Posts Tagged ‘Delivery’
The foolproof recipe for whipping up a great presentation
Process. Routine. Method.
These words don’t really conjure a sense of excitement or adventure do they? Womp, womp.
And yet much has been written about the benefits of having systems and routines:
Greater productivity
Less stress
Less procrastination
Though they sound mundane, process, routine, and method are vital keys to unlocking time and reducing stress. The popularity of Andrew Huberman’s morning routine, Marie Kondo’s KonMari method, and Timeboxing strategies reveals how much we benefit from systems—both personally and professionally.
Having a system for developing presentations makes the effort much more manageable and, more importantly, ensures greater success. Many of my clients say that learning the process I teach them is the greatest ongoing benefit of working with me. By leaning on a repeatable process, they’re less overwhelmed by having to create yet another presentation (likely with little time!). And they are happier with the results of their efforts.
Read More6 public speaking lessons from “I have a dream”
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was undoubtedly one of the greatest orators in history. Though his legacy is far more encompassing than his speaking proficiency (and we have yet to fully realize his dream), his ability to communicate that dream played an enormous part in the progress made toward it.
His labors were tireless. He spoke often, in one-on-one conversations, smaller groups, and to the masses. Let’s refrain from reducing his effort to merely the most famous of his speeches while also learning what we can from its message (as people) and its content and delivery (as speakers).
Read MoreHow to sound more confident when speaking and presenting
If giving a presentation or speech makes your knees knock and your stomach flip, you’re in good company. Feeling nervous when speaking in public is an extremely common challenge. Yet we don’t want our nerves to impede our ability to communicate… we want it to be easy for our audience to understand and act on our message. Even those who do feel comfortable speaking and presenting might not be signaling confidence with their speaking style. Since our stakeholders weigh the merit of our ideas partly based on how credible they find us, portraying confidence is vital to the success of our message.
There are a variety of physical and audible ways to develop and portray a greater sense of confidence when presenting. This article will focus on the latter: what our audiences hear in our voices. If you’re not sure whether you’re conveying confidence with your voice (or body), ask for feedback from some trusted sources and/or watch some video footage of a recent presentation you’ve given.
Ever wondered…
…why your voice sounds so different on a recording? When we hear ourselves talk real-time, we hear the sound waves through both bone conduction and air conduction. We hear others (or recordings of ourselves) only through air conduction.
If you’d like to sound more confident than you currently do, use the following tips to bolster the quality of your audible communication. These tools will help in all communication scenarios: one-on-one conversations, roundtable meetings, and in front of larger groups, whether virtual and in-person.
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