Public speaking is an integral part of the life of a business person. In the process, you have to speak at business meetings, negotiate, answer questions from the press, etc.
Types of public speaking are classified in several directions.
For example, by purpose: informational, protocol-etiquette, entertaining, persuading. By type of public speech: report, message, speech, lecture, conversation.
The success of public speaking depends on many factors, considering which, you can not only overcome the fear of public speaking, but also become a good speaker. Public speaking requires prior preparation, which is not neglected even by the most experienced.
Traditionally, public speaking is based on a three-phase compositional principle: introduction, main part, conclusion.
Speech preparation involves several stages. Firstly, it is necessary to see the "skeleton" of the future speech: the motives of the audience, the main idea of speech, the components of the speech, keywords, structure.
In order to increase the “muscle mass” of public speaking, it is necessary to select interesting vivid (preferably short) examples, materials for the visual perception of information (diagrams, graphs, illustrations), moments of appeal to the audience in order to fix attention. Choosing the wording, you should know the intellectual and cultural level of the audience. You should not use terms that you yourself are not good at. This can lead to unexpected “mistakes” that will negatively affect the speaker’s perception.
At the end of the speech preparation you need to see the full text of the speech on paper or electronic media, re-read, pay special attention to the wording at the beginning and at the end of the speech. The introduction should intrigue, interest the audience, and the conclusion should leave in memory the main aspects and keywords of the main idea.
It is convenient to write down the text of the speech, key points, examples or theses on small cards, arranging them in a logical order.
Public speaking would be nice to rehearse. This allows you to hear yourself from the outside, to understand the meaning and logic of the text, to see those moments that are most difficult for the speaker. By reinforcing textual information with non-verbal means of communication (gestures, facial expressions, posture), we can emphasize the most important ideas, or rather convey the meaning of the transmitted information.
The effect of public speaking directly depends on the time. A protracted speech can spoil not only the first impression, but the entire image of the speaker.
The speaker's appearance is the second most important element of public speaking. Clothing should be comfortable. Imagine how you will look if you have to perform on stage, and the audience will look from the bottom up? If the speaker sits at the table, and the audience can see his pants, skirt, shoes?
The style of clothing and speech should match each other. If a public speech is a report, scientific speech, speech at the official level, then the style of clothing should be classic. Informal speech and informal atmosphere, respectively, do not require so many formalities to the style of clothing.
Of no small importance for a successful performance is the study of the location of the upcoming performance. The chair, tribune, table suggest different behaviors of the speaker, as well as adherence to a certain etiquette.
The secret to a successful performance often consists in a simple smile directed towards the audience, confident gait, position in the surveyed space (for example, in the center of the stage, and not in the corner). The psychological attitude to speak significantly increases the chances of success.