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CHAPTER ONE

COMMUNICATION

The sender

Listening and understanding

Listener induced roadblocks

Speaker induced roadblocks

The five great rules of selling

Audiences

Speech venue and audience analysis

COMMUNICATION

Peter Drucker, management consultant wrote: “As soon as you move one step up from the bottom, your effectiveness depends on your ability to reach others through the spoken or written word.” He also wrote: “This ability to express oneself is perhaps the most important of all the skills a man can possess.” This book, “Powerful Presentations” is written for all people, both men and women, who want to learn how to write and deliver a speech.

Before we write our first speech, let us briefly explore the various elements of communication that are involved when we present a speech. For the purpose of this book I would like do define successful communication as the skill of sending a message which is clearly understood by the receiver and acted upon in the way the sender intended. Three essential components are involved: the sender, the message, and the receiver. The key element in communication is understanding.

The Sender

The sender is you, the message is your speech, the receiver is your audience and the understanding is realized by your presentation skills. Professor Herbert Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase: “the medium is the message.” This is true when we consider that the media influences our daily lives in just about everything we do and think.

However, when you are delivering a speech and we accept that “the medium is the message”, consider that you are the medium! Therefore “you are the message!”

It is not only the content of your speech, which creates the desired message. It is, in a very large part, the image you project through the application of appropriate presentation skills! You can read the best speech in the world, but without some basic presentation skills, the audience will tune out and politely smile at you during the length of your presentation, while in fact, they are miles away in their own dream world. Similarly, Richard Burton or Robin Williams could hold an audience spellbound by reading the Yellow Pages.

If you want to hold an audience spellbound, pay particular attention to the material covered in Chapter Four of this book “How to project the right personal image”. It will help you understand that you, your speech, and your presentation skills together, present the complete picture. They fuse to become one, because... “You are the message!”

Listening and Understanding

We think about four times faster than we can listen to the spoken word. In other words, during a presentation, the audience has spare time. As a speaker we have to try to eliminate this spare time by capturing the attention of the audience and keeping their interest throughout the speech.

We would like our audience to practice active listening, so that their thoughts concentrate on:

- Thinking about our concepts and main ideas

- Generating conclusions

- Anticipating and weighing evidence

- Interpreting

- Summarizing what we say

Only when our audiences listen intently, will they be able to understand our message and act in the manner we intended.

The truth is that very few people have learned how to practice active listening skills. As a matter of fact, very few people want to listen! You, as a speaker, will have to learn to crash through a myriad of roadblocks so that the audience listens and understands your message. This book will help you overcome most listener- and speaker-induced roadblocks:

Listener-induced Roadblocks

•I don’t need to go to this meeting, but I have to.

•What does the speaker know that I do not know?

•The old ways are fine; I don’t want to learn new ways.

•I have no interest in this subject.

•I wonder what John/Mary is doing right now.

•I hope the repair bill is not too high.

Add your own roadblocks here - there are many, many more!

Speaker-induced Roadblocks

•Distracting habits

•Poor delivery; no eye contact

•Argumentative; talk down to audience

•Unsuitable humour (sexist, racist, political, religious)

•Manner of speech

•Unsuitable clothes or jewellery worn by the speaker

•Speaker too serious; no excitement nor enthusiasm

•Use of jargon, unsuitable vocabulary, bad grammar, slang or

profanity

•Voice too high, too low, too loud or too soft; monotonous tone

•No logical construction.

Add your own roadblocks here - there are many, many more!

The Five Great Rules of “Selling”

It is clear that speakers have to learn appropriate presentation skills to overcome prejudices, as well as those listener- and speaker-induced roadblocks. Speakers have to learn to get the attention of the audience, to capture their interest (‘what’s in it for me?’), to convince the audience about the merits of the points raised in the speech, to create a desire to act in the manner the speaker intended and to close the presentation in an appropriate manner.

Interestingly, Percy Whiting who worked with Dale Carnegie almost fifty years ago, advocated these same five points in his book “The 5 Great Rules of Selling”. As you study “Powerful Presentations” you will learn that the underlying principles of a good speech incorporate those same five rules.

1.Attention

2.Interest

3.Conviction

4.Desire

5.Close

Audiences

For the purpose of this book, we will not delve into the different types of audiences that a professional speaker may face. We assume that you are speaking to a mixed audience or an audience that is basically made up of people whose interests are favourably disposed to your subject, that you are aware of their knowledge or ignorance on the subject and that the information contained in your speech, at the time of your speech, can add to their knowledge and be of benefit to them. Ask yourself: “Why this message, at this time, to this audience.” If the answers make sense, go for it!

However, to ensure that your speech will fit a particular audience, you might still have to make some cosmetic changes to your basic speech. The emphasis of some of your points might have to change ... your anecdotes or stories might not relate to a particular group. At this particular time, as we are writing our first speech and learning the skills to deliver it, the previous remarks in this paragraph are of little importance. However, they become of utmost importance, later on, when we know where, when and to whom we are going to deliver this speech again. I have developed a check list which should help you to identify and overcome eventual problems when speaking to any type of audience.. Make a photocopy of the following and use this speech, venue and audience analysis to tailor your speech to each audience, each time you present it.

“Why this message, at this time, to this audience?”

In the beginning of my speaking career, I volunteered to speak to a junior soccer league at their annual banquet. Management wanted a speech, I volunteered and wrote a speech specifically geared to an audience of kids and adults! However during the banquet it became very clear that the audience wanted to celebrate, make noise and fool around. Had I asked the three questions found at the beginning of this paragraph, just before going on to speak, I would have saved myself much humiliation! I would not have attempted to speak to this group during this particular occasion!

In general, and to please most audiences, ensure that you use some visuals, that you have hand-outs available and that you get some audience participation. In this way, you will have involved the three different ways people use their senses to remember and you will have addressed each of the three main groups of people during your speech: the readers, the listeners and the doers. The audience will appreciate that and you will make your speech more memorable. We’ll talk about visuals, hand outs and audience participation in the third chapter.

Now, let’s get started on our first speech. Find some pencils, paper, a typewriter or set-up your computer. You’ll have your first speech ready in a couple of hours.

Remember it is not the goal but the voyage towards it, which brings most enjoyment. So let’s enjoy the trip.

SPEECH, VENUE AND AUDIENCE ANALYSIS

Speech

•Title

•Time required without Q. & A.

•Subject

•Purpose

•Time required for Q. & A.

Venue

•Occasion

•Place, date, time

•Group name

•Chairperson

•Introducer

•Other speakers

Audience

•General type of audience

•Specific type of audience

•Sex

•Background, occupation, education level

•Present knowledge of and present interest in subject

•Belief in my subject

•Attitude towards my subject and purpose

If you analyze the answers to the above information, you will have no problem identifying changes that you will want to make in your

presentation, to address any type of audience.