the problem, formulate it correctly. The solution to a problem is a story within a story, tell it using a regular structure. The culmination of your story should be an idea, that is, the actual proposal for solving the problem.
The most important thing is to know your material! Don’t try to jump over your head, talk only about what you really understand. This will increase the level of trust of the audience and just help you relax. After all, why be afraid if you know everything? In addition, a good understanding of the topic will help when answering questions from listeners.
Speech and posture
As all good speakers know, a successful presentation begins before you even enter the room. Plan your speech in advance. People like well-produced speech at a moderate pace without filler words and annoying sounds like “uh-uh” and “mm-mm.” If you have problems with this, try rehearsing in front of a mirror, watch your gestures, don’t wave your hands too much, but don’t keep them in your pockets. Stand in a position that is comfortable for you, but not too familiar. You should never cross your legs and arms. Ideally, it is better to film yourself so you can watch and analyze the shortcomings later. It is important that the verbal (what you say) and nonverbal (your gestures, posture and intonation) parts of your speech are balanced. So it's even better to give this video to two other people. If they understand everything in the same way and the style of your presentation does not cause rejection, then everything is in order. Moreover, rehearsal is a good way to find out if you are on time.
Improvisation is very beneficial during public speaking. But don't overestimate yourself. As we know, the best improvisation is a well-prepared improvisation. Some things should just look like you didn't think about them and said them right away. If this skill is not given to you, it is better to prepare thoroughly.
The Art of Eloquence of Ancient Rome
The Romans wisely dealt with the history of oratory, the legacy of outstanding Greek orators, gradually developing the achievements of their predecessors and increasing them. Already in the 2nd century BC, there were humanitarian schools on the territory of the Roman Republic, in which boys, future politicians, public figures, and judges were taught the art of public speaking. The study of classical disciplines was divided into several stages:
- Reading classical literature.
- Correct writing based on grammar requirements.
- Mastering eloquence by composing your own speeches.
What was taught in Roman schools was told in his work “Rhetorical Instructions” by Marcus Quintilian, who himself had extensive experience as a teacher, as well as a trial lawyer. His study of sciences and books was accompanied by an in-depth knowledge of the rules of oratory, including the history of its origin.
A philosopher and teacher who became famous in this field, much more than as a judicial figure, Quintilian devoted his life to a detailed, methodical analysis of the qualities necessary for an orator, and the means by which they can be developed
His books give advice on how best to accumulate quotes from famous authors, popular expressions, with special attention paid to constant oral conversations that form syllables, a sense of rhythm, and experience in conducting discussions.
A good speaker, as the eminent Roman believed, can be recognized by his coherent, beautiful speech and special sophistication of phrases. In his works, he came up with a number of recommendations aimed at practical improvement of speech, elaboration of facial expressions, posture of the speaker, and mandatory adherence to logic.
Another famous figure from the Roman Republic, Cicero, achieved significant success in his career by improving the qualities of a rhetorician. The speeches of the judge, and later of the consul, amaze with the impeccability of logic and carefully selected arguments. He considered Aristotle and Plato his teachers, going back to the Greek school of discussion. Cicero’s views were reflected in his treatises (“The Orator”, “On the Construction of Speech” and others).
To avoid forgetting anything during a speech, you can use a number of tricks:
- Read a prepared text. This is a bad option, but if you can’t control your nerves at all, you can do it this way.
- Look at the cards. It is quite normal practice to use cards with short abstracts for each part of the presentation. This way you won't stand there staring at the text, but will always know what to say next.
- Learn everything by heart. An option for those who have a lot of free time.
- The most effective way is to use clear visual images on handouts to help you remember what to talk about.
Watch your speech rate
According to research, 38% of the meaning is conveyed through intonation and speech rate. The way you speak can be twice as important as the words themselves. This explains the hours of vocal training that many politicians go through when running for office.
So how should we “sound”? Avoid monotonous speech. This is a surefire way to turn off your audience. Vary your speaking speed. Speak either quickly or slowly. Use different intonation. With it, you can express your emotions and hold the attention of your listeners. Also play with the volume. Sometimes words spoken in a whisper can attract much more attention than constant loud speech.
How to make the right impression
To properly think through your public speaking strategy, you need to understand how public attention changes over time.
As you know, people listen most attentively at the beginning of a speech, so it’s better to say all the most important things in the first minutes. Try to please people from the very beginning - then it will be difficult to convey information to listeners effectively.
Closer to the equator, the public's attention dissipates. To maintain interest, it’s worth regularly shaking things up: ask questions, tell a story, such as a real case or real-life incident, actively use visual materials (presentation, flipchart or whiteboard).
The audience's attention will automatically increase towards the end of the speech, and if you say in advance that you are finishing, everyone will become more active even faster. Briefly summarize your presentation, recap the key takeaways, and end your presentation on a positive note.
If you want to leave a good impression of yourself, pay attention to how you communicate with your audience. Address the judges exclusively by your first name or patronymic name; it is also acceptable to address them as “colleagues”. Watch your speech rate, timbre, intonation and body movements. Most often, such nonverbal signals are perceived by people much better than words. Remember to make eye contact, but don't stare at one person - maintain contact with all members of the jury. Keep your back straight, chest out, and stand centered on the stage or directly in front of those you are presenting to. To get rid of anxiety, you can, for example, arrive at the performance site in advance, stand a little behind the podium or where you will be giving the presentation. You can sit for a while in the auditorium or in the jury place. Once the presentation has already begun, there is no point in telling your audience about your excitement, it looks rather pathetic.
Learn to listen to others
It is impossible to be a good fighter without knowing how to defend yourself - the same is true in oratory. Without knowing, as others say, it is unlikely that you will be able to broadcast to the whole world and attract the proper attention. Listen to the radio, watch videos on the Internet. Study any source where people speak really well. Make it a habit to listen to “pros”: get inspired and note things that are useful to you. Get ideas, pay attention to little things and shortcomings, think about how you would say this or that phrase.
How to perform with a team
In the context of case championships, the issue of performing in teams is relevant. In fact, all of the previous comments can be applied to team performance. With a couple of exceptions.
The main mistake that almost all teams make is separate rehearsals. Remember: if you are not performing alone, then it is better to run through the performance together. Discuss in advance who speaks what, how much and when to avoid awkward pauses and confusion during the presentation. The best option is when everyone speaks, but everyone has their own section of text and a different amount of time.
In any team there are people who speak better than others; it is better to entrust the most important moments to them. Of course, everyone can talk for an equal amount of time, but in this situation, less eloquent team members can drag the rest down with them.
As a last resort, you can choose one representative from the team and entrust him with the entire presentation. With this option, there is a risk of creating the impression that it was he who was carrying the case while the others were having fun somewhere. You understand that no points are given for lack of teamwork at case championships.
How to answer questions
The final stage of almost every public speech is answering questions from the audience or jury. As mentioned earlier, if you have excellent command of the topic, they will not take you by surprise. Another thing is that sometimes questions can be unpleasant and even tricky. What should a speaker do in such a situation?
First rule: always remain calm and polite. If you need time to collect your thoughts and give a decent answer, ask your opponent to repeat the question. This will gain you a few seconds.
Don't forget that even in the most unpleasant situations, your answer should be 100% to the point. Do not indulge in lengthy discussions that lead away from the essence of the issue. Keep your answers short and to the point. Support your ideas with examples and, if possible, excerpts from the speech.
And of course, always thank you for your questions. This is a chance for you to expand on the topic, show the depth of your knowledge and work out the audience’s objections. This means that no matter how tricky the question may be, it will play into your hands.
Content
- The purpose of the speaker
- Checklist for preparing for a public speaking Analysis of the target audience
- Purpose of the speech
- Choosing a theme
- Preparation of notes
- Presentation for public speaking
- Preparing for the audience's reaction
- Oral speech production
- Contact with the audience
- Lyrical digressions
- Emotionality
- Working on anxiety
- Timing
- Rehearsals
- Before going on stage
- Experience is the son of difficult mistakes
- Introduction
