Public Speaking - Five Awful Ways to Open a Speech

The opening of a speech is one of its two most important parts. There are many great ways to begin, and for each great beginning, there is an equally awful opening.

Here are five awful ways to begin a speech:

• "Hi there, I'm happy to be here..." Please! This is the most bland, boring, badly overused speech opening. By the time you reach the word "here", half of your audience is already asleep. The other half is looking at their watches, wondering "When is this going to be over?" Don't waffle: just start!
• "I'm very nervous right now..." Who cares? Why do you think it's so important for us to know that you haven't prepared, you haven't practiced, and you aren't ready? The audience does not need to know how you feel. When you announce that you aren't at your best, you are automatically setting expectations that you will be bad. It doesn't matter how well you perform. If you do the best speech of your life, they will leave while thinking to themselves: "I wonder how much better it would have been if he/she had been feeling good."
• "Did you hear the one about..." Oh boy! Whenever people start their speech with a joke, it's usually sign that they are just following "public speaking rules." These "rules" allegedly state that you must start a speech with a joke. The problem is that jokes are rarely related to the topic at hand. They are only there to make people laugh. Nothing wrong with getting people to laugh, as long as it doesn't seem forced. Otherwise, after the laughter, people will wonder: "What was the point of that joke?"
• "Here is a story you all know..." Ugh! The starfish story, anything from Chicken Soup for... any story you received over the Internet, all have the same basic issue: many people have heard it already. Stay away from stories that everyone has told, unless you bring a twist to it. For example, I once heard the story of the tortoise and the hare which contained, not one, not two, but three different endings to the story. Now, that's a twist!
• "The great philosopher A. Nonymous once said..." This is another one of those public speaking "rules": start with a quote. Avoid this, once again, because it sets up your audience with the wrong expectations. The expectation is the following: this is going to be another boring speech filled with information we already know. Use quotes, just not at the beginning of your speech.

The two most important parts of a speech are the introduction and the conclusion. The introduction sets the tone for your speech, while the conclusion determines how the audience will feel when they leave. Don't set yourself up for failure from the start: drop these awful openings from your repertoire.

Laurent Duperval helps professionals become influential communicators. He publishes the "Bring Out The Speaker In You" electronic newsletter, which aims to help readers improve their public speaking and communication skills. You can reach him at http://www.duperval.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Laurent_Duperval

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Motivation Presentation - It Wasn't Only the Egyptians Who Built Pyramids!

When giving a motivation presentation, audience analysis is essential. You must think of your presentation from your audience's viewpoint. Chances are your audience has been asked to attend your presentation (they have not come along voluntarily) and many well be thinking: "What's in it for me?"

Don't take that personally. When giving a motivational presentation, that "What's in it for me?" question should be your call to action. For your presentation to succeed, that is the question you need to answer. A motivational presentation should be structured in a way that takes your audience from where they are now to where you would like them to be. You first must engage your audience's attention at their current level, and then demonstrate through your presentation how you can fulfill their natural desire to move up to the next level of motivation. Depending on the goals of your presentation and the intended audience, whether a sales force, production personnel or a football team, you must give them a reason to listen to your presentation. A reason that relates to, and builds on, their own experience.

Way back in 1954, American psychologist Abraham Maslow developed the idea of a hierarchy pyramid of human needs. That hierarchy pyramid has been the foundation of motivation presentations ever since. He demonstrated that there are five basic levels of needs that all people have in common: basic, safety, social, self-esteem and achievement. These can be visualized in a pyramid-type structure with the basic level at the base, up to achievement at the apex.

In the business environment for example, Maslow's hierarchy from the basic level upward is:

• Basic needs, which can be met through, attractive salary, holiday entitlement, etc.
• Safety needs, met by safe working conditions, good pension, health cover.
• Social needs, such as company fitness and sports club, planned social events such as office parties (my favorite!)
• Self-esteem needs, by prestigious job titles, sales-person-of-the-year award, etc.
• Achievement needs, through promotions, interesting job assignments, and so on.

Maslow suggested that people can only be motivated to move up to the next needs-level when they have satisfactorily met the main requirements of their current level. In other words, you are unlikely to have much success in your motivating presentation in telling you audience they have been selected to work on a prodigious new project (self esteem) if their pressing concern is their cut in bonuses (basic).

Interestingly, Maslow found that that when the lower-order needs have been fulfilled, the desire to reach the higher-order needs (self-esteem and achievement) dramatically increase in strength. The ideal motivating presentation should therefore focus more on the higher-order needs. Needs that excite people to develop their talents to the best of their abilities and enable them to finding greater meaning in their work.

A Certified Technical Trainer, Ian has over 10 years experience in the coaching, training and development of personnel in the hi-tech sector. For more presentation tips, ideas and resources, visit http://www.presentation-power-tips.com Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Ian_W_Hay

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