The role of public speaking in management

Speaker personality

What does a person need to acquire public speaking skills?

Of course, first of all, it is necessary to note the importance of natural data. These include features of the nervous system, functional activity of the brain, the structure of the vocal cords, and the motor system. The future speaker must have developed strong-willed attention, good figurative and logical memory, quick intelligence, depth and breadth of thinking. Cicero said: “Perfection is not given to anyone, but through perseverance and perseverance one can approach it as far as nature allows.”

Of course, the presence of natural data is very important, but pay attention to another thought of Cicero, which is perhaps more important - this is a person’s desire to achieve a goal, an internal mindset for success. It’s not for nothing that they say: “The path is the goal of the wanderer!”

In addition, a person who wants to influence others must have a strong personality. “Typical personality traits are independence and originality of thought, friendliness, openness, self-confidence, charm, artistry, and, of course, hard work, willpower and an active character.”

If the speaker is such a person - strong, capable of persuading, influencing people's behavior - then the moral attitude that he brings to the masses becomes a very important factor. According to sociologists, moral pluralism now prevails in our country: each person has his own moral code. This state of affairs is dangerous because it can lead to moral laxity or permissiveness. With all due respect to the personal opinion of each person, however, it is necessary to form a certain system of values that a person is guided by, on the one hand, without losing his individual qualities, but on the other hand, he is also a representative of a certain society. Therefore, rhetorical education must be accompanied by ethical education and moral education, which form such principles of social interaction between people as rejection of the monopoly of truth, readiness for dialogue and compromise, positive criticism, the fight against evil, mercy, decency and honesty.

There are three main stages in public speaking:

Pre-communicative (before meeting the audience);
communicative (the process of speaking itself);
post-communicative (language analysis).

Don’t neglect the first stage of preparing for a performance. The speaker must foresee in the smallest detail the specific speech situation in which he will find himself. How well informed a speaker is about the audience they will be speaking to can have a big impact.

So check in advance:

conditions in which the performance will take place (large or small room, warm or cold, good acoustics, lighting, etc.)
circumstances under which the meeting will take place (before vacation, at the end of the work week, late start, etc.)
who is the audience that comes to the meeting: its size (techniques used in the audience, type of behavior, form of presentation of material may be different for a small and large audience); age; gender or ethnic heterogeneity (the more homogeneous the audience, the more homogeneous the reaction); level of education and range of professional interests; mood.

It is important not to lose sight of this detail: What should the speaker himself look like? His costume should be appropriate, that is, match the communication situation, and not cause surprise or envy - this will make it difficult to listen to him. On the other hand, the suit should also exude a certain solemnity, especially if this is the first meeting (this way the speaker makes it clear that he considers this an important event and shows respect for the audience). The hairstyle should be neat, the makeup should be moderate, and the jewelry should be modest. It is important to remember that modesty is preferable to ostentatious chic.

So, if the speaker is mentally prepared to meet the audience, now it is necessary to prepare for the speech itself. This is a very important and responsible task.

Oratory

Oratory is the ability to deliver a speech so that it has the desired effect on the audience. The speaker must have a high degree of skill when talking with people, and also be able to use words professionally.

This is required because the person at the center of the audience's attention is evaluated by his listeners. People in the room consider everything: from a person’s appearance, his style, to his personal qualities. The successful speaker is the one who takes this into account when constructing his speech.

To be called professional, a speaker must be:

erudite;
highly intelligent;
neat, attention-grabbing.

The speaker must speak competently and have a good understanding of the topic he is talking about, since his competence is tested through questions from the public.

Practical lessons

Practical preparation of a speech begins with choosing a topic that should be of undoubted interest to the speaker and his audience. The title of the speech should reflect the essence of the problem in a concise form and be of an advertising nature: It should attract attention and affect the interests of the audience.

Having decided on the topic and title, you need to think about what goals you are pursuing: Novelty of information, expected reaction of the audience.

The content of the speech should reveal the topic, and for this use facts, arguments, reasons, explanations. To search for illustrative material you can use:

official documents;
scientific, popular science literature;
Reference publications: encyclopedias, encyclopedic dictionaries, statistical collections, yearbooks on various subjects, tables;
Internet pages;
through the media;
results of sociological surveys.

The composition of speech is a logical arrangement of all parts of speech, motivated by content and intent, and their corresponding relationship, a system for organizing material.

The speech consists of three parts: Introduction, middle part (argumentation) and conclusion.

Psychologists claim (and this has been proven by numerous experiments) that according to the so-called “law of edge”, what is best absorbed is what is included at the beginning and end of the message. Therefore, special attention should be paid to the introduction and conclusion.

The function of the introduction is to psychologically prepare the audience for the perception of the topic, to interest them and create psychologically favorable conditions for its discussion. To do this, the introduction should emphasize the relevance of the topic, its importance for this audience, formulate the goal, and briefly outline the history of the issue. The introduction should be brief.

The conclusion should be no more than 1.5-2 minutes. Here the speaker summarizes and briefly repeats the main ideas of his speech. Popular wisdom says: “The end is the end of things.” Therefore, a convincing and vivid conclusion will leave a good impression of the entire speech, while an unsuccessful one will also spoil a good speech.

The middle part presents the main material, consistently explaining the points put forward, arguing and proving their correctness, analyzing examples and thereby leading the audience to the necessary conclusions.

The material should be arranged in a logical order, and the presentation should not be too long or detailed. Here it is necessary to strive for brightness, clarity, show emotions from time to time, influence the audience in the right way, evoke a reaction, a desire to act in a certain direction.

When working on a presentation, consider the following guidelines:

Be consistent in your speech. Do not move on to the next point in your speech until you have explained the previous one.
Start your presentation with the most important points.
do not repeat. Repeating what was not said creates a very unfavorable impression. If you feel the need to repeat what has been said, make it clear that you are doing so on purpose.
do not be distracted by extraneous facts, information, examples, etc. that are not relevant to the essence of the matter.
follow the principle of amplification, the essence of which is that the importance and persuasiveness of arguments gradually increases, the strongest arguments are used at the end of the argument.

Memorization and pronunciation of the language

The speaker must recite the speech by heart, since the audience is difficult to read the text from a sheet of paper. Sometimes it is necessary to memorize the text of a speech, and this can be justified if you need to make a persuasive speech at a meeting or with a greeting at a special event. Memorization of speech may be small. If the speech is large (lecture, report), then memorization is not possible for everyone, and then problems with reproduction may arise: strong excitement, noise in the hall. Speakers cannot always continue what they started. Many experienced speakers advise speaking based on the text: highlighting the main semantic parts; emphasize main ideas; highlight factual material (names, statistics, quotes). Such text will be easy to use during a speech, and the speech itself will create the impression of fluency in the material, allowing the speaker to freely communicate with the audience.

It is not always possible for a speaker to prepare a speech in advance and then have to create it during the presentation. Impromptu speech is usually well received by the audience, and direct contact with the audience is established. However, due to the fact that the draft version of the speech does not always go smoothly, the speaker does not always fit into the allotted time, and some questions remain unanswered. “Performing” in front of an audience is a high art, the result of long and painstaking work, an indicator of the speaker’s experience and theoretical training.

It should be remembered that the most effective tool of a speaker is his voice. Winston Churchill, an outstanding politician and excellent speaker, prepared very carefully for each of his speeches. He reread the text of his speech several times and made notes in the margins to ensure that his words would have an effective impact on his listeners. In one manuscript, he wrote in the margin of the text: “Here we must raise our voice: there are not enough arguments!

Let's look at this example and analyze what needs to be done to learn how to effectively wield this “weapon”. First of all, you need to determine the strengths and weaknesses of your voice, and then learn to read expressively, which requires good diction, an average rate of speech, the ability to make logical stresses and pauses, the ability to vary the pitch range of the voice and use a variety of intonations.

Let's boil down the experts' recommendations to the following pronunciation rules:

The language must be correct in all its aspects;
avoid monotony; maintain an average speech rate;
Speak loudly enough so that everyone in the audience can hear the speaker clearly.

There are typical shortcomings of oratory. Let's pay attention to them.

Poverty of vocabulary. The small number of words used by the speaker and their constant repetition look depressing and indicate his low educational and intellectual level. The speech should contain synonyms, colorful phrases, and comparisons.

Stylistic inconsistency. It should be remembered that subjects of different spiritual and moral dignity should be spoken of in different styles: important things should not be spoken of in a low style, and sad things should not be spoken of in a cheerful manner. The more worthy the topic of the speech, the more high, solemn words it should contain. Slang, colloquial words should not be used at all in public speaking.

Also, do not speak too pompously or sweetly, this makes the speech unnatural.

Length . Too long, confusing arguments are shortened, complex sentences are divided into 2-3 sentences.

Excessive brevity. By omitting some information or not saying something, the speaker makes his presentation not entirely clear. Speak not to be understood, but to not be understood. The use of obscure words, highly specialized terms and outdated words should be avoided.

Moments of failure. It is necessary to avoid numerous phonetic pauses-fillers (filler words), such as e-e-e-e...mm-mm-m-m...like?..., etc., as well as voiceless alliteration - repetitions of consonants (the minister met with high-ranking representatives...).

How to influence your audience

There are several techniques that can help you manage your audience more effectively. These include:

respect for the values of the audience (the speaker must take into account the opinion of the public when speaking, show interest in their questions, then the main points of the speech will be better received);
unity when the speaker and the audience are similar (you can achieve consistency even in terms of style: this contributes to a better perception of the text);
the speaker’s feeling of the mood of the people in the hall (in order to feel the audience, the speaker must ask them questions and respond to correct exclamations from the audience);
results, decisions and conclusions are briefly presented to the audience at the moment when they become interested in the issue under discussion: then the effectiveness of the presentation will be much higher;
breaks (a person cannot maintain attention for more than 30 minutes. To prevent listeners from getting tired, the speaker must take short breaks at regular intervals, during which a dialogue with the audience takes place, an exchange of opinions or bringing personal experience to the issue).

It is important to visualize text through presentations with audio. This will help listeners understand the material better.

Speaking in front of an audience always requires careful preparation, not only in terms of familiarization with the material. The speaker also needs to know well the psychology of the public, its preferences, and the social status of those present in order to structure his behavior correctly. Only then can the speech be perceived by listeners as fully as possible.