rehearsal Archives - Made Human

Visual Aids. The Speaker’s Friend and Curse

Wed, 21 Feb 2024 15:41:24 +0000

Slide decks have become a huge part of corporate life. An essential, everyday communication tool serving multiple purposes, often all at once. From guiding and prompting the delivery of the time-poor, under-rehearsed speaker, to illustrating their words for the audience – and sometimes becoming the one document of record.

Slides, posters and props of all kinds can be helpful to everyone when the subject matter is complex and abstract. But speakers often lean too hard on them.

Many talks and presentations in modern business rely heavily on the slide deck as the principal means of communication. Often, it’s based on a stack of PowerPoint slides that took the speaker, or their team, hours or even days and weeks to put together.

We don’t need to dwell on the reasons why. Visuals are neither right nor wrong in themselves. Some talks need them. Some don’t.

But what visuals don’t do is make the new or under-confident presenter a better speaker. That’s because confidence relies on competence, and competence grows through practice.

Practice – What Practice?

But practice at what? Not practice in speaking to an all-bells-and-whistles, multi-slide PowerPoint deck. That’s like making a child who’s learning to ride practice on a 20-gear racing bike.

Instead, I recommend novice speakers find opportunities to stand up in front of any audience, deliver a short speech, from the heart, without notes or visuals, and connect with that audience physically and emotionally. And aim to do it without breaking a sweat! The speech should be prepared and rehearsed, ideally shortly before the day. After that, make opportunities to do it again – and again. This is far more valuable for competence and confidence building.

Until we are comfortable with doing this, anything more complex will be a battle for effect and attention that’s never quite won; neither by the speaker nor the audience.

Ideally, we would all get comfortable with speaking to an audience at an early age, and without visual aids. Some will have had more opportunities than others to do that; perhaps in front of a school assembly, or by debating, or performing in a show. Others may just have made sure they were elsewhere when volunteers were being called on to front up.

It’s almost impossible to grow in competence and confidence as speakers if we don’t work on ourselves first. So the next time you have a chance to front up, grab it.

Peter was a business journalist and BBC TV news anchorman for many years. He also has nearly 30 years’ experience as a speaker coach. You can sign up here to receive Peter’s insights on communication made human for business – and learn about his online introduction to becoming an effective speaker: Be Your Best Self Up Front.

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Fear of public speaking is natural. So, what’s the solution?

Wed, 14 Feb 2024 22:04:37 +0000

Stepping up your performance in front of new and larger audiences is something for which everyone needs a warm up.

It’s not just the intellectual challenge of facing something new. There’s an important physiological, even visceral component to it too. You need to feel alright about it in your head. But you want to feel OK in the pit of your stomach too.

Have you ever sensed that queasy feeling when everyone’s focus is suddenly on you in a public space, perhaps for the first time?

I was struck recently by the read out from an Australian business school study that looked at barriers to speaking up in meetings, and how to encourage input. The study also looked at how to reduce the whinging and whining that’s often expressed after the event. You know: the conversations that should have happened inside the room actually happening in discreet corners outside the room.

Some of the common reasons given by those who were interviewed for the study were:

The sheer size of the meetings
A sense it was futile to raise questions
Fear of negative consequences from speaking up

When questioned further, the surprising find was that hardly any respondents could give examples of negative impacts from speaking up. So: the researchers concluded that often:

Those feelings of futility and fear were exaggerated
That a culture of silence was the norm
And that, in reality, the employees had much more personal agency than they imagined

You may think this has not much to do with speaking formally in front of an audience. But I think there is a link, a red thread, running through these two types of event. In fact, any public event where there’s an opportunity or invitation for you to speak to a large audience.

We can become so used to not using our voices when we should that we undersell ourselves. We undersell the story we have come to tell.

Or, we fail to face up to those imaginary fears, and pass that opportunity to speak altogether.

So, how do we get better at facing up? Firstly, recognize that thicket of fears as entirely natural. Then, plan a route through them. If the fears come from lack of experience, that route may begin with very simple steps. Prepare to stand and tell a simple story in front of a trusted friend in just 60 seconds. Keep it super simple, but give the story a beginning, middle and end, so it has some shape to it.

You could even record it on your phone and watch it back. What was good about your performance? What could be improved? Then do it again, but better!

If conquering those fears is really important to you and your career, take more steps. Sign up for a speaker workshop, or engage a personal coach. But, more than anything else: practice, practice, get some honest feedback – and do a realistic rehearsal before the real thing!

By Peter Coë

February 14, 2024

Peter was a business journalist and BBC TV news anchorman for many years. Alongside, he also has nearly 30 years’ experience as a speaker coach. You can sign up here to receive Peter’s insights on communication made human for business – and learn about his online introduction to becoming an effective speaker: Be Your Best Self Up Front.

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Warming Up

Fri, 03 Nov 2023 13:56:26 +0000

Good speakers often have elaborate pre-performance routines that go well beyond rehearsals of the words they’ll be delivering on stage.

I’ve written before about the need to rehearse before any important speech or presentation. But my focus here is on three other components, which can also hugely improve your delivery.

They are: relaxation – breathing – and vocal exercises.

If you have ever sung in a choir, it won’t sound strange that I mention relaxation and breathing in the same sentence as voice exercises. But, if you don’t currently practice any of these things, it will definitely help you as a speaker to develop a preparation and warm-up routine of your own that includes them.

If you practice yoga or meditation, you’ll be familiar with relaxation and breathing routines. If not, I recommend you borrow from these disciplines for exercises that will help you prepare yourself as a speaker, both physically and mentally.

A good time to do them is early in the morning, soon after you wake up – and especially on the day that you’re due to speak.

Then, for the voice, just as a singer prepares their voice by singing scales, actors will do something very similar with simple words and sounds before going on stage.

As a speaker, you can – and should – warm up your voice too; preferably in a private place and in the hour or so before your big moment. An accessible and fun way that actors do it is by rapidly and playfully annunciating a range of easy to recall sounds.

For example, by reciting a nonsense verse with all the energy you can muster, followed by a series of your favorite tongue twisters; or the letters of the alphabet, repeated five times each in quick succession.

Better still, if you can get in there before anyone else, do your warm-up in the same room or auditorium that you’re about to speak in.

The only challenge is to not feel self-conscious about actually performing any of these warm-up routines. So don’t!

Think of them as entirely normal and necessary, for you to be a bigger and more memorable version of yourself!

Peter (PJ) Coë; Nov. 3, 2023

PJ Coë was a business journalist and BBC television news anchorman for many years and also has nearly 30 years’ experience as a speaker trainer and personal coach. If you or someone you work with needs help to prepare for a speaking engagement, you can email him directly at: pj@pjcoe.com.

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Giving It Oomph!

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 11:15:00 +0000

I reckon anyone who’s ever rehearsed before speaking to an audience will have heard this before from a well-meaning but impatient critic: “Just give it some more oomph!”

“Thanks for that,” you think to yourself, “but that’s easy for you to say. I thought I was doing OK. What else am I supposed to do?”

It’s true that “give it more oomph” is not the most helpful feedback you can receive if you have had little experience of speaking to an audience, or you have never had voice coaching. It doesn’t really tell you what your delivery is missing.

Effective delivery requires not just rehearsal and familiarity with WHAT you’re going to say, but also a keen sense of HOW you are going to speak it.

Spoken English that’s engaging and easy on the ear for your audience should mirror the style and inflections of an everyday, lively conversation between any two people. Typically: well-modulated voices.

And what is a well-modulated voice? It’s NOT that you have to have been to a posh school. (It’s nothing to do with accent, regional or otherwise.) But it IS about a voice that’s warmed up, well hydrated, and makes full use of pitch, pace, power and pause; in other words, a voice and a delivery that reflects the nuances, energy and emphases you hear every day in animated conversations between two people.*

To warm up your voice before you rehearse or deliver a speech or presentation, choose a favorite verse or two of poetry, a limerick, or a couple of tongue twisters, and read them aloud to yourself – clearly and deliberately.

Note the punctuation marks and line endings, and make good use of these to introduce some natural pauses and inflections in your delivery.

Pausing in these places has a three-way benefit: it will give you more opportunities to breathe, you’ll gain greater control of your delivery, and you’ll give your audience more time to assimilate and appreciate not only your words but also the sense of what you’re telling them.

Peter Coë; July 19, 2022

Peter was a business journalist and BBC television news anchorman for many years, and has nearly 30 years’ experience as a speaker trainer. You can sign up here to receive Peter’s regular insights on communication made human for business. You can also learn about his online introduction to becoming a confident and effective speaker: Be Your Best Self Up Front.

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Reading aloud

Fri, 03 Jun 2022 22:33:15 +0000

Have you noticed how many of us will find any excuse for not rehearsing their delivery before a speech or presentation?

Rehearsing is as normal as breathing for experienced speakers, but for those who aren’t born show ponies it often feels awkward. Best avoided, even if what they’re going to say is largely scripted already.

Many adults have half-buried memories of being compelled to read aloud, or perform in some way in front of an audience in junior school, or perhaps in college. Ever after, rehearsing or simply reading out loud becomes a disagreeable chore, never done out of choice.

The truth is that the voice is a tool, and a versatile one, but the human physiology that supports it – not least the brain – is complex, and the voice only performs well with custom and practice. Most of us aren’t addressing an audience of more than two or three people every day, so this is all the more reason why rehearsal matters.

The best place to start is by reading aloud what you’ve already prepared. It doesn’t have to be perfect, particularly if no one else is listening, just good enough! And if the actual space you’ll be speaking in for real isn’t readily available, then do it at your desk – or your backyard. But do it standing up, and be loud. Make it real!

If it sounds good enough to you, do it again – and this time record it on your phone or video camera. Then review and critique it. You’ll be on your way to outstanding!

By Peter Coë

June 3, 2022

Peter was a business journalist and BBC TV news anchorman for many years. He also has nearly 30 years’ experience as a speaker coach. You can sign up here to receive Peter’s regular insights on communication made human for business. You can also learn about his online introduction to becoming a confident and effective speaker: Be Your Best Self Up Front.

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