Communication Plus by Marita Littauer

Author:Marita Littauer [Littauer, Marita and Florence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Oral communication
ISBN: 9781441225337
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2014-06-11T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 8

Putting Power in Your Presentation

MARITA LITTAUER

Now that you have examined your motives, expanded your topics and learned how to organize your research materials, you are ready for the next step. The concepts presented in this chapter will teach you how to take your diverse selection of thoughts and ideas and bring them together to create a powerful presentation—either spoken or written—that will be easy for you to prepare and effectively communicate to the listener or reader.

Having these skills will be an asset to you no matter what you do in life, even if you never plan to give a speech. In the book Business Protocol: How to Survive and Succeed in Business, Jan Yager states, “People who can express themselves clearly are at an advantage…. This goes beyond using good grammar, proper spelling and appropriate diction in all your communications; you must also speak and write to the point.”1

There are four parts to putting power into your presentation: passion, personal examples, preparation and presentation. These steps will not only make it easy for you to pull it all together but will also make it easier for your audience to get your message and remember the key ideas you are trying to communicate.

Passion

Many people think that being a speaker is fun or that it is a glamorous lifestyle to lead. They ask, “How can I become a speaker?” I believe you don't really become a speaker; instead, it is an evolution. You don't one day decide that you'd like to be a speaker and then check out books, learn jokes, use other people's material and then reprocess it all into a speech that you call your own. Some people actually do try this approach. Some have excellent acting skills and are able to pull this off, but for most people who try this method, the message is empty. You can tell when you listen to these people that something doesn't ring true.

The best speakers have both technique and passion. But if you can only have one, passion is better. Most of us have heard speakers who were technically perfect; they could win a speech contest because their speech and the delivery were flawless, yet they did not touch our hearts or change our lives. For a while, it was fashionable in the world of professional speakers to work with speech coaches. These coaches had specific areas of expertise—perhaps gestures, pausing, choreography—and worked with speakers to help them perfect their craft. In theory, this sounds like a great concept—don't we all want to master our craft? But I have seen speakers who were better before the coaching. The coaching made them so perfect that all the passion had been coached out of the presentation. On the flip side, I am sure you can recall hearing a speaker who really did not have it all together, but his or her heart was so evident in the message that the message really touched you.

You can learn everything else, but the passion in your message has to come from within.

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