Improve Your Presentation Skills And Beat The Fear Of Public Speaking With The Right Support


by Larina Kase - Date: 2007-07-05 - Word Count: 475 Share This!

You might think that getting better at public speaking is all up to you. After all, you're the one who needs to get up there and talk. In reality, however, if you don't get assistance, it will be difficult to gain confidence in your public speaking abilities and hone your presentation skills.

Others can offer you a great deal of valuable guidance and support as a speaker. I always say, "Why do alone what you can do with more fun and less effort with others?" I believe this idea holds true for professional speaking.

Preparing and practicing are typically not much fun, but with the right support they can be enjoyable and productive. Performing can be highly nerve-wracking. Relying on others can take away some of the anxiety and stress. And finally if you're prone to post-presentation self-criticism, look to the feedback of others to evaluate your performance, rather than relying on your harsh self analysis.

Here are some more specific tips for how to get help with the three P's of power presentations:

Preparation

• Ask the meeting planner or whoever coordinates your presentation about the set-up of the room, and who will support you with technology so you don't need to worry about those things.
• Rehearse in front of some colleagues and friends and ask them for feedback, including what you did well.
• If you feel do better with two people presenting, ask if you can get a co-presenter.
• Collect information about your audience. The more that you know and can help them, the more they will help you during your talk by giving you supportive, positive energy
• Let the key people in your life know that you are embarking on something challenging, and let them know how they can help you reduce stress in other areas of life.

Performance

• Make sure your audience is with you by asking questions and getting them involved.
• Assign someone in the audience to help out in case of technical failure or to let you know when you need to wrap up.
• Use other people's humor. If you're not great at telling jokes and using humor, tell stories or use cartoons or images that other people have developed. Just make sure it fits your style.

Post-Presentation

• Collect detailed feedback, and build your confidence by focusing on what you did well.
• Meet your audience members by announcing that you will stay around after your presentation.
• If you start doing a post-mortem (telling yourself everything you did wrong- this is not helpful) get engaged in a conversation.
• Go out to celebrate with someone you enjoy spending time with. You did something difficult and you deserve a reward!

Getting support can be challenging. It's often hard to ask for help and rely on others. When, however, you do, you'll see that it's definitely worth it. With the right support from friends, coaches, colleagues, or others, you will find a dramatic increase in your speaking abilities and confidence. Enjoy!

Related Tags: presentation skills, public speaking, self-criticism, the fear of public speaking, power presentations, speaking abilities

Larina Kase, PsyD, MBA is a business psychologist expert in peak performance and the coauthor of The New York Times bestselling book The Confident Speaker. Get articles and take a charisma quotient quiz at www.TheConfidentSpeaker.com

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