Few would argue with the notion that public speaking is the nation's number-one fear.
Anyone who has had to stand up in front of an audience - whether giving a presentation, making a business pitch or delivering a speech - can easily remember the varying and often quite unexpected physiological signs of nervousness or even distress.
So what makes some people really good at standing up in front of a group of say 10, 50, 100, 1,000, or even 10,000 people?
There are some ‘tricks' to help you mesmerise your audience, and one of them - appearing to own the territory - is actually pretty easy to learn. Now precise and elegant communication (actually getting your point across) is a little more complicated.
If what you do for a living requires you to convey a key message, political view or educational point - or if you simply want your audiences to admire your style, laugh at your jokes or hear your anecdotes - then it's worth reviewing the world-class skills of our planet's most eloquent and persuasive speakers. These guys are like alchemists, weaving magically powerful messages through the audience's unconscious minds whilst engaging conscious thinking at precisely the right level for each and every person in the room.
Our world leaders are coached in the craft of powerful presenting and, to the trained eye, there are some magnificent examples of political manipulation and exploitation of the viewers' naivety (check out You Tube to practise spotting for yourself). When you look at footage of the current race for the American presidency, you will hear carefully constructed language patterns directing your thinking away from ‘bad' things and towards ‘good' things. These guys use emotive language that reaches into the mind of each stakeholder, pressing emotional hot buttons and creating meaning (remember the Obama-McCain farce over who supported the saddest child story?). This keeps the audience fully engaged and emotionally distracted enough to miss much political detail.
Take heed also of the speaker's body language; a cunning weapon used to instruct the audience's unconscious thinking (instinct) that something being said is good, bad, funny, in the past or in the future. Natural mastery of communication can be modelled from guys like Billy Connolly and Tommy Cooper. These comedians use their stage purposefully, setting up laughter hot spots known as ‘anchors'. They repeatedly fire jokes at the audience while rooted to the same ‘joke' spots and after a short while, the audience predicts what's about to happen next at an unconscious level (think Pavlov's Dogs) and so the next time they walk onto one of these joke spots, there can be laughter even without the comedy! They create the same responses with facial expression and body gestures. Go ahead, see for yourself.
The thing about ‘anchoring' is that we all do it every day; we are conditioned to respond to patterns of familiarity, which can become a powerful tool when public speaking. Take music as an illustration of auditory anchoring, and you might recall the good/bad/powerful feelings associated with a certain piece of music from your past. So can you imagine now, which music track could instantly transform your state into feeling strong, motivated and confident? And then imagine playing that track just before a difficult meeting or business pitch; how much more effective do you think you might be?
The term anchoring is strongly aligned with Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP). Nearly half a decade ago, two research students began to model what the world's most successful psychiatrists and psychologists were doing to get results, and they uncovered a framework for excellence which has today become a complete technology for multi-level communication. NLP techniques are used by presidents, politicians, celebrities, and sportsmen as well as people like me and you.
One of the things to remember here is your life experiences are happening to you on the inside - on that giant movie screen with surround sound called your mind. So grab your remote control and you decide which buttons to press!
If you would like to know more about how NLP can help you to become an elegant and eloquent presenter - contact us.
©Kay Cooke 2008