Public speaking and team building

by: Ellen Egan

As I have mentioned before, public speaking is at the cornerstone of your successful career.  Years ago I had a wonderful mentor who taught me how to apply my public speaking skills in my role in our team.  The more that I applied these skills that I am about to teach you, the more I became a leader within our team.  This eventually led to a promotion and a much more secure position within the organization.  Once again – developing your public speaking skills can develop your career.

When working within a team, there are public speaking skills that you can apply which will lead to the team success and then your own success as well.  These tips can be applied to team meetings or any other interactions with team members.

1.  Listen generously.  Effective team members and effective leaders are those who are good listeners.  Listen first and then speak.  Try to hear all aspects of the situation before giving your opinion.  The other members of your team will recognise that you are listening to the situation, their concers and viewpoints.  It is a lot easier to think of different options and solutions when you have all the available information.    Also, you will be better able to understand the different perspectives of your audience (the other team members) if you have taken the time to listen.

2.  Look for options.  It is easier to complain and speak of problems.  But the mark of a true leader is someone who looks for solutions.   While you are listening to the information given by others, begin thinking of solutions to the concerns and challenges.  When you offer the solution, you can begin by clarifying what you think the problem is.  Then, offer options for solving the problem.

3.  Take a different perspective.  When working with teams, there can be differences between team members.  In these situations, try to bring the conversation back to the client (or audience) perspective.  You can use phrases like “Well, for our client X, it seems that their needs are centered on acheiving Y.  If we are helping them to achieve Y, then we need to focus on Z”  This helps to bring people back to the main goal of helping the client rather than on the mini-battle within the team.

4.  Transitions.  There are many different types of transition phrases you can use when you begin speaking that help to begin your presentation of your opinion without causing conflict.  “Jim, Iagree with what you are saying …… and I would like to add….”  “If I can clarify some of the details of …..”   “It seems like we have one core challenge  X….. with several options  x,y,z  for what we can do next.”  When you are transitioning to your opinion or solution, try to put on  a positive spin.

5.  Credit where credit is due.  One of the main skills I learned from my mentor is to be generous in giving out the credit.  People will remember other team members who shared the spotlight for a job well done or a good idea.  These are the people who are then given leadership roles.

One of my favorite quotes is from President Harry S. Truman “It is amazing what you can accomplish, when you don’t mind who gets the credit”

To your success,

Ellen

Make your public speaking easier – get your audience involved

By Ellen Egan

If you are not yet comfortable with public speaking (or love public speaking) and want to:

- decrease the amount of time you have to talk

- increase the amount of fun you have

- increase the amount of understanding your audience retains from your presentation

- increase the likelihood of a positive appraisal of your presentation

- and loads of other positive things….

then, include a section in your presentation for audience interaction.
Get your audinece involved.

Check out this video with Bobby McFerrin and notice how little talking he does, how much interaction he gets from the audience and how much fun everyone has.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6tB2KiZuk

OK.  So, sure that looks easy for Bobby.  But, how do I apply this to my situation?

1.  As you are writing the outline for your presentation, look for areas where you can include audience interaction.

2.  Ask questions of your audinece during the presentation.  (e.g. how many of us have had this experience?) Note:  please try to frame questions as “us” or “we”, so that the audience understands that you are on their side – rather than separating yourself from them.

3.  As always, find out as much as you can about your audience before your presentation so that you can understand their needs.  Once you understand their needs and perspective it will be easier to craft an interactive session that will help them to achieve their goals fromt he presentation.

4.  The key to the interactive session is to make sure that it helps the audience to move along the path towards their goals.  If the interactive session is framed this way, then you will get a positive audience response.  If it is framed as clearly only helping you achieve your goals, you will get less (or no ) participation.

5.  Try to find something that people can laugh about.  If the interactive session will bring out a laugh or two you are more likely to get a positive response, and it will help the overall outcome of your presentation.

6.  Watch as many presentations as you can and model the people that you feel do a good job with bringing interaction into their presentation.

The more interactivity you have with your audience, the greater likelihood of success of your presentation – that is really the bottom line.  The fact that it also make it way more fun for you and for them is really the cherry on top of the cake.

To your success,

Ellen

Get your thoughts on the right path for public speaking success

By: Ellen Egan

Your thoughts about your speech before it is delivered are more important than the thoughts running through your head during your presentation.  Yes, its true.  What you think will happen during your presentation will have a powerful impact on what actually takes place during the presentation.

There has been a lot of disucssion recently,  about the power of visualization.  You may think that this is all a  load of fluff, but I can assure you, its a scientific truth.    When you take a few minutes to visualize yourself successfully doing something, you greatly increase your likelihood of success.

This has been proven in many areas.  There is a fmous study regarding freethrows in basketball.  A set of students were tested as to how many freethrow shots they could complete in a set period of time.  Then, one group was asked to practice their freethrow shots every day for a week.  One group was asked to visualise successfully completing freethrow shots for 5 minutes a day for a week.  The third group was asked to do nothing regardig their freethrow shots for the week.  When they were all tested again, as you can imagine, the group that did nothing did not improve and the group that practiced did improve.  But, the amazing thing is that the group that didn’t practice but that visualised successfullly completing their freethrow shots improved at the same rate as the group that practiced.

If, before your presentation, you regularly see yourself successfully delivering an effective presentation in your mind, you will increase your likelihood of success.

Unfortunately, what many people do is the opposite.  They regularly see themselves delivering a failed presentation, and they increase the likelihood of that happening.

My suggestion:  As you are writing your outline and developing the details of your presentation, take a few minutes and visualise exactly how you would like each portion of your presentation to happen.  As you see it in your mind, make it very vivid with bright colors and music in the background.  Then, hear the applause.  You will be amazed at how powerful this can be in increasing your confidence, helping to identify important details of what you want to happen and ultimately ensuring a successful presentation.

To your success,

Ellen