Your palms are sweating. Your knees are knocking. Your mind is blank. Now, get out there and give a dynamite presentation.
How often are you or your subordinates called upon to make presentations to others? And how many times does the presentation fall flat, not because of flaws in its content, but because the presenter did not deliver ideas effectively?
In today’s competitive and rapidly changing business environment, it takes refined speaking skills to give individuals and organizations a competitive edge. “You have only one opportunity to make a first impression,” Evelyn Hottenstein tells her clients. “Each time you are called upon to present your company or organization, be it to venture capitalists, a sales force, distributors, investors, clients, prospects, stockholders, the bank, employees, suppliers or customers, your message needs to be clear, consistent and delivered with persuasion, professionalism and style.”
Although you can get some valuable tips from reading, you can’t acquire speaking skills without speaking.
“The coach of the Denver Broncos has to do more than give his team a copy of the playbook,” she says. “The team has to do more than read it. They learn from practice and from encounters on the gridiron.”
Speaking skills are forged in Public Speaking for the Professional classes and from individual coaching. Beyond that, real-life speaking situations will test what you have learned. Training will teach you to:
- Overcome fear of public speaking
- Determine who your audience really is and what it expects from you
- Plan and structure your presentation
- Prepare yourself, your material and your equipment before the meeting
- Energize your material to make it interesting, challenging and thought-provoking
- Profit from feedback and review
These are all important “how-to’s.” Master them and you’re on your way to becoming a good speaker with a style that is uniquely your own.
For more information improving your speaking skills, visit Presentation Skills Program
