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Have you ever heard the “I have a dream” speech given by Martin Luther King Jr. in 1963? If you are just starting your career as a public speaker, I highly recommend that you search for this video clip on the internet. If possible, also study the full text of your speech because it contains many powerful words and phrases.
I still remember what my mentor taught me: everything in the training is about the context that I establish for my participants. This is contrary to the belief of many people. As far as I know, these people believe that content is more critical and a trainer should give as much content as possible within the limited time limit. I am sorry I disagree. A trainer who focuses on content rather than context does not understand what the training is about. A good trainer is someone who leads and inspires his participants and therefore his focus should always be on his participants and not himself. Therefore, the context is more important than the content. How many of you know what I’m talking about?
If you’re new to this business, you might be wondering what you could do to deliver a persuasive oral presentation to your audience. In this article, I am going to share with you something from my own experience. Here is my presumption. You have already identified the topic you are presenting and are familiar with it.
1. Have a written game plan
In each training session, the first thing that comes to mind is how much time I have to teach the topic. Let’s say I only have 60 minutes to deliver a speech. I will probably identify three or four key points to present to my audience and make sure that enough time is allocated to each point that I am trying to make.
Also, I will carefully plan how to guide my audience to fully understand one point before moving on to another. It doesn’t make sense for me to deliver all the points to my audience if they can’t absorb them all. As a result, I will move to the next point only when I am satisfied that my audience fully understands my current point.
2. Prepare the script
Part of my success in delivering a persuasive oral presentation to my audience depends on my script. In my experience, having a script allows me to deliver content smoothly and helps me avoid timing out on my presentation.
Suppose I have four key points to cover in my presentation. As I prepare the script, I will give some thought to how these key points will be presented. Will I break down a key point into a few sub-points? Will I use group activities to reinforce my audience’s learning? What else can I do to help my audience? All this will be duly documented in my script.
3. Importance of word choice
When preparing my script, I will also pay attention to the choice of words. For example, if I want to convey a strong message to my participants, I am essentially transferring positive energy to them. This would require her to use positive and empowering words. For example, if I want my participants to lose weight and become more attractive, what should I say? The answer is obvious. Instead of saying “don’t get fat,” I’ll say “lose weight and attract more people.” While they may mean the same thing, participants will feel better if empowering words or phrases are used. How many of you can pass this on?
Also, I am careful about using words like “would”, “should”, “could” and “must”. If you are familiar with the Milton model in neurolinguistic programming, these are known as “model operators.” For example, there is always a reason why I sometimes have to use the word “must” instead of “should” in a particular context.
As I am running out of space, I have decided to share with you some more tips in the next part. Please, be patient.
In the meantime, if you have any comments or experiences to share, please leave a note on my website as I’d love to hear them.