Building Your Confidence

Nervousness is healthy- it shows that the presentation is important to you and that you care about doing well. Knowing as much as you can ahead of time will give you confidence. Rehearse until you are comfortable with your material.

Here are some additional tips on how to control nervous jitters:

Realize that people want you to succeed.

Relax. Take a deep breath. When we get nervous, we breathe shallowly. If you concentrate on breathing deeply, you'll get enough air to speak and ease your panic.

Use good posture. We have more power and energy when we stand erect with weight balanced equally on our feet.

Concentrate on the message, not on how you are coming across.

Use eye contact. This will help your audience know that you are speaking to them, not at them. Find a few supportive faces and hold their eyes as you make a point.

Turn nervousness into positive energy.

Do not apologize.Forget perfection.

Learn to laugh at yourself. The problems that occur during presentations are funny (equipment doesn't work, you trip, you discover a gob of toothpaste on your clothing).

Build in appropriate humor (not jokes), those funny things that happened on the way to the meeting room.Use anecdotes to bring the statistics, facts, and figures that you need to deliver to drive them home.
The next time you deliver an presentation, ask a trusted colleague in the audience give you feedback afterward. If the feedback shows that you need help, hire a private presentation skills coach. Once you are comfortable, consider joining Toastmasters International to continually enhance your new skill.

Use your presentation skills to make an impact and to elevate your stature. Be willing to break your current corporate model and dare to be different. Get your audience to say, "Wow, not only did I learn something, but she was a dynamic presenter!"

Ex. 1. Match the signposts with the examples.

1. change direction/or depart a. I’d like to expand/elaborate on that

fromthe original plan b. Let’s just recap

2. refer to an earlier point c. Let me digress for a moment

3. repeat something d. Let me put that in a nutshell

4.refer to a point that is e. I’d like to go back to a

coming later point I mentioned earlier

5.give a wider perspective f. I’ll be coming to that later

6. give just the basic information g.Let me give you another example

Text 2. Read the text and be ready for a comprehension checkup.

Audience Resistance: If You Can't Beat Them, Join Them

You don’t need the audience from hell to encounter resistance. Resistance can occur in one-to-one conversations or in small groups. Sometimes, resistance is subtle as in the passive aggressive participant. It occurs in sales calls all the time. Most presenters think of resistance as negative. Yet, research demonstrates that in sales calls, skepticism is actually a good sign and often leads to a sale. Resistance shows that the audience is engaged. Your job is to embrace the resistance and as in martial arts, use their energy to reverse the situation.

In sales presentations you can reverse negative questions. Objection: “You’ve never worked in our industry.” Answer: “That’s exactly why you need me. I’m objective.”

Whether you’re managing a team, running a meeting, or giving a formal presentation, it’s not enough to be a good speaker. Effective public speakers must be able to manage the process. Group dynamics are ever changing and dealing with groups can be sticky. A good leader or facilitator is able to change perspective and use a number of strategies.

I developed the 3D Strategy which works in most situations-Depersonalize, Detach, Defuse.

Step one: depersonalize. People come with their own emotional baggage. One woman walked out of a motivational speech because the speaker was wearing an Elvis costume. The audience member didn’t like Elvis. It had nothing to do with entertainer’s talent or competence. So don’t take it personally.

Step two: detach. That means that you don’t engage the ego. Once you go head-to-head with that heckler you set up a competitive dynamic. Don’t let your emotions get out of control. Ask questions; don’t defend. Use the power of peer pressure.

Step three: defuse. Dissipate the negative energy. One of the best defusers is humor. If you get tense, the negative energy will increase. Take a light, playful approach. You can’t laugh and be angry at the same time.

I’ve learned that when I embrace resistance, the audience is more engaged. Recently, I gave a speech at the NYXPO at the Javits convention center in New York. Knowing that people would be checking their cell phones, I created a hash tag #dianediresta, and told them to tweet any tips they’d like to share with their networks. What once was a negative is a great BIG positive. Now my message is going out to thousands of people.

Just like a grain of sand is an irritant to an oyster, over time that irritant becomes a pearl.

The anonymous author of this quote said it best:

“With every shift, with every change resistance is the natural order. The tree resists the wind, the egg resists the chicks hatching and the cocoon resists the butterfly’s first flight. Without resistance there could be no stability and there could be no strength. Ultimately resistance is the promise of success, never of failure, always of success; yours, mine and every person’s everywhere”.

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14