Adjust Your Perspective to Revamp Your Speeches
Adjust Your Perspective to Revamp Your Speeches
Crafting and delivering a engaging speech that educates, stimulates, and captivates the audience demands expertise. This skill can be acquired and honed, but it is a skill nonetheless.
Enhancing any skill necessitates effort, undeniably, and the right attitude. Delivering better speeches isn't an exception. The initial step is to adopt the right attitude.
When I instruct speech training classes at Harvard, I advise graduate students and business professionals to make a significant modification in their perspective. Do not deliver speeches. Instead, share stories.
"Are you suggesting we abandon PowerPoint slides altogether?" they inquire often.
"Absolutely not," I reply. "Slides are perfectly acceptable to augment the story. Yet, the story must precede the slides."
The secret to creating, constructing, and delivering a magnificent presentation lies here:
Visualize yourself as a storyteller, not a "speaker." Shift your perception and the presentation your audience perceives will shift as well.
Humans have been narrating stories since our cave-dwelling ancestors started drawing on cave walls. Storytelling is a fundamental aspect of human existence because we utilize stories to communicate our ideas to others. PowerPoint does not inspire. Stories do. PowerPoint slides can aid in illustration, but it's the storyteller whom the audience seeks.
A storyteller adheres to the following steps to construct a narrative before opening PowerPoint:
Determine your primary message. Each presentation must have a dominant theme, or major message. Everything else—slides, graphics, animations, examples—should align with the theme.
Plan a structure. Most writers begin with an outline that features titles, subtitles, a clear introduction, and a strong conclusion. Although a presentation isn't a written document, drafting an outline for the narrative you wish to narrate—before designing slides—can be beneficial.
Identify anecdotes and examples. Anecdotes, case studies, and real-life situations are meant to strengthen the key points in your outline. Collect the specific examples and narratives that support your presentation and add them to the outline.
Generate slides. Once you're confident in the story you wish to share, key messages, supporting details, and specific examples, then you can open PowerPoint—or your preferred presentation tool—to bring the narrative to life through visuals.
Rehearse the performance. A seasoned storyteller knows that much of the impact they make is through their vocal delivery, body language, expressions, and gestures. The only way to improve your "performance" is through consistent practice—on your feet and out loud. Schedule practice time and make sure you keep the date.
Once you perceive content as a storyteller and not a speaker, your presentation will be much more powerful—your audience will be significantly more engaged, and you will feel much more assured. PowerPoint is not the adversary, and it can accompanied your narrative. However, if you haven't invested time into crafting the narrative, even beautifully designed slides cannot resurrect it.
Embrace your role as a storyteller and witness your presentations enlighten, stimulate, and persuade your audience to action.
Developing your communication skills is crucial in effectively sharing your stories. Practicing storytelling techniques can significantly enhance your storytelling abilities.
Being an excellent public speaker goes beyond delivering a speech; it involves engaging the audience through captivating narratives. Utilizing your communication and storytelling skills in public speaking can create a memorable and impactful experience for your audience.