Speaker Man: Public Speaking Superhero?

It can be tough to completely quantify who Speaker Man is, and he can show up within all of us, inhabiting our body on stage as we strive to give the audience the best show we know how. And yes, Speaker Woman is ready to pounce as well, ladies. While concisely defining Speaker Man may be difficult, it's likely we all recognize him when we see him, even if we don't always recognize him when he possesses our own presentation.

While Speaker Man views himself as a Presentation Hero, he is actually an insidious villain, undermining speakers around the world - unintentionally destroying credibility and connection.

Speaker Man Signs to Watch For:


1. The Costume - not everybody can rock a green suit on stage. If you're wearing clothes that aren't 'You', you won't be comfortable when you speak. This doesn't necessarily mean going up in blue jeans and cowboy boots, although that approach has worked for a few... Buy clothes that make you comfortable and confident, while being appropriate for your speaking engagement. The more well known you are, the more you can get away with, but regardless of your status, if you are wearing a suit you hate just to impress, or incredibly uncomfortable high heels just to add power to your look, you are veering into Speaker Man territory.


2. Flexing Those Muscles - Speaker Man loves to strike a pose, and use gestures that truly look other-worldly. If you are planning dramatic gestures, and worse, holding them long enough to 'impress' the audience, you are definitely setting yourself apart. Apart from your listeners. Gestures need to be a natural outgrowth of your speech. Getting out of your comfort zone by using exaggerated gestures is a good thing, but when they are there simply to show people you can do them, Speaker Man is again rearing his not-so-heroic head.


3. The Megamind Myth - Speaker Man craves approval, and wants to show the world how smart he is, and how many quotes and statistics he can throw into a speech. He doesn't realize that by the end of the speech he's channeled so many great minds, no one actually needed him on stage at all, they just needed to buy a copy of Bartlett's Familiar Quotations. If only he realized great concepts and ideas can almost always be recreated within our own personal framework, and presented to audiences in fresh ways they'll remember instead of dismiss as 'oh - yeah, that Einstein quote'.


4. Super Voice - this is the most universally recognized power of Speaker Man, as once it takes over, all hope is lost. Sometimes it's an overpowering used car salesman voice. It can be an overly plaintive and emotional voice. It can be a rapid-fire monotone at high-volume. When Speaker Man grabs control of our voice, we no longer become amplified versions of ourselves giving the audience a piece of our lives - we instead become preachers, politicians, and often overly pompous in our persona. When Speaker Man comes on, the audience turns off. Speaker Man, as desperate as he is to give the audience a great show, forgets to be conversational - to sound the same onstage as off. Instead of amplifying the natural, he's driven to deadly distortion.

Don't let yourself be victimized by this wanna-be superhero. Be comfortable and appropriate. Be naturally demonstrative. Bring your own experience to the stage instead of a steady stream of statistics and expert statements. And PLEASE - just talk to us - if we wanted a performance we'd have gone to the theatre. 


SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER

We're honoured to have Rich Hopkins as the special Guest Blogger. Rich has been a Toastmaster since 1999 and was the placed in the Top 3 at 2006 World Championship of Public Speaking. Rich is a professional speaker, presentations coach, and author of Win, Place & Show. You can check out more of Rich's awesome speaking tips on: http://speakanddeliver.blogspot.com/ Share

Worst Public Speaking Mistakes - And How You Can Avoid Them

Presentations can be boring!

You have sat through your fair share of boring

presentations. You've probably even sat through

presentations where you thought the presenter

was wasting your time. You've probably thought,

"Why am I here? I could just read through the

Powerpoint on my own!"

If you want to avoid being that presenter, then

avoid this public speaking mistake that most

other presenters make:

• Public Speaking Sin: Reading The List

Take a quick look at Professor Wrong's slide.

During the lecture, after she'd asked her question,

you would have heard Professor Wrong say something along

the lines of:

"There are three types of knowledge structures. The first

one is Correlated Association. This means...

The second one is Hierarchical structure. This means...

The third one is Goal derived categories. This means...

Now you see how severe [and boring] the 'Read the List'

syndrome is? Unfortunately, most presenters who use

Powerpoint presentations suffer from this sickness.

They love to ask their own questions and then listing

out their solutions. Thankfully, since you've read this

blogpost, you won't be one of them.

While the 'Read the List' syndrome still allows for

information imparting, it's not a very effective way

of educating your audience. You'll most likely bore your

audience and put them to sleep. And the few who do remain?

After several slides, they'll forget most of what you've said.

And no one will walk away feeling inspired and feeling as

though they've learned something.

Imagine being victim to the 'Read the List' syndrome

for the above slide. Now imagine 30 such slides over

the course of one and a half-hours. And yes, that's

a real slide from Professor Wrong's lecture.

So, what's the cure to the 'Read the List' Syndrome?

For one thing, allow learners to discover the answers by

asking them questions. Give them hints and get

them moving in the right directions, but don't

immediately read the whole list of solutions.

• Public Speaking Tip: PARTS Formula for Powerful Presentations

Next, instead of simply reading through the list and defining the

terms, make the talk interesting by adding your own stories,

anecdotes and opinions. [Read more about the power of stories

here] Add value to the Powerpoint by providing interesting,

memorable anecdotes.

The best structure to do this - to avoid Reading The List Syndrome -

use the PARTS Formula for Powerful Presentation [Read it here]

P.S. Want to received $499 worth of the "Most Important Public

Speaking Tips You'll Ever Need" for FREE? It's Quick and Easy...

If you're serious about becoming a skilful communicator, then

just type in your email address at the top of the page.

Worst Presentation Skills Mistakes: Why We Hate Professors

If you've gone through college, then you've most likely sat through a class where you've familiarized more with the tiles on the ceiling than the content of the course being taught.


Now, I readily admit, the inspiration for this article came from such a Marketing class. The Professor is a nice, consistent lady who consistently bores her students.

Yet, despite all the ceiling-staring, chatting and snickering at the sex notes being passed around class, the Professor scarcely seems to notice the half-dead bodies of her students beginning to 
slip out of their chairs.

Now, here's the thing. The content of the course this Professor's 
course  is highly interesting - and even slightly useful! The problem is not

with what she is teaching, but with how she is teaching it. For her

(and my safety), I'll avoid mentioning her real name.

However, for the purpose of this article, lets just call her

Professor Wrong.

If you want to avoid boring your audiences, then avoid these

presentation mistakes.

The Powerpoint Problem

Professor Wrong loves using Powerpoint presentations to

teach. Now, there's a good reason for this. Powerpoints are

great because:

(1) They help the audience keep track of what the speaker

is saying. Say, if you have a horrible Professor with a horrible

accent, at least you can always follow what s/he is saying

by looking at the Powerpoint.

(2) The Powerpoint presentations can be uploaded on the

internet so that students can refer to them and use them

after class

(3) They assist the Professor in remembering the points that s/he

has to elaborate upon.

Unfortunately, Professor Wrong uses her Powerpoint presentations

as less of an assistance and more a crutch.

How? She literally reads each slide, word for word. Each of

her slides has between 6 - 8 bullet points each, with each

bullet point having a mini-paragraph underneath.

Sigh.

Here's how to avoid Professor Wrong's mistakes:

Presentation Tip 1: No more than 3 bullet points per slide

If you're going to use a Powerpoint presentation, keep the

number of bullet points per slide below three. Fewer bullet

points per slide means that your presentation will cause less

strain on the audiences eyes. Plus, less text means less

boredom.

Presentation Tip 2: No Paragraphs on Slides!

Do NOT insert a mini-paragraph below each bullet point. It's

difficult to read, and it's boring to stare at large chunks of text.

The less words on your slide, the better! Therefore, keep the number

of bullet points and the total number of words on each slide at a

minimum.

Presentation Tip 3: Do Not Read Everything from your Powerpoint

Unfortunately, Professor Wrong makes the mistake of reading

her Powerpoint presentation word for word. To me, she's less of a

presenter and more of a highly sophisticated robot with the ability

to read from the screen.

By reading straight from the powerpoint, Professor Wrong is commiting

three sins:

• Public Speaking Sin: The Monotone

When Professor Wrong reads straight from her slides,

her voice lacks energy and sounds unenthusiastic. Obviously.

It's hard to sound passionate when reading from a Powerpoint.

However, if Professor Wrong were to stop reading and instead

start sharing her stories [after all, she does have a wealth of

knowledge], then I believe that she'd avoid sounding so

monotonous.

• Public Speaking Sin: The Monologue

Professor Wrong reads straight from the slide. She doesn't

like to ask for opinions because it would break her monologue.

Instead of consulting with her students and asking them questions

and checking to see if they understand, Professor Wrong is more

concerned about reading the slide.

• Public Speaking Sin: No Eye Contact With the Audience

When Professor Wrong is reading from the slide, she is making no

eye contact with her students. In this way, she misses out on establishing

rapport with the students. No wonder she doesn't realize that almost

everyone is playing on their iPhone or BlackBerrry.

Public Speaking Tips

If you want to avoid being hated as much as Professor Wrong:

• don't fall victim to the Powerpoint Problem
• Avoid the Monotone Monologue

The Rules:

1. No more than 3 bullet points per slide
2. No paragraphs below bullet points
3. Avoid reading from the slides. You'll avoid sounding monotonous.
4. Establish rapport by making eye contact
5. Build a relationship with your audience by asking questions and soliciting their opinions

P.S. Forward this blogpost to your Professor. For your safety, do so anonymously. Plus, go ahead and click 'Like' and share with your friends (and Professors) on Facebook.