Speak With Confidence / Edition 1

by Dianna Booher

Overview

How virtually anyone can be an effective public speaker and give powerful presentations

From nationally respected communications guru Dianna Booher, here is a complete program for business professionals who want to take their public speaking skills to a bold new level. Writing for sweaty-palmed beginners and seasoned execs alike, Booher delivers powerful, battle-tested strategies and tips guaranteed to transform even the most fainthearted presenter into a masterful communicator.

In addition to a clear, systematic presentation of the basics that every public speaker must learn, she offers invaluable guidelines for experienced speakers who'd like to fine-tune their skills, as well as guidance on how to seamlessly integrate multimedia into a presentation. In Speak with Confidence!, readers will learn how to:

• Analyze audiences on the fly and adjust speeches accordingly
• Develop a high-impact style of delivery
• Avoid most speech-planning pitfalls
• Involve audiences and deflect distractions
• Create an executive presence

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780071408059
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	12/23/2002
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	7.40(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.54(d)

About the Author

Dianna Booher, CEO of Booher Consultants, has helped thousands of aspiring executives to become dynamic speakers through her executive communication training. Her clients include Army & Air Force Exchange Service, IBM, ExxonMobil, Lockheed-Martin, Frito Lay, GlaxoSmithKline—in fact, nearly half of the Fortune 500 companies.

Read an Excerpt

Speak With Confidence

Powerful Presentations That Inform, Inspire and Persuade

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By Dianna Booher

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2003Dianna Booher
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-07-140805-9

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Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Wobbling in a Wired World

There is nothing wrong with having nothing to say—unless you insist on saying it.

UNKNOWN

In times like the present, men should utter nothing for which they would not willingly be responsible through time and in eternity.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

Some speeches are like broiled lobster. You have to pick through an awful lot of bones to find any meat.

UNKNOWN

There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world: an idea whose hour has come.

VICTOR HUGO

The tongue is more to be feared than the sword.

JAPANESE PROVERB

Communication pays off everywhere you turn. Speaking well is a measurable skill and valuable asset that can help you

* Gain respect, visibility, and recognition

* Influence and motivate others, strengthening your leadership position

* Cement relationships

* Build your reputation as an intelligent, interesting person

* Clarify your ideas and information to others

* Promote your company and its products or services

* Advance your career and earn financial rewards

Your potential to succeed in any relationship depends on your ability to communicate—whether it is conference-room talk, cafeteria talk, or pillow talk.

No longer is effective speaking a "plus" in the business world—it is now expected. And the higher one goes in a company, the more crucial this skill becomes. Today, public speaking is the norm for senior executives.

However, even if you are not a senior executive explaining a crisis to a group of line managers or investors, you often will find yourself speaking before peers in your day-to-day responsibilities as managers, engineers, lawyers, or marketers. And many of you speak for a living; that is, you talk to customers and clients daily to sell products or services. Your speaking success relates directly to your commission check.

We all know that it is not necessarily the brightest or most capable thinkers who get ahead. Often it is those who make a strong impact on people who end up in positions to promote them or buy from them. People who speak well generally are considered more intelligent, forceful, and respectable than their quieter counterparts.

Outside the business world, you will continue to find chances to put your speaking skills to use—at club fund-raisers, on political issues, at farewell gatherings for departing colleagues and friends, and on behalf of nonprofit organizations and causes.

Speaking well is no longer just a nice-to-have skill—it is a must for the successful individual.

COMMUNICATION, NOT JUST INFORMATION

Passing on information is not the problem. The problem is turning information into communication. Sitting through boring meeting after boring meeting while somebody stands to the left of a computer screen and narrates a slideshow in a darkened room just does not make the grade anymore—if it ever did. Connecting with an audience to push them to action or to a decision takes a very different mindset and skill than doling out data.

CLUELESS AND GOING IN CIRCLES

Another common problem is the presenter with presence and pizzazz on the platform—but who seems to be going nowhere in getting a point across. This is much ado about nothing. Everyone within earshot is entertained and motivated, but they walk away scratching their head, wondering, "What was the point? Am I supposed to do something differently? If so, how?"

PLATITUDES WITHOUT A PLATFORM

Some speakers have all the right answers, but no platform—that is, no credibility as a foundation to be heard and believed. Either the track record, the personality, the expertise, the action, the conviction, or the comportment of the speaker overshadows the message. As a result, the audience dismisses what he or she says without giving it full consideration.

PLATFORMS WITHOUT PLATITUDES

Then there's the opposite situation: People who find themselves in the limelight because of some event, crisis, or position they hold, and suddenly they have an audience—but no message. For example, they become a sports hero and then someone asks them for their views on parenting. They do not have a clue about what advice to give or even what has worked in their own relationships with parents or children. Or individuals become chief executive officers (CEOs), and the employee group asks them to outline their political views on immigration in the United States. Or movie stars hit the big time and reporters ask for their views on the relationship between pornography and crime. All these people have platforms—but not necessarily anything worthwhile to say.

RIGHT AUDIENCE, WRONG TALK

Sometimes professionals speaking before specific groups in the course of their jobs fail to take a situation and shape it into a clear message with a specific purpose for a specific audience. They take the same slide deck of information and dole it out to whoever asks for an update—any day for any reason.

RIGHT MESSAGE, WRONG MEDIUM

On other occasions, speakers may know what they want to convey and feel passionate about their subject, yet they select the wrong medium. Something that should have been communicated informally in a 15-minute "fireside chat" with a colloquial analogy is presented formally in a half-hour presentation with 27 slides, followed by a formal question-and-answer period relayed to a panel of staff experts.

EXPECTATIONS IN THE E-ERA

With a click of the mouse, users can access an Internet site and see the flashing glitz of full-color visuals, experience interactivity by having their personality profiled or their mortgage recalculated, or hear their favorite Mozart symphony or rock band. TV viewers can press the remote and watch live action as it unfolds in Afghanistan, Australia, or Angola. Employees at IBM Singapore can sit back and hear their manager via videoconference while he or she is vacationing in Puerto Rico.

Today's technology and everyday work and travel experiences have created an environment where audiences have seen and heard it all—before speakers ever open their mouths. Expectations are enormous for content, research, and visual support.

PLATFORM PLUSES AND MINUSES

All these issues are just that—issues. They can be platform pluses or minuses depending on whether you consider them or ignore them in preparing for your own speaking opportunities.

The pluses mean that you have the power of technology to research your topic, to produce the exact visual you need to clarify your point, to transport that visual to just about any location, and to deliver your message around the world instantly.

The minuses, however, are that the same technology can tempt you to fade into a slide narrator with a monochrome personality in an era that demands presence and dynamism.

HOW THIS BOOK CAN HELP

This book offers speaking tips for people in a variety of situations:

* Executives, managers, or other professionals presenting information to their colleagues, clients, or suppliers as a part of their daily jobs

* Technical experts wanting to "translate" highly complex data and information to nontechnical groups

* Salespeople making sales presentations to their clients

* Company representatives speaking to civic a
(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Speak With Confidence by Dianna Booher. Copyright © 2003 by Dianna Booher. Excerpted by permission of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments 1. Wobbling in a Wired World 2. Rapport with Your Audience—The "Like" Link 3. Platform Presence—Your Dynamic Delivery 4. Creating Your Content, Organizing Your Information, Polishing Your Points 5. Practicing Your Presentation 6. Presenting Technical Information to Nontechnical Audiences 7. Persuasion—Everybody's in Sales 8. Giving a Good Story a Fighting Chance 9. Visuals That Support, Not Sabotage 10. Q&A with Authority: Thinking on Your Feet Under Heat 11. Interactivity as Part of Your Style: Stir, Simmer, Sizzle, Snap, and Stifle 12. Site Preparation: The Right Room with the Right Toys 13. Panache Despite Problems 14. Emceeing—Tying It All Together 15. Audio- and Video-Conferencing—When You're "Live but Not in Person" 16. Evaluating Results—Turning Success or Failure into Fire in the Belly
Epilogue: So You're Up Now
List of Tips
Other Resources by Dianna Booher Available from Booher Consultants
For More Information