Business Communication Skills for Managers

1. Business Communication Skills for Managers Module 7: Public Speaking

2. Effective Public Speaking

3. What is Public Speaking? Public speaking is, simply, an oral presentation or speech delivered to a live audience. It is generally a formal or staged event, although impromptu speeches are a common occurrence—and can be a defining career moment. Examples: • attending a client meeting and being asked to explain a procedural or technical point being discussed • attending a management meeting and being called upon to defend your recommendations through research and analysis that you have conducted.

4. What is Public Speaking? 9 Characteristics of Effective Public Speakers: • Confidence • Passion • Practice • Speak Naturally • Authenticity • Keep it Short and Sweet • Connect With Your Audience • Paint a Picture Through Storytelling • Repetition

5. Benefits of Public Speaking Public speaking increases your potential: • potential to connect • potential to create • potential to reach and impact “There is perhaps no greater skill [to] help you build your career or business than effective public speaking.”

6. Audience Expectations Your first and most important test as a speaker: CLEARLY communicate the purpose AND benefits of attending your speech. As a speaker, you have the obligation to factor your audience into the design and development of your speech.

7. Developing an Effective Speech The 5 Steps of Developing an Effective Speech: • Choose your topic • Develop your benefit statement • Develop your positioning statement • Derive your title • Create your content

8. Delivery Techniques

9. Starting Your Speech Best ways to start a speech: • Quote • “What if...?” or “Imagine…” • Question • Silence • Statistic • Statement What NOT to do: Thank the audience for the opportunity to speak; or, “Today I’m going to be talking about…”

10. Body Language and Gestures 7 Benefits of Incorporating Gestures Into Your Speech: • Clarify and support your words • Dramatize your ideas • Lend emphasis and vitality to the spoken word • Help dissipate nervous tension • Function as visual aids • Stimulate audience participation • Highly visible

11. Vocal Variety • Vocal variety affects how you are heard. • 6 Key Elements, Errors, and Practices to Develop Greater Vocal Impact: • Volume (vary it!) • Pitch and Resonance (low pitch is preferred) • Pace and Pause (slower pace is seen as more credible) • Intonation (use all patterns appropriately): • Ending a sentence with a rising tone indicates a question or suggestion • Ending a sentence with a descending tone is usually interpreted as an order • A flat intonation is used to indicate a statement

12. Language Choices • One of the most common barriers to communication is jargon, the terminology associated with a given profession. • An in-depth understanding can lead to oversimplification or over complication when explaining a foreign concept. • How to avoid this: • Eliminate bullet points • Use stories and analogies • Display images and diagrams to illustrate your point

13. Audience Engagement

14. Audience and Rapport 5 Techniques to Capture and Maintain an Audience’s Attention: • Surprise: reengages the audience’s brain • Suspense: slowly build your idea like a verbal puzzle • Storytelling: Share a compelling story to illustrate your point • Senses: The greater the sensory engagement, the stronger the interest • Involve: invite participation

15. Audience Participation Ways to integrate your audience: • Volunteer exercise • Audience survey • Question • Q&A • Partner exercise • Small group exercise • Written exercises or note-taking

16. Responding to Questions • Set clear ground rules during audience engagement to maintain control throughout audience participation and prevent groups from becoming bored or distracted. • 4 Step Approach to Managing Q&A’s • Listen: don’t jump to conclusions • Understand: paraphrase to confirm understanding • Communicate & Involve • Respond: Direct response to both the questioner and the rest of the audience

17. Speech Tips and Techniques

18. Overcoming Fears and Anxiety 10 Tips for Managing Performance Anxiety: • Know your topic • Get organized • Practice, rinse, and repeat • Challenge worries • Visualize your success • Do some deep breathing • Focus on your material • Don’t fear a moment of silence • Recognize your success • Get support

19. Pro Tips Understand the power of pathos: Emotion often drives decision making and opinion formation. Believe in your message: You do not want to come across as insincere. Keep your speech brief: Too much information creates a cognitive backlog and state of anxiety in your audience. Make it memorable: Take time to condense your big idea into a short, memorable phrase.

20. Quick Review • 9 Characteristics of Effective Public Speakers • The 5 Steps of Developing an Effective Speech • 7 Benefits of Incorporating Gestures Into Your Speech • The 5 Techniques to Capture and Maintain an Audience’s Attention • The 4 Step Approach to Managing Q&A’s • 10 Tips for Managing Performance Anxiety • Remember to understand the power of pathos, believe in your message, keep your speech brief, and make it memorable!