Public Speaking, Presentation & Leadership Skills

PAUSES and its importance Remember the famous example, which taught that Punctuation can save life (literally). “Let’s eat, Grandma” versus “ Let’s eat Grandma.” Punctuation saves the lives of the elderly!” In the world of public speaking pauses are your punctuation. When we speak out loud, we can’t rely on punctuation to help our audience follow along. Instead, create emphasis or convey emotion and  humor  by using the pause as spoken punctuation. Pausing adds power, drama, to your speech. Used well your silences will literally speak LOUDER than your words. Learning when to pause and how long for is a skill and like all skills improves with practice. Effective use of speech pauses is a master technique. If you do it right, nobody is conscious of your pauses, but your ideas are communicated more persuasively. If you do it wrong, your credibility is weakened, and your audience struggles to comprehend your message. Effective Speaking Pauses – tips and...

How to Say it. Have you been to a speech, when you have heard audience murmur within them: What did he say? What was the meaning? Technical writing, essays, financial reports, and legal writings all have their place — but none of them belong in your speechwriting.  Speeches use simple, conversational language are more enjoyable to listen to, easier to follow, and more likely to be remembered. The fourth Toastmasters speech project   “How to Say it”, guides you how to use simple, but descriptive language in your speeches. This article examines the primary goals of this project, provides tips and techniques. Objectives The objectives of the speech are Select the right words and sentence structure to communicate your ideas clearly, accurately and vividly. Use rhetorical devices to enhance and emphasize ideas. Eliminate jargon and unnecessary words. Use correct grammar. Tips and Technique Story based topics:     You can choose any topic...

IMPORTANCE of Eye contact Have you been to any presentation where you start losing interest because the speaker is looking at everything other than you? Eye contact is one of the most important arsenals of the speaker. Eye contact alone will not make or break your next presentation. Great eye contact won’t save a poor presentation, and poor eye contact won’t doom an otherwise fantastic presentation. Compared to your content, eye contact is clearly secondary. Eye contact is a valuable delivery tool you can use to enhance your presentation. Effective eye contact improves your connection with the audience, and that is always a good thing. Eye Contact – Easy affair isn’t it? Eye contact should be a natural technique for speakers. Nearly every day, we have conversations with friends and family that are greatly enhanced by shared eye contact, and we are barely conscious of it, if at all. Unfortunately, this “natural” ability starts dissolving for many speakers when they s...

Get to the Point Have you ever been to a painfully bad seminar with audience members murmuring to each other…? ·          “What was that about?“ ·          “He was all over the place today.“ ·          “What was her point?“ These are symptoms of a speech that had no clear objective and was not focused on achieving that objective. The third project of Toastmaster stresses the importance of clearly identifying your target objective, and then maintaining precise focus to achieve it and is aptly named as “Get to the Point”. Objective Every speech must have a general and a specific purpose. A general purpose is to inform, to persuade, to entertain or to inspire. A specific purpose is what you want the audience to do after listening to your speech. Once you have established your general and specific purposes, you'll find it easy to organize your sp...

Evaluations: - Quite a few of us have the misconceptions that “Only the speaker gets any benefit from an evaluation of their speech.” This is false. ·           You (as the evaluator) improve as a speaker by providing an evaluation. A great way to solidify your own knowledge is to teach it to others. The speaker becomes aware of both their strengths and areas with potential for improvement. The audience for the evaluation (if there is one, as in Toastmasters) benefits from hearing the evaluation and applying the lessons to their own presentations. Future audiences benefit from improved speakers. How to evaluate: While evaluating in any sphere of life, the most important we have to consider is the level of skill of the individual. The most important thing to remember while evaluating is that your evaluation should encourage him / her not discourages. Evaluating the inexperienced speaker:...