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Home ›› Courses ›› Delivery ›› Delivery Skills
Preparation: The Key to a Relaxed, Effective Presentation
Who doesn't feel a little jittery when they know that they have an important speaking engagement? Some people call it stage fright. It's also called "butterflies," but regardless, it's tough to deal with, even for the most experienced lecturers and speakers. We want to shine but fear we may forget what we are supposed to say, or fail in other ways.
Nothing will build your confidence more than being well prepared and this means knowing exactly what you want to say and how you want to say it. This, for some, begins with writing out a script. Some gifted speakers and teachers can speak off the cuff, but such talent is rare. For most of us a written draft is an important part of preparation, even if we never refer to our notes when we are finally on stage. The critical factor is to get ourselves to a place where we are confident— confident in what we are prepared to say. Without this confidence we are inevitably fearful— as we should be. This is why we get stage fright or "butterflies."
You can shed most of your fear by absorbing two important facts.
- The audience is not waiting to see you fail, but to be the best you can be.
- The audience desires to listen and learn; to be changed by you.
So you are starting from a positive position. If anyone doubts you, it's yourself. The best way to overcome your fear of being less than you know you are is to be well rehearsed in what you're going to say and how you're going to say it. This will help you relax. Avoiding uncertainty enables you to be at your best, to be flexible in your approach and to convey confidence and assurance. If you are uncertain the audience will switch from being supportive to being suspicious or worse. And you'll feel it, exacerbating your tension.
Step one is to make your script informative. You want your listeners to be armed with new information that is valuable to them in important ways.
Step two is telling your story in a way that interests and inspires. It doesn't matter if you are talking about the nuts and bolts of a new product, persuading them to give money to a charity or whatever, your success will count on your ability to inspire enthusiasm.
The two components of step one and two are critically intertwined. An informative lecture that does not inspire is as ineffective as an inspiring one that lacks meaningful content. So lift up your pen and write a script with these three qualities flowing through your material: facts and supportive data; examples or analogies that add meaning and context to the data and reasons this is important to your listeners.
After you've written your material, the challenge is to memorize and rehearse it in such a way that you do not appear to have rehearsed at all. In short, to speak naturally, confidently and inspirationally. But how do you find time to memorize it all with everything else you have to do?
Here's a secret that works for a lot of busy speakers: memorize your script as a song. That's right, sing it! It doesn't matter if you sound like a nightingale or not, sing it line by line, then sentence by sentence and finally paragraph by paragraph. Sounds goofy, right? Maybe so, but somehow when we sing the words penetrate our mind quickly and remain with us. This is an old actor's trick and it works for most people. It may be that our minds are attuned to melodic sounds rather than alphabetical symbols, but for whatever reason, try it. Take turns singing your message and speaking it. Alternate in this way until your material is flowing naturally in your mind without even thinking about it.
Have you ever gone to a movie or musical stage production and found yourself humming or singing the key tunes? Sure you have. This demonstrates the efficacy of the suggestion to sing your lines— it works. By the way, have you ever found yourself changing the words of a popular song, to make it titillating or humorous? Many people do, and this illustrates how you might become flexible in your preparation. Well-learned subject matter can be changed as you go— as you sense the audience reaction— making it better suited. Remember, communication exists only in the minds of the receiver!
As soon as you have your material down pat, forget the singing and concentrate on your delivery. Practice in the shower, on walks, wherever and whenever you can. Practice in front of a mirror, in front of family members or an imaginary audience. Try to visualize the audience and practice speaking with them, not at them. By the time your big day rolls around, you'll not only be prepared, you'll be confident. And you'll meet your objective: a presentation that is informative and inspiring. What could be better?
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