How to be an effective Speaker Tip #3 by David Carroll.

I have shared two tips for expanding one’s person effectiveness in front of a group On TIP #1: Be passionate about your topic: Being passionate drives all other effectiveness aspects of your presentation.

TIP #2: Be crystal clear about the point you wish to make. Clarity of the point and outcome of the message keeps me and the audience on track and away from tangents. ( I am prone to go off on tangents.)

Tip #3 is part of the last two entries I made on April 5th and 15th: being connected. When we are in front of an audience, we are the message. There is the content of the message and certainly the content must be relevant and meaningful, but bringing it alive is our job. A key skill in connecting with the audience is solid eye contact. Look at an individual for 2-3 seconds (or to a sector of a larger audience, everyone in the sector will think you are looking at them) break that contact and move to another person, connect for 2-3 seconds and so forth and so on. The eye to eye contact makes the connection between you and the member of the audience.

Ironically to do good eye to eye connection you must “die to self” a bit. I cannot be thinking about my next words, or what does the audience think of me or my presentation because I am connected to the person or the sector of the audience.

The eye to eye contact will also send a message of genuineness and sincerity to the audience. You are exposing yourself a bit thus being vulnerable and transparent. You might think that such a move is crazy. I do not want to be vulnerable I want to be in charge. I want to hide behind the data. I am only the messenger and the data is the meaning. You can take this position, but it will reduce your effectiveness because people will sense that you are not being genuine to the content of the message which will tend to diminish the power of the content.

I would say that we reduce our effectiveness at our own peril.

“Where Leaders are Made”
David A. Carroll, DTM
Immediate Past District 5 Governor
a.k.a. The Time Management guy
blog: http://leadershipmanager.com
Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidcarroll977

“The enemy of the speaker, sameness.” -P. Fripp.

 

Do More Great Work! by M. B. Stanier

Do More Great Work by M. B. Stanier

 

Fellow Chula Vista Toastmaster Maria Luisa Carlin in her own words.

DEAR TOASTMASTERS: IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO KNOW WHAT INDUCED ME TO BECOME A WRITER, WHAT WAS MY REAL INSPIRATION, HOW DID I END UP BEING A WRITER I MUST SAY IT HAS BEEN MY NEED TO HELP OTHERS.

WHO ? YOU WILL ASK, AND I WILL SAY EVERYONE I CAN HELP IN ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.
WE ALL HAVE TALENTS RIGHT? SOME OF US ARE GREAT SALES PERSON, OTHERS ARE GREAT MATHEMATICIANS, OTHERS ARE EXCELLENT STORY TELLERS, OTHERS MAY HAVE WRITING OR
EVEN ACTING ABILITIES, CORRECT?

I DO CERTAINLY BELIEVE AT THIS SPECIFIC MOMENT IN TIME IT IS OF ESSENTIAL IMPORTANCE THAT WE ALL DEDICATE OUR TIME AND EFFORTS TOWARDS THAT PARTICULAR TALENT WITH WHICH WE CAN
CONTRIBUTE THE MOST TO A BETTER COMMUNITY, A BETTER STATE, A BETTER NATION A BETTER
PLANET A BETTER UNIVERSE!

ALL THE TIME I HAVE BEEN WORRIED ABOUT THE FUTURE GENERATIONS, NEVERTHELESS, THE FUTURE GENERATIONS HAVE ALREADY REACHED US RIGHT HERE IN OUR PRESENT TIME.
THE FUTURE HAS EXPLODED RIGHT ON OUR VERY FACES JUST LIKE A HAND GRENADE!

HOW AND WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS YEAR THE YOUTH ALL AROUND
THE WORLD CREATED A TREMENDOUS REVOLUTION AND CAME TO TELL US WE ARE HERE, WE ARE THE YOUTH OF TODAY, WE ARE STARVING, WE NEED JOBS, WE NEED BETTER SCHOOLS, WE HAVE THE ENERGY, WE HAVE THE YOUTH BUT WE NEED THE SUPPORT WE NEED TO MAKE OUR OWN DESTINIES AND WE COME TO CLAIM OUR FUTURE TODAY, RIGHT NOW IN THIS MOMENT!

AND I ASK YOU FELLOW CITIZENS, DO WE HAVE THE ANSWERS FOR THESE YOUNGSTERS ?
HAVE WE REALLY PLANNED OUR PRESENT AND EVEN MORE OUR FUTURES ?
WHERE ARE WE STANDING? DO WE HAVE THE SOLUTIONS TO THEIR PROBLEMS ?
HOW DID WE END UP HERE ?
DID WE REALLY PLAN TO BE WHERE WE ARE TODAY OR DID WE END UP HERE JUST BY ACCIDENT, OR JUST FOLLOWING WHAT THE MOBS TOLD US TO DO, WITHOUT EVEN REFLECTING ON OUR DECISIONS AND ON OUR ACTIONS?

TO BE CONTINUED MARIA LUISA CARLIN

 

A series of tips by DTM David Carroll Tip #2

TIP #2: Be crystal clear about the point you wish to make.

I am preparing for a major presentation tomorrow. I had general ideas of what I wished to say, but I had not initially gone through the self discipline of being precise about what I wanted to be crystal clear about to the audience.
I buckled down and focused my mind and gained clarity about the point(s) I wanted to make. Since those points were intimate to my personal mission statement it was easy for me to see myself gaining passion about the topic.

 

How to be effective. A series of tips by DTM David Carroll

TIP #1: Be passionate about your topic or do not be passionate:

Being passionate drives all other effectiveness aspects of your presentation. Think about the last time you were really “passionate” about something: amorous towards another, angry at the kids, really happy about the outcome from an employee. You did not need to tell yourself to be energetic, to have vocal variety, to demonstrate your position with body language. You were very passionate about the topic and your presentation backed you up. We all know how to be really pleased with something. We know instinctively how to communicate “really pleased.”

When we are upfront we tend to be neutral on a topic, but simultaneously try to be animated. Now there is a problem. The mind is both neutral and trying to tell the body to be animated. The body is confused because it “knows” both signals. This will definitely generate a “mixed signal” to the listening audience.

The tip: be passionate and let the body follow the emotion. The opposite side: if you do not really care about the topic, be careful if you are trying to “fake” the presentation skills.

by David Carroll, DTM