InVisibleLight

Baby Speakers

26th June, 2010 - Posted by janebeard - No Comments

We usually work with senior executives who present in pretty high stakes situations. These folks tend to come with a lot of experience as speakers…and a lot of personal “rules” about how they want to perform.

But we also like to help speakers in the community. That’s how we came to work with a group of six rising and just-graduated high school seniors. They’re all interns at a local foundation for the summer. And the foundation wanted to make sure they left with basic speaking skills.

They had some great questions – all based on what they’ve seen the adults around them doing, when they present, like:

“I hate it when people stand there and read the slides, like we can’t read ourselves. Are you really supposed to do that?”

“I can’t stop from walking around a lot, shifting my weight from side to side. What’s up with that?”

“What do I do with my hands?”

“Do you have to use slides?”

“What can I do to be more genuine? Because I think you are supposed to be.”

“What if I get nervous?”

What great questions! And, for the record, the answers are:

No, you aren’t supposed to read your slides. You aren’t even supposed to have enough words on the slide TO read them to us.

You are probably someone who needs to move in order to think. The trick for kinesthetic thinkers is to plant yourself before you speak your Big Ideas. Then make the movement in between Big Ideas deliberate, rather than random.

Forget about ‘em.

No. No. No.

Quit trying to be “good” or “better” and just give us something to do that we couldn’t have done without your talk. Empower us in some specific way.

People who try NOT to be nervous get themselves in trouble. The first thing to do is let it be okay for you to feel whatever it is you’re feeling. Trying to block out your body’s signals about nerves is guaranteed to make your brain and body dial up the nerves. Let it go, and focus on US instead of yourself.

Anyway. So much of our coaching is about helping people drop old bad habits and out-moded “Speaker 101” ideas. It was refreshing to work with people who were of true beginner’s mind and open to new ideas. They are passionate about the world and their ideas, and are eager to start changing the world, one audience at a time.

Watch out, world. These young people will be coming soon to an audience near you.