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Speak with confidence!
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Greetings!
"Grasp the subject, the words will follow". ~ Cato The Elder (234 BC-149 BC, Roman statesman) ~
Jerry Seinfeld has als o said that "According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy." Public speaking is a great way of opening up and letting people know what we really think, who we really are. It helps us clarify our own values by forcing us to "preach what we practise" rather than "practise what we preach". If our orthopraxy does not match up to our orthodoxy, whatever we say will have a hollow ring to it. Audiences, actual or perceived by you, the speaker, are great for detecting any degree of hollowness in your speeches or presentations. Now, audiences have a propensity for getting swayed by "popular opinion" and "popular sentiment", so you can actually play with their emotions and win them over to whatever you're saying. People are also easily influenced, so focusing on your supporters in the audience and saying what you know will please them helps to get the whole audience on your side. You can choose to do those things when speaking to an audience, whether in person, on radio or other media.
You can also choose to be a speaker that can speak on almost any topic at the drop of a hat. That's right, any topic. If you don't know about whatever it is you're asked for your views on, say, the future of manufacturing containers designed for electrostatic shielding, you can say very confidently that you don't know much about the topic at all, but this is what you think based on the little you do know. Your audience doesn't expect you to know everything, but they expect you to be truthful! Here are three ways you can speak confidently in any situation:
Build a strong foundation.
When you walk your talk, you immediately build a bit of credibility. Building great credibility takes time and is a function of committing to your own personal growth. When you have strong character values, you will always be hungry and thirsty for more knowledge, understanding and wisdom. These are part of the bedrock of the quintessential you, and that bedrock is the main reason you will be able to speak confidently on almost any subject.
Develop the ability to think in terms of analogies.
This helps in developing understanding of your message, both in yourself and in your audience. Of course, you will tend to use analogies you are familiar with. You will develop this skill more and more as you interact with various audiences in daily life. Take note of what analogies make sense to people. Make them as visual as you can. For example, you could describe what it is like to work in an operations centre of a hotel by likening it to being the spider at the centre of a large web. You get to hold many threads and are the first to get to know what's happening at any part of your web. This knowledge helps you to then take the right actions with regard to functions, group bookings, conferences, rooms and facilities availability states and so on.
Relate to your audience as living, breathing persons, not "the audience". Imagine that you are speaking to your close friends on things that matter. By the way, do you waste energy talking about things that don't matter? Think about that for a while. When you relate to your audience that way, a sort of pleasant closeness develops. "The audience" is impersonal and stand-offish. You wouldn't want others to treat you that way, so treat your audience like real people and you will find that rapport between you and your audience builds up very well.Finally, it helps if you get the skills necessary to become a confident speaker, regardless of what language you speak in. Volume, pitch, intonation, rate, gestures, facial expressions and so on are more important than you might realize. Build on these things and you will be well on your way to speaking confidently. Go well!
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Business Associate this week
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~  Would you like to get some handles on speaking confidently? Do you think it's necessary to speak like an "Ang Moh" in order for you to speak English well? The answer is, of course, a resounding "No!"
Heather helps people to speak more clearly. Clarity, not purity, is of the essence here. When you know that you are speaking more clearly, you become more confident, and confidence builds success.
So, what are you waiting for? Get in touch with Heather today! |
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Elijah Lim
Principal Consultant
Shining Arrow Consulting Pte Ltd
www.shiningarrow.com
65-97119005
60-19-3385138
Semper Audaces |
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