Four Ways To Communicate Effectively At Work
Meet Yuan Peterson, a 23-year-old computer programmer, turned social media influencer. Yuan is on his way to meet investors about a business idea that he as well as a friend have developed. As he stepped off the subway at Penn Station, he adjusted his Brioni jacket and placed his new leather attache case between his legs. He is a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy, as can be seen from his explainer videos on youtube where he presents to his millions of followers. As such, wearing a jacket suit is not exactly within his comfort zone, and neither is meeting face-to-face. However, the jacket was a gift from one of the potential investors he is scheduled to meet in a few minutes.
Having the case in hand and with twenty minutes until the presentation, he sprinted across the platform to Hudson Yards in the hopes that he would have at least five minutes to collect his thoughts. Yuan isn’t the kind of person who goes for fancy things, but this could be a life-changing opportunity for him. On entering the building, he went straight up the elevator to the 37th floor. When he entered the large conference hall, he was greeted warmly by his friend and another thirty people who he had never met before.
Yuan’s face became hot, and his heart started pounding. After a short drink and a quick meet and greet, he was asked to make his presentation a few minutes later. As Yuan presented the business concept to the audience, he suddenly froze on stage and passed out within a few seconds.
It is common for most people to speak in public at some point in time, whether they are star athletes, entrepreneurs, public figures, or just average working-class individuals. Let’s face it, even seasoned professionals get a little nervous from time to time. It does not have to be as dramatic as Yuans’ experience, but rest assured that even seasoned public speakers’ nerves get the better of them during big events. Some athletes refer to it as the ‘gold rush moment’ because this rush of adrenaline causes them to feel invincible.
On the other hand, some people are entirely handicapped, like Yuan. Are you aware of anyone who performs exceptionally well in minor leagues but suddenly chokes when it comes to a major championship? There must be someone like that you know or have followed as a sports fan. Public speaking for many of us is like that. We can sit with a group of people who are not even in our inner circle and have a casual chat at work. But when we are asked to present to the entire department or company, our nerves kick into overdrive even if we are well-rested and well prepared.
Here are four ways you can improve your public speaking to engage your audience and deliver your message.
1. Be certain you have a central message to convey.
When you are confronted with or are aware of the fact that you will have to make a public speech, the first thing you need to do is ensure that you have a clear central point that you would like to convey to the audience. Having said that, you should decide on this well in advance of taking the stage.
Also, you should be able to answer the question that appears immediately in the mind of your audience: What is the most important thing I want to convey?
If you know your key idea and keep it in the forefront of your mind, you are primed to focus and produce only content that is relevant to your case. By doing so, you will be able to convey your entire message without straying off-topic and losing your audience. By sticking to just one main point, you will be able to avoid straying off-topic and optimize your presentation. Presentations and public speaking engagements almost always have a time limit attached to them. In attempting to convey too many ideas in a short period of time, you may end up overloading your audience with information.
Know your central idea and ensure that everything you say connects to it.
2. Engage your audience from the very beginning.
A. Your audience will only pay attention to the entirety of your talk if you give them a reason to care. While I was in high school, my English literature teacher told the class, “begin with a bang!” As a writer, it is always a good idea to draw the reader’s attention when writing a paper. The same applies when you give a speech, whether it is in your department or outside of it. It is the first chance you have and perhaps the only one to hold the audience’s attention.
As soon as your presentation begins, your priority is to engage the audience. Whether you think your talk is fantastic or not, it won’t make any difference if you fail to hook your audience right at the beginning. When you capture the curiosity of your audience from the beginning of your presentation, they are primed to absorb the information you are trying to convey. As a result, it is best to engage your audience as soon as possible once you begin your presentation.
b. Having said that, you can capture their attention by asking them intriguing questions about how certain ‘common’ viewpoints and concepts don’t add up. It does not matter if it is the latest geopolitical issue, or developments in social media, as long as it catches the listeners’ attention and makes them want to engage with you.
c. Once this is accomplished, you can then discuss how this issue, this problem, affects your audience and the people they care about greatly.
3. Simplify your idea through comparisons:
When you present to your audience a new or complex concept, compare it to familiar ones to make it easier for them to understand.
In her non-fiction book Mastermind: How to think like Sherlock Holmes, psychologist and writer Maria Konnikova explained that the brain is like an attic and has a limited amount of space, so, if you don’t go to the trouble of organizing it, much like Sherlock does to organize his thoughts, you will leave the brain filled with useless things and useless information. Like a cluttered attic, a clutters mind makes it difficult to store and recall useful information when the situation demands it. As a result, she is able to communicate her message effectively by relating her complex subject to something as simple and relatable as an attic.
Practice is an important step that public speakers should never skip when it comes to preparing for their presentations. Often, if you do not practice your presentation beforehand, you will be more likely to ramble and appear stiff, as you tend to rely on your notes a lot. Therefore, practice and know your presentation by heart. Slides and notes are merely complementary tools that can be used to enhance your presentation, not its heart and soul.
After you have completed your presentation and have gone over it countless times, you have practiced it so much that you can do it in your sleep. Don’t forget, however, to prepare for technical difficulties as well. In order to present effectively, you must train for technical problems, since ignoring this step may cause your entire presentation to derail. You can accomplish this by checking if the presentation tools you’re using are compatible with the venue you’re going to be using. Also, you should prepare backup drives, files, and other equipment in case anything goes wrong in the middle of the conversation so that you can avoid disaster.
4. Be honest if you don’t know the answer
As the speaker, you are thought of as an expert. After all, you are the one they are watching. Nonetheless, this does not necessarily mean you already know all the answers.
When you don’t know the answer to a question an audience member asks you, it’s always better to be honest, and tell them, “I don’t know, but I will look it up for you ASAP,” rather than making something up. By allowing yourself to be vulnerable, not only are you gaining greater respect, but you are also saving yourself the embarrassment of tripping on your tongue you have it. If you know someone who would enjoy reading this article forward it to them. Also, share your thoughts and other ways in which we can all communicate effectively.
