Consistency is the enemy of engagement
04Sep
19Aug
Public Speaking Preparation: How’s your PEP?
With the main Olympics over (and Paralympians in action soon) - and whether you liked or watched the Games - you may know that competitors often have pre-event routines.
Some competitors paint their nails in specific ways. Others knit, or listen to the same piece of music. This idea ties into work I may do with clients. I’ll often give them a PEP talk:Personal Effectiveness Plan!
This plan is built from whatever makes them personally feel anchored, comforted or more certain in what they’re doing. Remembering that our brains love certainty. [See my post on this topic here.] It gives them stability, and a clear...
30Jul
Don’t Forget to Breathe
I spent last week in SA running workshops for both Flinders University medical workforce and Limestone Coast Regional Development. My 3rd visit, and always so rewarding. And one of the topics that came up again - for many different reasons - breathing! At the risk of banging on about this again - believe me, it bears repeating - we often don't realise what a big deal taking enough breath can be when we speak. There are so many benefits such as: - Being able to think more clearly. - Telegraphing control and authority. - Life-force and energy: demonstrating this is a known winner for audiences. - Projecting...
17Jul
Do you Shrink Wrap when you Speak?
Our mind and body follow each other when public speaking, and tightly controlling your body will mean that your mind also contracts. You want to move to be able to think!
Do you ever shrink-wrap yourself when you're speaking? Our mind follows our body and vice versa. And if you are nervous, or focused very hard on controlling your message...or indeed remembering your message, it's quite possible that you'll start to tighten. And if your body is tightening, your mind will also contract and you won't have that free flow of thinking that we need so strongly. It's therefore very important to think: "Okay. What do...
02Jul
Screen Apnoea
Have you heard of screen apnea?
Also called email apnea, this is a very unhelpful state that can occur when we are on devices or looking at a desktop and focusing. We either hold our breath or enter very shallow breathing patterns. Of course, when this happens, we go into low-level fight-flight. Because the system is always activated (and I'm sure you can join the dots on why I'm talking about this in terms of speaking, presenting, or difficult situations) if you're already in that state at work without even necessarily being aware of it, how much easier is it to escalate to...
16Jun
The Audience Takes its Cue From You
What you put out, you are likely to get back.
To give you a metaphor illustrating this: If you're the slug at the front, expect your audience to be slugs in the seats. This may be an extreme visual, but there's so much truth in it. Your audience will respond to your energy, vibrancy, and engagement with the topic, and what they see from you as the presenter or speaker is what they will mirror back. So if you're low in energy or appear disinterested, be prepared for that to come right back at you. Of course, we need to expand on this metaphor—you...
05Jun
Internalise don’t Memorise
If you’re preparing for a talk or an interview, and you write down the exact words that you want to say first and then try and remember them in the event, you’ve potentially got an issue.
You may get:
disconnected from the meaning behind the words, because you're so hung up on getting exact wording right. disconnected from the audience because you're in your head rather than with them. distracted by trying to remember the correct words or phrases. frustrated if something you said didn't come out exactly as you wanted it to. In all these cases, you've - even temporarily - lost...
08May
Asking Questions
When you give a presentation, do you ask enough questions? Even if they’re rhetorical questions, many people don't have enough questions in their presentations. It's simply a series of statements. And the higher level thinking or the more familiar the topic, the more involved we are, the less easier it is to remember that sometimes we need to flip and turn a statement into a rhetorical question. For example, I was working with a client in sustainability who had some incredible stats, that she simply clicked through to on the slides and… there they were. And that was a perfect moment, which we...
24Apr
Grounded Triangle Pose
Grounded triangle pose: a technique for you if you're nervous or know you lack presence. When you speak it's easy to become what I call "a head on a stick". You might rush because of enthusiasm, too much content, or nervousness. You might not want to pause in case you forget your next point… or you're worried that the audience might think you've forgotten! When this happens, our centre of gravity rises: imagine an inverted triangle from your head to your core. You make it all about your thinking brain, and you won't be very well grounded.
What we want instead
What we're after...
10Apr