Throughout our lives, we will encounter situations in which we will need to speak in public, whether in academia, when we study, or in the professional field, when we work.
These are usually times when anxiety hits the clouds, reaching a level that blocks us. Is there a set of tips we can follow to control the exposure times or speeches we need to give to large audiences?Read on and check out these tips!
- “If you can speak brilliantly about a subject.
- It will give the impression that you dominate it.
- -Stanley Kubrick-.
If anguish erupts when you speak in public, it will become a devil who will play against you (and with your own weapons because you know it very well). But if we have anxiety at a moderate level, this emotion will allow us to better prepare the speech that we will have to make. In fact, the first advice to consider is to prepare for the presentation.
To do this it is necessary to determine the time available to prepare and practice, in this way we will divide the time to devote half to each task, in this way we can make our interpretation well linked to our discourse, which we must also prepare.
“Every well-prepared speech already comes in nine tenths. -Dale Carnegie-
Therefore, the second advice is to make the speech clear and easy to follow by the public, for this we must be very clear about the objective that we want to achieve and what makes up our audience. how we can structure our discourse and choose the right tools. The auditorium will determine our starting point and the level of depth we can reach with the base we have.
Thirdly, to succeed in our exhibition, it is important to avoid reading all the time. Use and develop an appropriate accompaniment method. This method can be anything from a paper plan to an audiovisual presentation to guide our speech.
The tips on what we can do to improve our presentation do not end there, once we have duly prepared the exhibition that we will organize and the material that we will use, we have to train, this is the fourth step, repeat our speech at home and out loud. This way, we’ll know what we need to improve before we expose it to our audience.
But we don’t just have to practice at home. A fifth tip would be to go to the place where it will be done and repeat before the exhibition, this will help us to manage our anxiety, to get acquainted with the place where the exhibition will be held, in addition, this will allow us to confirm that the presentation is well edited and that when switching from one computer to another, it will not be mis-configured.
After that, there is only one thing left to do before giving our speech to a group of people: relaxing, practicing a relaxation technique, such as abdominal breathing, will help us not block the speech we prepare for nervousness. This way, we’ll avoid memory recovery issues.
Once the presentation has started it is important to implement some strategies, the seventh aspect to consider is eye contact, it is extremely relevant to divide the gaze among the people who are seeing us, without looking at a single person or a point. in the room, at least in moments of pause. Nor should we jump to conclusions about how people judge only by their faces, because that will make us more nervous.
“Sometimes we talk a lot, but we say little. To express yourself better it is advisable to think more. -Horor de Balzac-
It is better to focus on what we say and how we do it. The eighth tip that will make our presentation a success will be precisely to take care of our non-verbal communication, to capture the attention of our audience it will be important that the volume, speed and tone of our voice be maintained. at medium levels, varying slightly.
Finally, a ninth tip that will help us maintain this attention and master the art of public speaking is to use humor to make our audience smile, not a laugh, we don’t want to stand-up. we all make mistakes, so if you’re wrong and you have a white one, don’t you give it too much importance and continue your speech?Put it as your goal!
Images courtesy of Charles Forerunner, Craig Garner and Breather.