Use the podium to practice grounding strategies. Touch the podium to steady yourself and to remind yourself that you are safely connected to the ground which is firm and steady beneath your feet. Take a security blanket with you—a complete typed version of your talk to only be used as a backup strategy. Seek out public speaking opportunities to desensitize reduce your fear of communication apprehension.
Created by Kathleen H. Staley, Ph. Category: Students. Tagged: Academic Skills. Expect positive reactions—expect success!
Know the room—if unfamiliar, visit your speaking space before you talk. The Day of the Presentation Eat several hours before the talk—not immediately before Admittedly, this is hard to do. Start with these three steps:.
When we start preparing for a presentation, the mistake we all make is starting with the topic. This immediately gets us inside the details — and makes it harder to break down the wall between us and others. Instead, start with the audience. Before diving into the information, ask yourself: Who will be in the room? Why are they there? What do they need? Be specific in your answers.
You are the most nervous right before you speak. What if I fail? Remind yourself that you are here to help your audience. Be firm with your brain. It is about helping my audience. One of the biggest mistakes we make is speaking to people as a group. We scan the room — trying to look everyone at once — and end up connecting with nobody.
In reality, each person in the room is listening to you as an individual. And so the best way to connect to your audience is by speaking to them as individuals. By making sustained eye contact with one person per thought.
Each thought is about one full clause. By focusing at one person at a time, you make each person in the room feel like you are talking just to them. This is hard. We are accustomed to scanning the room.
Making direct eye contact can feel uncomfortable at first. Yet, as you practice it more, it will actually make you less nervous. It is far easier and more effective to have a series of one-on-one conversations than it is to speak to everyone at once. Since its founding in , a fundamental tenet of Toastmasters' approach to public speaking is that anyone, regardless of their personality or background, can become a great speaker with sufficient practice.
And by "anyone," that includes people who shake and sweat at the thought of standing on a stage. The best way to overcome crippling fear is through practicing being in front of an audience, even if that audience starts as a couple of your close friends. This will lead to confidence, which will then allow you to refine your delivery.
Once you're comfortable with your delivery, you'll still get that rush of energy before your presentation that you did before, but you'll be able to re-purpose it. As Stanford professor Kelly McGonigal explained in her popular TED Talk from , "How to Make Stress Your Friend," stress or nervous energy is not inherently bad; your increased heart rate is meant to prepare your body for action, and it only becomes negative when our conscious mind associates it with preparing for danger leading to failure.
Hettiarachchi uses his mind to focus this energy into positive thoughts by remembering one simple truth before getting on stage, whether it's in front of a company's board or 40, people in a convention center. When you get on stage, the audience is on your side.
They don't want you to fail. The mirror neurons in their brain know what it's like to be in front of a massive audience. And they want you to succeed.
0コメント