5-10-2018
“Public speaking is number one fear even before the fear of death.”
There cannot be enough emphasise on the fear of public speaking than the above quote. Hence, I am sharing my knowledge that I have gained with my years of corporate experience and public speaking at various platforms.
When you are part of a group of people, be it near the water cooler in your office or a networking meeting, your words and actions make an impact on those around you. Most people stay in their head space thinking how to start a conversation or when to speak in an ongoing discussion.
There are some vital parameters of speech that can help us in making a difference and gain visibility in any social gathering.
The way we start our pitch, our hand gestures, even our body movement while speaking, has an impact on the listeners. The voice modulation, choice of words, tone, hand movement, body movement, eye contact, stability and pause between lines, everything matters when we are addressing to convey our message.
We must use our voice and body language depending upon the situation. For instance, when we are addressing a large gathering from a stage, we need to move around to establish contact and reach out to the maximum audience. However, while making a point or a sharp statement, we need to be stable, stop moving and shoot the message in a voice that isn’t too loud or too low, just right.
We must be mindful of whom we are addressing. If it is a college grad student base, add humour and connect with the age group. If it is a school crowd, add analogies relevant for that age group. If you are addressing corporate professionals, add instances from corporate life, share experiences and add examples of a boss and subordinate relationship or peer-to-peer relationship.
Establish your credibility by being authentic. This is only feasible if you accept your thoughts and their is no conflict of thought in your ideas and your beliefs. You should gain trust so that people are receptive to your ideas.
Most important of all the parameters is CONTENT and preparation. The reason your audience will connect to you is to learn from you and not just see your communication skills. With a smartphone in every ones hand and other pressing commitments, the attention span is lower than ever, so your content should be crafted for maximum relevance and interest. Impressive content that actually helps the audience to improve their life and compellingly interesting examples that they connect to. The learnings from your sessions should be such that the participants love to share them with their peers and stays with them ever after your session.
Lastly, to establish yourself, you have to keep the listeners needs above yours. If you can create value for your listeners you have them all ears. Thank you.
Please share your own experiences where you impressed your audience or embarrassed yourself as you expected more from yourself. Also other necessary parameters to connect with the audience.
