Public Speaking: Rehearsing and Giving the Speech

OnWords

Rehearsing and Giving the Speech

By ANDREW GREENE

Jakarta – The moment has arrived, for today, we rehearse and we give our speech.

First of all, as we prepare to conquer our oratory fear, we need to remember that the key is in the preparation. It is as coaches preach, “You play as you practice.”

Confidence in front of your audience comes from complete familiarity with your material. Tentativeness and an over-reliance on notes rob you of your confidence and therefore your credibility.

As you practice your speech, you need to remember where your signal words are. How did you organize your speech? What are the most important points? Once you understand and are fully acquainted with the skeleton of your speech you will be more capable of presenting it in a natural manner.

Mind-mapping, also called clustering, brainstorming and a whole list of other names, is one effective way of memorizing your speech’s notes due to its visual nature.

To mind map, you begin by writing your subject in the middle of a blank sheet of paper. You next circle the subject and then write your main ideas radiating out from the circled central-subject. From these main ideas you branch out your supporting details. Once you have finished, you are left with a series of webs that clearly delineate the relationships between the subject, its main ideas and their supporting details. Some people feel that color coding the map by order of importance is of further help.

After you have memorized your speech using whichever mnemonic techniques you are comfortable with, you will need to rehearse it. At first it is fine for you to practice with your note-cards, but eventually you want to be able to deliver your speech without them, only having them on hand in case of emergency.

When you begin to practice aloud you may initially feel awkward. After all, for most of us, it is not natural to speak all alone. What you should aim for is the ability to give your presentation in a conversational, normal manner. As you give yourself feedback on your rehearsals, ask yourself if you appear natural. Drill and drill until the speech becomes second nature.

Where are you going to give your speech? Are you going to use any sound or lighting equipment? If so, try to get practice time in the actual venue and with the equipment that you will be using. The time to first hear your own amplified voice is not when you are parting your lips in front of the audience.

When the occasion to give your speech arrives, there are a number of tips for you to keep in mind.

Most importantly, you need to remember that you are ready. You are completely prepared and it is you who knows your material the best. Next, you need to always bear in mind that the audience is there for you. They want to go on your journey with you. They are not looking for faults; they want you to succeed.

You want to speak to friends, not strangers. The international nonprofit organization Toastmasters suggests you greet members of the audience as they arrive. This gives you the chance to “Know your audience” and in turn boosts your credibility.

During your speech it is helpful for you to look out over the audience and make eye contact with individuals. This calms your nerves and in turn puts your listeners at ease.

As OnWords’ final public speaking column comes to a close, I would like to ask you a few questions. What public speakers do you admire? Why do they appeal to you? Is one of their main strengths that they seem to belong on stage? That they are natural speakers? I am guessing your answer to these last two queries is, yes.

What we all need to keep in mind is that when we are observing those gifted speakers, we are witnessing just the tip of a long process that involves writing, editing, and a whole lot of practicing. They have put in the time perfecting this skill so that it does in fact become natural. The good news for all of us is that we too can work at public speaking. We too can transform it into an activity we come to enjoy.

For information on how to join Toastmasters or on how to even start a chapter within your company or group please contact Kebayoran Toastmasters’ Vice President (membership), Monica Sugiarto, at 062818155119 or queen@sugiarto.famili.com. Toastmasters also has a website, www.toastmasters.org, loaded with public speaking tips and membership information.

Until next column,

Happy Speaking,

AG

This article was originally published in The Jakarta Post.

Public Speaking: The Greatest Fear of All

On Words

Public Speaking: The Greatest Fear of All

By ANDREW GREENE

Jakarta – I have a confession to make. For years I could not speak.

Sure, when sitting around a table with friends or standing in front of my students I was cool, coherent and as charming as a Pomeranian kissing a Hollywood starlet. But, when it came time for me to slip out of my comfort zone and speak to groups or strangers, I fell apart time and time again.

Public speaking was my greatest fear.

I did not tremble alone. Many western studies have found the fear of public speaking to be the most dreaded of them all, greater even than the fear of death itself. Monica Sugiarto, Vice President Membership, Kebayoran Toastmasters, says that although she has not seen any statistics on the subject she believes it to be the top fear in Indonesia too, saying it is “the same all over the world.”

For me, the pain would start as soon as I found out I was to speak. Right away, my mind would begin to play over and over the upcoming task and visualize all that could and surely would go wrong. As the days passed, the anxiety would fold up upon itself filling my days with worry, my sleep with nightmares.

I did not know how to prepare for a presentation. I used to write out my speech in full and then practice it over and over, memorizing each comma, full stop, letter, word.

When the time came to deliver, I’d stand there, my hands clenched into balls of fear, vomiting out my message as quickly as possible. I only had one goal: get out of there! With adrenalin pumping through my body and mind I was purely in 'fight or flight' mode. The emphasis, squarely on the later.

I honestly did not care how effective I was or what my audience got out of it. As far as I was concerned, once the words left my mouth, they were no longer my responsibility. It was up to the audience to dig through the quick-speak, mumbled message. I had done my part.

And this is the state my skills would still fester in if I were not a teacher. Just over a decade ago, I began to learn the secrets about how to speak effectively by having to critique others when I was given a class of business executives who wished to sharpen their presentation skills. At that early point I was living the old axiom, “those who can, do; those who cannot, teach.”

However, my students’ blossoming abilities drove me to study the subject more deeply. It turned out that public speaking consisted of a skills set that could be learned the same as cooking or drawing. True, not everyone will become an Obama, but by learning how to properly prepare for, practice and give presentations even the most leaden-tongued of us can come to approach these tasks with confidence.

As I acquired more knowledge, my confidence grew and I began to give presentations to prospective clients and lead training workshops at my school. Although I still did not genuinely enjoy public speaking, I was at least able do the job when need be.

Learning these skills will enrich your life both personally and professionally. Sugiarto says, “We get more confident by overcoming fear. Since we do this ourselves, with no teachers, we give giveback. This improves our listening and communication skills along with showing us how to look at things from different points of views… We become better parents and teachers.”

In the next OnWords, with Sugiarto’s help, we will go over some public speaking techniques and learn how to practice them. Hopefully, with time, they will become some of the most-frequently-used tools in your language skills toolbox.

Good presenting,

AG

This article was originally published in The Jakarta Post.