The Sykes Group's OnPoint

July is Freedom from Fear of Speaking Month! So many people have a fear of public speaking that it keeps them from seeking out opportunities. The following article will help you overcome your fear of public speaking and be more successful:

Have you ever avoided a career or business opportunity because it required you to speak publicly? Did you ever have a great idea you wanted to share in a group setting but didn’t because of your fear of speaking in front of a group of people?

You are not alone in the fear of public speaking. In my travels, I have seen where the fear of public speaking have kept otherwise very successful people in all walks of life from achieving their full potential. When you let this fear dominate your life, you lose out on promotions, business opportunities, community activities, and most of all self-confidence.

The following are seven powerful secrets to empowering you to overcome your fear of public speaking and achieving a new level of success in your career, your business, and your life:

1. Ask Yourself the Important Question
   Ask yourself, “Where does my fear come from and is it real?” Was there a public speaking opportunity in the past that you think didn’t go well or that you felt was poorly prepared? Maybe you had to stand up in front of your classmates in high school or college and someone made what you perceived as a negative comment concerning your presentation. Maybe you gave a good speech but you started to over analyze every detail of the speech.First, realize that whatever happened did so at another time and place and you are no longer that person. With new experiences, you have grown into a more confident person with much to offer. Second, embrace feedback, extract the true areas of improvement from the feedback and work to improve your public speaking ability. Be honest and fair with yourself and determine if the feedback is coming from someone who is qualified to give quality feedback. I had one presentation skills student whose manager told her she was a poor speaker because she moved her hands and arms during the presentation. Was the manager giving qualified feedback? Doubtful. Yet, this manager’s feedback affected this employee in a negative way for years until the employee became my coaching student.Again, separate qualified feedback from unqualified feedback and learn from it. Also, don’t allow negative public speaking situations that happen in the past apply to your present or future public speaking opportunities.

1. Face Your Fear of Public Speaking
   The fastest way to overcome any fear, much less the fear of public speaking, is to face your fear and attack it. Look for and embrace opportunities to make presentations. Start with non-threatening opportunities such as your children’s school meeting or a non-work related situation and work your way up to more important, high pressure situations such as work meetings.Realize that each time you speak is an opportunity to improve your speaking ability. Look at your public speaking skills as a muscle. The more you exercise your public speaking muscle, the stronger it becomes and you will improve your speaking abilities.Go into each public speaking opportunity with a clear set of goals. Maybe for your first speech, you may have a goal of eliminating “hums” and “ahs.” For another speech you may have a goal of completing your speech with a powerful ending. (Read the rest at Overcome Fear)

January 25th is National Speak Up and Succeed Day! So I challenge my readers to express yourself and let others know about your special skills, knowledge, etc. The following article will give you the tools to seize the opportunity and speak up so that you achieve your goals:

No problem. The following are seven secrets to preparing an outstanding presentation when you have less than thirty minutes:

1. You Don’t Need the Perfect Presentation
   Get started! Don’t freeze expecting perfection. When you think you need to be perfect, this can lead to paralysis. Management realizes, because of the short time period, that you will not be perfect. The key is to work quickly, not frantically.

To read the rest of the article and learn how to give great presentations, go to outstanding presentations.

I was recently coaching one of my presentation skills students, and he shared that during a business meeting he was following another speaker.  Just before he was to speak, one of his colleagues asked him the following question:

“You are not going to be boring, are you?

Knowing and seeing my student in action, I knew he was not boring.  I suggested to my student that what the questioner was really asking was, “You are not going to be like the last speaker I heard with their monotone presentation style, are you?”

Just as spices make your favorite meals more delicious to eat, vocal variety, the way we use our voice, vocal rates, pitch, tone, pausing, makes your presentation appetizing to the audience’s ear.  When using a monotone voice to convey your message, you will lose your audience and your message will lose its power.  When you use vocal variety in your presentation, you create a more engaging, entertaining, and persuasive audience experience.

The following are seven secrets to developing your vocal variety and giving an outstanding presentation every time:

1. Read a Children’s Book Out Loud – Children’s books are wonderful tools for working on your vocal variety.   If read correctly, you will see the wonder in a child’s face as you share the excitement of the story.  The same holds true when you tell a story when presenting to an audience.  By using your powerful vocal variety skills, you will engage the audience with your presentation.
2. Punctuate Your Notes – Use bold face, underline, and italicize key words in your speech so that you know when to accentuate key words.  Add extra space or add additional dots between words or sentences to show pauses.  Customize your annotations to fit your needs in front of the audience.

To read the rest of the article…