Continuing the "Growing Team Leaders" course, last week Greg Stockwell of Public Speaking Australia presented "Public Speaking and Presentation Skills".
Unlike the previous sessions, this session was presented as a series of exercises where Greg introduced a few simple techniques for dealing with the obvious nerves of speaking. Interestingly when you hear people say they don't get nervous when speaking, this can sometimes mean they are overconfident. This overconfidence comes across to the audience as disingenuous.
Greg also presented a few simple rules when speaking publicly. For example
- never tell the audience you're nervous, they'll focus on looking for the signs of nerves instead of the substance of your presentation
- if showing a video, tell them how long it is so they know what to expect
- if possible, see the venue before you speak so you have a sense of the layout and reduce the unexpected
- finally, be yourself, don't try to be something you aren't.
I think the point I really liked, that Greg made, regarding public speaking is
It's not life or death, it's only public speaking.
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