Posts Tagged ‘Causes Of Stress’

Transcript of Audio Article

Practice versus Presentation

This is a transcript of an audio program located in the membership area of EffectivelySpeaking.Com. Find out how you can maximize your efforts at conquering your fear of public speaking by joining for free, at
http://www.EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com

Hi, this is David Mudie of EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com.

And I would like to share with you the difference between preparation and practice.

When speaking in public, there are two terms that we often confuse and they are preparation and practice.

Often times, people don’t prepare. Speaking in public is uncomfortable - so they procrastinate, putting it off until the last minute. They do a poor job and then blame it on their inability to speak rather than their need to prepare and practice.

That however, is not what we’re talking about now. Right now we’re talking about people who take the time to prepare, yet still struggle.

How often have you heard someone speak and then later confess that they were not as prepared as the would have liked.

When asked how much they prepared, they frequently admit that they worked on the presentation for days or weeks. For days? How could they possibly be unprepared?

<!–more–>

And here lies the paradox. What exactly is preparation? Is it effective to prepare for a speech? Can there be too much preparation? And most importantly, can too much preparation increase our fear instead of decreasing it?

Now people will know that I am an advocate of preparation. I have always indicated that being unprepared can be one of the biggest causes of stress.

In fact, I had such an event just recently. Several weeks ago I was the master of ceremonies at a wedding reception. Now that shouldn’t have been a problem. I’ve been a master of ceremonies before.

The problem lay in the preparation. As the master of ceremonies it was my job to keep the program moving and to introduce all the speakers. The problem was, I didn’t know all the speakers.

A few days prior to the wedding I received a list of possible speakers. It went something like this…

John, if he decides to speak
Fred, if he decides to speak
Barb, don’t let her speak to long
Etc.

I needed to get prepared and do it fast. The night of the rehearsal I was meeting, bothering, even stalking each of the speakers. I was trying to get their full names, their relationships to the bride and groom, and what they wanted said when they were introduced.

They were all pretty nonchalant about the whole thing.

I think that most of them were probably procrastinating, like the rest of us. They didn’t want to offend the Bride and Groom by not speaking - but they also, really didn’t want to speak.

As a result, they had not only not thought much about the speech, but they also did not think much about what they wanted me to say when I introduced them.

I eventually did get the information I needed - and I did an adequate job. I would have done a better job if I was more prepared.
Whenever we speak we need to be prepared. That means having:
• The right information at your finger tips.
• Props that will illustrate your points (and if you choose to use them). Incidentally, PowerPoint and other presentation tools are props.
• The right venue for your presentation.

Finally, you need to have at least a frame work for your speech. That is, what is your theme? What are you trying to accomplish? How are you going to present it? What are your points? Etc.

If you need some tips on putting this together, listen to the S.C.P. program that I’ve got on the EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com downloads page.

All of that is preparation, and preparation is good. But can there be too much preparation? Can too much preparation increase our fear?

I would argue yes. Yes when all of that preparation comes at the expense of practice.

There are two equally important elements to any successful presentation - the content of the presentation and the delivery. Back before I was involved with public speaking I believed that there was only one important element - the content. I felt that if the content was profound enough, the audience would forgive a poor delivery. As such, I would sacrifice the delivery and read my notes directly, in a flat monotone voice, to make sure that I did not miss a single point in my content.

It was only later that I realized that if I lost the audience because of my delivery, it wouldn’t matter how profound my content was.

It is only by truly practicing a speech that we can start to get a feeling for how effective the delivery will be and how we can make improvements. As we recite our material we will start to learn it.

Practice breeds familiarity. Familiarity reduces the need to mentally process the speech as we deliver it. So, by practicing, we will l be preparing to deliver the speech in a much smoother fashion. We will develop what most presenters strive for - a conversational tone.

A conversational tone is typically much more effective than a lecturing tone in maintaining an audience’s attention - and isn’t that what we desire.

In addition, we will discover how the words sound and flow together. We will start making small adjustments to improve the speech.

Finally, familiarity brings comfort. As we become comfortable with the speech, and we know that we can deliver it, we will reduce our fear. We will worry less about stumbling and losing our place because we know that if we do, we will be able to recover it.

So, preparation is key to ensuring that the content of your speech is correct. But make sure that you don’t spend so much time preparing the content that you don’t practice the delivery. By practicing you will improve the speech itself, increase your knowledge of it, and reduce your fear.

This is David Mudie of EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com - and I will have more great articles posted in the EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com articles section for you soon.

This article is available to be heard in the private members areas. Visit http://www.EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com to learn about all the great information that is available to you right now. Start overcoming your fear with less effort than you thought possible.

I have pointed out that one of the leading causes of stress in our society is being held accountable for an outcome without having control of the situation. In business situations this is commonly caused by office politics. An employee is expected to deliver a particular result, but not allowed to make the changes that would allow such a result.

Another cause of this situation occurs when an individual is held accountable for performing a task – without the proper tools or training.

I can think of a couple of situations where this happened to me.

As silly as that sounds, it doesn’t compare to the second example.

The feeling I had is not unfamiliar to those who have the responsibility of a presentation thrust upon them.

You have no presentation skills, but we expect you to do the job anyway. We’re not going to give you training – or even explain what would make your presentation successful. We just expect you to do it.
All of a sudden you are being judged – that is being held accountable – for something you have no control over. You have no control over the success or failure of your presentation because you don’t have any presentation skills.

An Easy Source of Presentation Skills

I created EffectivelySpeaking.Com to provide people with the information they need to overcome the fear and go on to excel at speaking in public. With that in mind, I have created this section to hold a number of articles about delivering an effective presentation – I will be adding more over time.

A Free Course on Presentation Skills

In addition, if you are in a situation that is similar to the one I described, then I would encourage you to take my S.C.P. presentation course. It will only take you a few minutes each day for six days, and then about 45 minutes on the seventh. By the time you’re done, you will have a solid understanding of what goes into preparing and delivering an effective presentation. Best of all, I have made the course available for free to Effectively Speaking Members.

If you want to experience the same relief that I described, then head on over to EffectivelySpeakingMembers.Com and sign up. You’ll find a whole lot more “relief generating” information – and best of all, you can sign up for free.