Toastmasters Italia

Par­lare in pubblico

You keep a chec­klist handy for many of your regu­lar tasks – gro­cery
shop­ping, sche­du­ling your day and week, and crea­ting a hyper­link, for exam­ple. Because your pro­fes­sion requi­res you to speak to groups fre­quen­tly, you have often wished you could keep a speech pre­pa­ra­tion check-list handy, to remind you how to get ready to gene­rate the results you want. You won’t have to wait any lon­ger. Here is your chec­klist for top-level speech preparation.

Adopt an upbeat ATTITUDE
Form a men­tal pic­ture of suc­cess. Assume you have some­thing worth say­ing, and that you will say it well. Anti­ci­pate your audience’s unbro­ken atten­tion, laughter, and applause. Pic­ture your liste­ners par­ti­ci­pa­ting acti­vely in discus­sion, with rele­vant que­stions and com­ments reflec­ting their rapt atten­tion. Satu­rate your mind with these affir­ma­tive expec­ta­tions, lea­ving no room for doubt and fear.

Focus on the AUDIENCE
This way, you won’t become exces­si­vely con­cer­ned about your­self – whe­ther you are dres­sed pro­perly, making a favo­ra­ble impres­sion, and hol­ding the group’s atten­tion. Those self-directed thoughts can become obses­sive, distrac­ting you from your main pur­pose: hel­ping your liste­ners under­stand and accept your mes­sage. And remem­ber, audien­ces want you to suc­ceed. Suc­ces­sful spea­kers make mee­tings and con­fe­ren­ces suc­ces­sful. Audience mem­bers aren’t cri­tics, they are your cheer­lea­ders. Embrace them emo­tio­nally even before you say your first word – then they’ll embrace you.

Be ANIMATED
Liste­ners don’t want to won­der if you have a pulse. So don’t read or recite your message…tell it, as ener­ge­ti­cally as you would describe a fun wee­kend. Move away from the podium, gesture freely, vary your voice, just as you do in casual chit chat. Create what actors call “The Illu­sion of the First Time.” If you use Power Point, rely on the sli­des as prompts, not as your script. Take a minute to jot down the names of three spea­kers you rate very highly. Note: Every one of them stri­kes you as ener­ge­tic, vital, and some­ti­mes dra­ma­tic.
They ignite you because they sparkle.

Be ATTENTIVE
Remain on the loo­kout for audience feed­back. When you detect con­fu­sion, restate your point. When you see liste­ners nod in agree­ment, let their sup­port ener­gize you. If par­ti­ci­pants start chec­king their wat­ches, change your pace or tell a rele­vant story to recap­ture their atten­tion. Bet­ter still, direct the group in brief
inte­rac­tive dia­lo­gue to ele­vate interest.

Use ANECDOTES
Some of our most che­ri­shed chil­d­hood memo­ries revolve around bed­time, when parents or others read sto­ries to us, sti­mu­la­ting our ima­gi­na­tion and trans­por­ting us into maje­stic eras and sce­nes. As adults, we
con­ti­nue to love “once upon a time,” though spea­kers use dif­fe­rent intro­duc­tory phra­sing. Peo­ple remem­ber and learn from your sto­ries, not from sta­ti­stics. Paint word pic­tu­res, giving a “you are there” fee­ling. Use suspense with the skill of a nove­list. Paul Har­vey car­ved a grand spea­king career on radio as a master story tel­ler, and Zig Ziglar did the same from the speaker’s platform.

Shar­pen your APPEARANCE
Although casual and some­ti­mes sloppy dress have gai­ned some accep­tance (which you can verify at any public event, and even in nume­rous work set­tings), your audience wants you to dress a notch or two above its norm. Taste­ful, pro­fes­sio­nal clo­thing reflects that you respect them and the occa­sion. Addi­tio­nally, your groo­ming and man­ners should sup­ple­ment your pro­fes­sio­nal image. Not sur­pri­sin­gly, you will gain
con­fi­dence and energy as well when you look your best and pre­sent your­self as a poli­shed professional.

Be ATYPICAL
Do some­thing dif­fe­rent from other spea­kers. Audien­ces with­draw from the “some old same old,” so they are drawn to crea­tive spea­kers who go beyond offe­ring a stan­dard three points and a sum­mary. Exam­ples: include unu­sual props, imper­so­na­tions, games, regu­lar audience inte­rac­tion, or magic if that’s your talent. Note: Every sea­son, new TV shows suc­ceed because they become distinctive.

Next time you are going to face an audience, review these seven ways to become a Grade-A spea­ker, and then imple­ment them. Once more, here are the seven A’s that will ena­ble you to con­nect with your audience
imme­dia­tely, hold their unbro­ken atten­tion, and encou­rage them to endorse your mes­sage and respond with action: Atti­tude, Audience, Ani­ma­ted, Atten­tive, Anec­do­tes, Appea­rance, and Aty­pi­cal. You will wel­come the results, and so will your audience.

by Bill Lamp­ton, Ph.D.