Don’t Blow It – Reach Out and Communicate Powerfully
Can you imagine yourself standing in front of an audience without PowerPoint, without notes, without a script? Just think back to the last time it was vital to get your message across. Did you fully succeed?
The problem is that many people have a small but insistent voice in their heads at such time telling them ‘not to blow it’. That’s why they prepare so hard, why they spend hours and hours on graphics and typefaces, why they hold on so rigidly to their presentation props. They desperately want to get it right and ensure they don’t make a fool of themselves.
But what does your audience want? They don’t care what’s in your head. They want to be entertained or informed or taken on a voyage of discovery. And that’s your real job; to break out of the conventional mindset that suggests communication is all about what you have to say. It isn’t. You need to recognise that it’s your job to help people hear, understand and act on the message. And in simple terms this means you need to:
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Find the right theme for your audience.
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Structure your talk so that it delivers that theme persuasively.
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Monitor and adapt to listeners’ reactions as you speak.
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Engage and inspire.
Power up your verbal communication
This all sounds very straightforward and it is. Whether you are making a speech, running a meeting or talking to people on a 1:1 basis, your communication can be powered up in the following way:
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Cut to the core of your main theme - highlight the key issues at stake.
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Tackle each issue – one at a time in chunks which your audience can easily digest.
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Link your ideas – in a sequence to give them force and energy.
It is this structure which makes your communication so persuasive. It ensures that you impose order on the mass of information you have at your disposal and it allows you to get your proposition across by focusing only on those issues that matter most.
The great reward is that once you have a clear structure to follow you can then start improvising, being spontaneous, engaging the audience. This ability to ad-lib or improvise is the magic that makes you and your speaking compelling and memorable.
It can be learned
You may have to take a risk or two, but be in no doubt you can do it. Here is a way to plan or structure your talks:
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Remember you know more about your subject than your audience.
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You don’t have to tell people everything you know. On the contrary you need to ask yourself what will interest them – and then give them that information in a way they can grasp. The ‘Think on Your Feet®’ programme introduces a range of ‘plans to package persuasion’. The ‘clock’ plan is one such simple, yet highly effective plan. It packages a topic into chunks of time which are sequenced so that the audience can see exactly what you are trying to communicate.
For example your clock plan might start with:
a) Where are we now?
b) Where will we be in x months time when the project starts?
c) Where will we be when we’ve completed the project?You can adapt this sort of plan to all sorts of situations e.g. buying new services, planning a career, implementing a change project. The point is it gives you and your audience a structure to follow.
So, it’s easy to communicate powerfully and not ‘blow it’, just by taking the time to learn a few techniques that will help you to think (and speak) on your feet. There are all sorts of plans to use which are effective in different situations (see more at www.illumine.co.uk/communicate/verbal-communication.html).
Find out more about the Think on Your Feet® programme here. Or if you are interested in Presentation Skills Training take a look at our Professional Presentations course. Alternatively take a look here to see the whole of our communication skills training course range.
Think on Your Feet® is delivered under licence from Think on Your Feet® International and Think on Your Feet® is their registered trademark.
