I realize Jeff just shared a great post with you last week about Public Speaking, but I, too, have that on my mind, so please pardon the redundant focus this week.
I have been doing more public speaking than normal lately and have also been coaching several people on their own abilities in this area. As such, some new thoughts have come to mind that I am finding helpful, and I think some of those I’ve been coaching have also found them to be helpful. Following are two insights that we didn’t share in LEAD 365, but you might appreciate.
The first is deciding to take the posture of a servant and not an expert. When I feel like I need to be the expert on a topic it makes me feel like I need to be perfect in my knowledge and that my presentation of my knowledge also needs to be perfect. This posture puts a lot of pressure on me AND it’s often not true.
I am choosing instead to change this posture by taking the position of just offering the audience what I can, in the best way I can, and then allowing them to receive it however they will. This change in perspective seems to help calm my nerves, and I believe it also helps me deliver a better and more engaging message.
Just recently I was speaking in front of a group of 150 educators, mostly school principals. I started preparing for the event about two months before the event in my usual way, which starts with asking of a lot of questions about who would be in the audience. If my key objective is to serve the audience, then I need to learn a lot about them so I can craft a message that they will find helpful and challenging. This started with me understanding who they are and then working to put myself in their shoes.
Of course there was the natural anxiety that comes with accepting an opportunity like this. I wasn’t overly nervous, but certainly had the normal, “What if I don’t do well?” concerns as the moment approached for me to go on stage.
As I looked over the audience while being introduced, I reminded myself that I was there to serve them—to give them the best I had—as a gift. I let go of my need to control the results realizing that they would either like my gift or not. (This is a similar posture I’ve learned to take when giving gifts to my family and friends—hopefully they’ll like them, but I’ll choose to be okay if they don’t.)
Either way, I could feel good about the work I did to prepare for this cool opportunity, and I could feel good about my desire to give them my best. This helped me be more calm and confident. It also helped me to love them once we started to engage. In retrospect, I hope they gained a lot from my presentation, AND I’m okay if they found my presentation to be “just okay.”
Interestingly enough, I have another presentation to a group of business owners shortly after this post goes live. I’ve done all of my preparation, and I will take the same approach with them as I did with the principals—and I trust that it will go well.
The second point that helped me present to the large group of educators, and in recent presentations I’ve made, is that these opportunities give me a great chance to practice the things we teach about public speaking. I was able to work on my eye contact, my pauses, keeping my “ums” to a minimum, my posture and hands, and my ability to engage them with some Q & A (including repeating their questions so everyone could hear them).
This idea of practicing also helps me to take the pressure off of trying to be perfect. Public speaking is a skill. All skills take practice before one becomes highly competent. And just like other skills I have experienced, like tennis or golf, practicing the actual performance can be nerve wracking, but it’s a crucial part of getting better. So I’m glad that I’m getting more chances lately to practice so I can get better.
I really enjoyed the two-hour experience with these educators. In many ways, it’s easier to give a two-hour presentation than a two-minute talk. It gave me time to settle in and be conscious of where I am, what I’m doing, and what I would like to practice while delivering my gift to them.
I hope you find these two perspectives helpful as you also get chances to share your thoughts with others in a public setting. Every chance to speak to a group is a great opportunity for real leadership. I hope you also can see it as an opportunity to give a part of yourself to others and as a way to practice so you can continue to grow.
Be great this week!
Rodg
Image by Web Summit. Used under CC by 2.0 license.
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