Fast Results through Powerful Communication
Getting up in front of an audience and speaking is a challenge in itself. Having to answer questions in front of an audience makes it even tougher. The good news is that with proper preparation, you can eliminate most of the stress that comes along with answering questions in a group setting. Here are some of my favorite tips for Q&A:
Know your topic:
As if speaking in public wasn’t challenging enough, imagine having to translate your thoughts on the fly into another language while speaking in front of a group. Well this is a challenge that many speakers who emigrate from a country where English is not the primary language to an English speaking country face.
I know many people who are trying to overcome this challenge. So I’ve put together a list of tips to help (I’ll get into more detail on some of these tips and list more in future posts):
Tip 1: Record yourself.
The speech conclusion is another often overlooked part of a speech. In its most ugly form, the speaker, realizing that he or she has no more to say, simply looks at the audience with a blank stare until finally blurting out “well, that’s all I got” or “Thanks for having me.” I guess some folks take the advice of leaving your audience wanting more a little too literally.
Conventional wisdom in the realm of public speaking is that your opening statement and closing statement must be perfect. While I agree that it’s important to develop these two parts of your speech, I don’t think they are as important as others make them out to be — which is the other extreme.
To be a great leader takes practice. Yes, there are some people that are born gifted leaders but we can all learn to be effective leaders. A challenge that people in non-management positions commonly face is how to get that experience while not in a management role at work or while owning a one person business. The good news is that there are several ways and everyone should be able to take advantage of at least one of these suggestions.
If you want to quickly improve your public speaking skills, you need to get up in front of an audience as much as you possibly can. Each time you speak, you gain experience and expand your comfort zone. If you ask for and receive feedback, then you’ll improve even faster.
Toastmasters is good for this as it provides you with opportunities to speak. I recommend joining or visiting multiple clubs because you’ll address different audiences. You may get comfortable after speaking multiple times to the same audience so it’s good to mix things up. Also, different audiences will provide you with different feedback.
I have been involved with Toastmasters International for about four years. If you’ve never heard of Toastmasters, it’s an organization with thousands of clubs all over the world that help people improve their public speaking skills. But like anything else, you get what you put into it.
I’ve seen people go from petrified to polished in a matter of months. I’ve seen others join, attend a couple meetings, and then quit. If you’re serious about improving your public speaking skills, consider joining a Toastmasters club and commit yourself to completing the first ten speech projects within a year. If you really want to achieve results quickly, become a club officer.