Is your public speaking and your business presentations emotional? Or do you think emotion is unprofessional?

Just as a neat business letter has margins so does effective emotional speaking. Usually you will find threads of control. However these threads by no means turn out to be cables which choke out reasonable feeling. Many speakers, nevertheless, with regards to these analogies use only margins and cables. They talk as though their hearts were on holiday.
An additional cause of this tragedy may be because some adults believe that expressing any emotion is childish and immature, or that honest feeling will make them appear weak and ridiculous. So having been indoctrinated with this mindset for years, although they are tempted to express emotion from a speaker’s platform, they manfully suppress it.
But surely the millions of individuals who watch dramatic programs on Television every day, for example, indicates that emotion is popular and not to be feared. Feeling is natural, easy, and satisfying. What would remain if all feeling were removed from life? Life consists largely of the emotional experiences people have although some of those experiences may be as simple as the taste of ice cream.
When a speaker is willing to express freely the natural emotional content of his material his body will respond, also naturally, to the emotion. A twinkle in his eye, a smile, frown, nod of the head, lifting of an eyebrow, a shrug of the shoulders, shaking of a fist, opening of the hands, even a kick of the foot, or any one of many other overt actions might become a component of the speaking. Also small muscles that cannot be seen moving are contributing to the total speaking effect. In fact whenever a speaker willingly “lets his feelings show” he could make an extremely effective “speech without visibly moving a muscle!
But more likely most people who are honestly showing their feelings do use considerable overt bodily action. Obviously these movements ought to never be definitively planned, and as individuals walk in different manners, so will their physical expression of ideas differ.
For instance, each of five speakers may express “Get out of here!” in a different way. One may point a stern forefinger toward an imaginary door as he spoke. Another may make an open sweep with his hand, and the third may jerk a thumb over his shoulder toward a back door. The fourth speaker’s eyelids narrow as he slightly moves his head toward the door. The final speaker might stamp a foot and reach out as if he would choke anybody who refused to get out. There isn’t any 1 particular right way to express an emotion physically. Every speaker should feel deeply, then “do just what comes naturally.” But he should willingly do without restraining the doing.

What is your public speaking like? If you want help to improve your public speaking ability so you have your audience spellbound please enter you details on the right and receive the information that will make a difference straight to your inbox.

If a fast or rushed speed of delivery in public speaking can tire an audience. (see my last post)

In contrast a very sluggish, dragging type of delivery will certainly motivate a listeners’ focus to go elsewhere, or the audience may say mentally, “Seriously, speaker, let’s go! I’m way ahead of you.” There is a reasonable medium pace of speaking in keeping with a speaker’s personality and the character of his speech.
A sing-song rhythmical delivery, beginning or closing all sentences on the very same pitch level, or raising the voice at the finish of statements may become monotonous habits. These tendencies can be avoided when a speaker talks as though he were having a lively, interesting chat with his audience.
Recording a lengthy speech and listening thoroughly to the recording will reveal any tedious speaking patterns. A speaker should invite other listeners to discover the monotony, as well. Then he should get active and put more vocal shades into his tone of voice, making certain he speaks in a conversational tone.
Speech that is far too precise or too exacting will destroy the purpose of effective oral communication because this practice calls attention to words and sounds instead of ideas. Such speaking may weary or disgust an audience. A speech trainer, or anyone else, who holds final consonants like he owns them, or who makes an apparent conscious effort to speak carefully may actually cause listeners to desire he’ll trip his tongue sometime.
However, loose, careless talk, or perhaps the use of inappropriate slang in his speech may draw attention to his manner of speaking instead of to the ideas he expresses. This careless speaking habit could also label him as being a lazy individual who would not use very much energy to find fascinating speech material for any audience.
We can have an informal, folksy speaking style, if we wish, without using lazy diction. Or we are able to be formal and “businesslike” without being starchy or “nasty nice.” Either way time invested studying the meaning of words and how to articulate them is worthwhile.

To sound more interesting in public speaking it is about reviewing how you sound and then taking action to improve any areas that may need some attention . It is in this way that we get better. An important element of this is having the information to know what to do. By signing up to my blog on the right you can receive tip information on better public speaking direct to your in-box.

Effective public speaking is about keeping your audience’s attention.

Do you paint pictures with your words or do you leave your listeners in a verbal fog?

An effective speaker puts interesting, picture-making details into his stories. He uses specific, concrete words that create vivid images rather than a blur of mental fog.
Some speakers err by talking about what happened rather than picturing it happening.
A speaker could say, “He was emotionally disturbed when he heard that his mother had passed away.” Or this event could be pictured: “The smile faded from young Bill Day’s face as lie held the telephone receiver to his ear and heard the broken voice of his father calling long distance. His fingers tightened vice-like on the receiver, and blood rushed to his head as he listened breathlessly to the saddest news he had ever heard — a head-on collision on the highway. Now the receiver felt like lead in his limp hand. It seemed all the strength had been suddenly drained from his body. With his free hand he grasped the telephone to keep from sinking to the floor. Tears coursed down the youthful lines of his face because his mother had been driving one of the automobiles in that fatal crash.”
Consider this statement, “An animal crossed the road for a serious purpose.” What kind of mental picture do these words paint? Does the listener see a dog, cat, elephant, horse, or any one of a hundred other animals? How did the animal cross the road, quickly, slowly, cautiously? Was the road a wide highway, a dirt road, a narrow trail? And what really was the serious purpose?
Such speaking blurs the mental film. It is like trying to see a drive-in movie at Hoboken through, a London fog. But when the speaker says what he really means, “A wildcat leaped across the mountain path to pounce upon a lazy jackrabbit,” he paints a verbal masterpiece.

I’ll post more about this in coming weeks about using words for effective pulbic speaking.

As in conversation, there are different styles of public speaking. It is getting the balance right that is most important between them.
A conversation may be stiff and formal. Or it may be relaxed and informal. This latter condition is more effective in a public speaking situation.
A speaker who holds himself aloof, or “buttons himself up” from an audience does not communicate freely with his listeners. They feel he is holding back, not sharing his complete self. An atmosphere of restraint and reserve builds at least a partial barrier between audience and speaker. Persuasion is delayed, often it is impossible, when a speaker puts up such a barrier.
The very nature of effective persuasion necessitates a close, friendly feeling between listener and speaker. How can a listener get close to a speaker who isolates himself with extreme formality or indifference?
A style of speaking may reveal a precise manner which causes listeners to feel the speaker really despises the “common herd,” and that speaking to them is a trial for him. Any tendency to talk down to an audience or evidence that a speaker feels he is superior to other people detracts from his persuasiveness. An extremely particular person who must be sure that every hair on his head is just so-so before he speaks may cause listeners to wish
they could mess up his hair.
On the other hand, an extremely careless or sloppy person will probably not create a persuasive influence. Informality need never go to seed. But a speaker who leans in that direction probably will be more interesting, popular, and persuasive, than one whose manner dares listeners to come near him.

As with much to do with public speaking the above is only general guidance because it depends on the audience. You also need to consider what will work best in the situation and with your audience to help determine the most effective public speaking style.

We’ve all heard about people’s number one fear being public speaking. Being able to overcome that will help you develop effective presentation skills.

I decided to come up with some tips that might help people develop effective presentation skills. Here’s my Top 5 Tips to help give a great presentation. In order to develop effective presentation skills you need to…

1) Know you subject. Sounds obvious, but bear with me. Everyone in your department may know the subject as well as you do, but that doesn’t stop you from finding a fresh spin on the topic. Instead of giving a dull, emotionless statistics why not try finding a vivid, imaged-filled comparison? Example, instead of telling us how many miles it is from the Earth to the Moon you could tell your listeners how many buses would stretch end to end.

Also, what point are you making with your presentation? You can’t just talk and talk at length showing them slide after slide of text until your time is up. Get clear on what message you want to convey to your listeners. Then everything that you say and show them has to be connected to your main message, if it’s not it’s gone!

And please – don’t clutter your slides up with mountains of text. Have clear succinct bullet points that encapsulate what it is you want to present. Then tell them the rest. You should be expanding upon the ideas in your bullet points and delivering them with all your panache, not mindlessly reading them off the screen.

2) Structuring. Just like a good novel or film your presentation needs a beginning, middle and an end. If it will help you can use the old reliable “tell ‘em format”:

“tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em, tell ‘em and tell ‘em what you told ‘em”.

Try your best to provide your listeners with new information or put a new interpretation on existing information. Remember, what you want to give them is great content not soulless spin!

3) Relevancy. Keep asking yourself is what your presenting relevant to your main message and relevant to your listeners? If it isn’t then bin it and find something that is. I’ve been in the audience listening to a presenter thinking “how is this relevant to me?” And I never found out. I never found out because it wasn’t relevant to me.

4) Enthusiasm. Try to let your enthusiasm for your subject come through without being too over-the-top and evangelical. If you’re not passionate and enthused by your subject why should we be?

5) Practise. Practise, practise and practise some more! You can’t hope to develop effective presentation skills if you don’t go over it before-hand. In order to nail it and win over your listeners you need to know the presentation better than the back of your hand. Make sure you know how the equipment works and what to do if there are any technical problems. Don’t just rely on the temp who may or may not be able to help you out.

If you can implement these techniques then you will be on your way to developing effective communication skills!

About the Author

Jason Peck is a Humorist, Speaker and Coach based in London, England. For more humour techniques, tips and secrets, check out Jason’s Jason Peck is a Humorist, Speaker and Coach based in London, England. For more humour techniques, tips and secrets, check out Jason’s hub page Learn to be Funny