FAQ

Remember that time at school when the teacher asked you to read a paragraph from a book you were studying out loud to the rest of the class?

Or the time that same teacher asked you to write about your weekend or Easter Break and then read it out loud to your class mates?

Remember the first time you had to share your thoughts out loud with a group of colleagues in a meeting at work?

How about the time your boss asked you to update everyone on a project you were working on?

Any time you had to verbally present something to a group of people you were participating in the act of public speaking.

Ironically it’s the most natural act we have all participated in for thousands of years yet it’s something that many people still struggle with today. The good news for you as someone looking to develop the skill is that you no longer need to battle with it is. Everything you need to know to help you is right here on our website.

We thought we would start with the easy questions first. Many people think that great public speakers must be born that way because they make it look so easy. The truth is, it’s not easy; they have just spent a great deal of time, energy and effort focusing on learning and developing the skill. You will be pleased to know that it is a skill we can all develop. At Mindful Presenter we believe that not only is it within our gift to speak with confidence, clarity and impact but that we owe it to ourselves and others to find, value and express our true voice.

The fear of public speaking is notoriously one of the most common phobias in the world today. There is however a great number of things that you can do to manage and overcome that fear. Our first challenge is to understand, accept and respect the fact that some level of anxiety when speaking in public or presenting is entirely normal.

“There are two types of speakers: those that are nervous and those that are liars.” – Mark Twain

Good public speaking skills are no longer expected of just a few of us. Today it’s a basic requirement of the workplace. It’s worth knowing though that the benefits of developing the skill are far reaching. As well as creating greater opportunities for career advancement, you inevitably feel more confident and even strengthen your social network. If you’re not the type to booking yourself onto a public speaking course or get yourself some presentation skills coaching there are a vast number of other things you can do.

The number one request we hear on all of our public speaking courses and presentation skills coaching sessions is: ‘Can you help me feel more confident on my feet?’ It’s not only an issue for presenters as watching a presenter speak who lacks confidence can be quite disturbing for an audience too. Confidence is a complex and very personal topic in its own right as there are a great number of factors at work.

The key to feeling more confident as a presenter is to work hard to improve your presentation skills following the advice given to the previous question: How Can I Improve My Public Speaking Skills? Taking the following advice will also serve you extremely well.

The answer to this question is simple but the application isn’t quite as easy as it takes commitment, focus and effort. At Mindful Presenter we believe that the best way to develop and improve your overall communication skills is through learning to present with impact. Many people make the huge mistake of thinking that public speaking and presenting involves simply reciting a script or reading slides.

It doesn’t.

Everything involved in becoming a highly effective public speaker and presenter revolves around communication skills. Finally, in summary, that means that if you want to improve your communicate skills focus on public speaking and presenting.

At Mindful Presenter we believe that highly effective public speaking and presenting is both an art and a science. With that mind-set it would be unwise and inappropriate to select only 3 things to highlight as the route to success.

People are complex and so is the way we communicate with other which means that developing the skill to present powerfully is more of a journey. Whilst our presentation training courses and public speaking training takes you on that adventure our website is of course full of useful resources and tips to help you. In essence, this very page represents a whole collection of tips. Here are a few you may want to consider:

Regardless of the work you do or position you hold it’s highly likely that at some point you will be asked to openly share your thoughts, views, experience and ideas to a group of other people. When that time comes you will be so pleased that you prepared for it. Public speaking isn’t as many would suggest, ‘a soft skill’. Just like learning to drive a car or learning swim it’s something we have to be taught how to do.

At Mindful Presenter we don’t subscribe to the learning and development principle of ‘one size fits all’. We know that when it comes to public speaking there aren’t really any rules. There are however a great number of things that work much better than others depending on the impact you wish to make. A really good public speaking course will teach you what works and also guide you on what doesn’t work so well.

Is public speaking an art? Well at Mindful Presenter we believe that the skill of public speaking and presenting is both an art and a science. It is an art because to be effective you have to craft and deliver your presentation extremely mindfully and very creatively. Great communication doesn’t just happen, it has to be thought about very carefully and prepared, structured and expressed with excellence and eloquence.

Some may say that it can’t be a science as well because we have already expressed the view that there are no rules and science is of course very rule based. The fact is that the ability to connect emotionally as well as intellectually with an audience doesn’t happen by luck.

Some people say that you have 10 seconds to grab your audience’s attention, some say 30 seconds and others extend that time to as long as a minute. At Mindful Presenter we believe that for the most part you already have your audience’s attention by virtue of the fact that they turned up to listen to you. We believe that the challenge is far greater; you have to capture their interest and curiosity very quickly. There are countless ways to start a presentation but the best ones focus on impact.

Think back for a moment to the last few business presentations you attended. You’re likely to remember how the presenter’s lack lustre closing did very little to inspire you to act on her message. It doesn’t matter how great your presentation is you will do both yourself and your audience a huge disservice if you don’t close your presentation the way you started it; with impact.

Our whole life is a story when you stop for a moment to really think about it. We are constantly telling stories to each other at home, at work and even to people that we meet for the first time. In its simplest form storytelling is using words, actions and pictures to communicate in way that builds rapport, stimulates imagination and connect us with others. In public speaking and presenting one of the most powerful ways to connect emotionally with an audience and inspire action is through storytelling.

When used effectively PowerPoint and other visual aid software can add considerable value to a presentation. The only reason they receive such bad press is because most presenters smother their slides in words. The old saying ‘A picture is worth a thousand words’ has stood the test of time because most of us connect with pictures. The time to use PowerPoint, Keynote, Prezi or any other software is when you are certain that the idea or message you are presenting demands more than words to help you to connect with your audience.

In many organisations today most business presentations are too long and too boring. Mindful presenting is the future of high impact public speaking and presenting which connects you with your audience emotionally as well as intellectually. The practice of mindful presenting helps you to filter out distractions, keep your audience engaged and dispel much of the anxiety that presenters feel.

As we describe on our website it’s a means of ‘presenting with focus and impact in a way that is calm, creative and compelling.’

Getting through a presentation without some form of Q&A is extremely rare. For many people it’s the moment that they dread in anticipation of being asked a difficult question or one they just can’t answer. Presenting in itself isn’t easy, most of us spend a vast amount of time preparing and practicing exactly what we plan to say. If you’re not prepared for questions or don’t know how to answer the tough ones whilst retaining your professionalism and credibility it’s even harder. There is however a great deal that you can do to help you.

An increasing number of organisations insist that as well as answering the usual behavioural analysis questions these days you also need to give a presentation. It doesn’t stop there of course as often once you’ve finished your presentation there is a further barrage of questions. Whatever the scenario and whatever the type of questions you are asked the one thing that is crucially important is that you are prepared.

The first thing most of our clients ask us for help with when presenting is to feel more confident on their feet. The second is to help them to get rid of their presenting bad habits. As a presenter you would never consciously choose to play with your hair while speaking, tap a pen, pace up and down, sway from side to side or say ‘err’ repeatedly. These are all simply bad habits we have adopted through being on ‘auto-pilot’.

Is it important that you have really great presentation skills to be a good leader and do you have to be a great leader to have good presentation skills?

At Mindful Presenter we believe that we each have an opportunity to lead each time we speak. That leadership may take the form of inspiring action, leading change or simply pulling people together. During our presentation skills training courses we love to get our delegates perspective on what they believe are the characteristics and attributes are of great presenters.