Speech Training
What is This Section About?
This section of Trainer University covers the basics and provides tips on how to improve your speaking skills.
Why is This Section Important?
Public speaking is one of the most common fears of individuals. This section will allow you to better understand the tips on how to overcome that fear and sound more like an expert. The tips will include ways to control your nerves, vary your tone of voice, and add the final touches – so you can come off sounding like an expert, especially in front of Trainer clients!
Introduction
As part of Trainer’s on-going training and development, Trainer invested in a “trained professional” Deborah Biron, to conduct speech training for all employees. Deborah has worked with Trainer in developing great communications skills not only around the office, but more importantly, when speaking with clients. The following are techniques Deborah shared to overcome certain obstacles when speaking in public and in private.
Slowing Down the Pace
One of the most common habits is speaking too fast. Everyone has those butterflies before going in front of either a small group to a large group of people. People tend to think, “If I speak faster, the sooner I will be done.” When in reality, the audience tends to feel puzzled and confused because they can’t understand what you are saying. Deborah provided the following advice and steps to “make those nervous butterflies fly away” and help you slow down the pace.
A very helpful breathing exercise naturally helps slow down the heart rate and, in turn, the pace of your speech. People tend to speak from the throat, rather than the stomach, which makes it more difficult to keep track of your breathing. The breathing exercise is to breathe from the lower part of the stomach, controlling the chest movement. In order to do this, you will need to focus on your body, but not too hard, let it come naturally.
Breathe in from the lower stomach for five seconds, then hold for five seconds, and breathe out for five seconds. Doing this process over and over will calm the nerves and will bring the heart rate down.
Breathing out of the lower stomach will help with not projecting from the throat, resulting in you gaining more confidence with the audience.
Sounding Confident
The overall goal when speaking to a crowd is to exude confidence and assert yourself like you are the expert. Every exercise Deborah provides helps the staff to sound more confident.
The first path to take to sounding more confident is to be conversational. In order to do this, it is all in the preparation of the speech. Instead of writing the entire speech, and reading it word for word, you should make an outline or bullet points of the main topics. The point of this exercise is to refresh your memory of what to say next.
Another way of sounding more conversational is to picture someone you feel comfortable with in your head. For example, pretend you are talking to your mother or father, like you are explaining something to them. Having that image in your head will make you more relaxed and conversational.
The next step to sounding more confident is using inflection. Inflection is the alteration in pitch of the voice. You will want to emphasize the more important facts in your speech. For example, when speaking to a client on an upcoming release, you will want to use inflection when speaking about the date and what the release is about. Use inflection when you want to emphasize certain points in your speech to let the audience know the importance of that topic.
Another aspect of sounding confident is the tone in your voice. In most cases, the tone in someone’s voice changes when he or she is speaking on the telephone or in front of an audience. The tone may change because someone is nervous, or not sure of what he or she is saying.
A way to change your tone to sound more confident is simple -- prepare and do your homework. Make sure you know the topic like the back of your hand. In order to prepare for the topic, you will need to do some research to make sure you understand what you are saying. For example, if the topic is an award submission, make sure you know the opportunity well enough to approach your client in a way he or she will understand. The client looks to you as the expert. If you are unsure of the opportunity, the client will be unsure and may lose some of that trust.
Another way to have your tone make you sound more confident is to practice. Practice saying your speech out loud, either while you are driving to work, in front of relatives, or even record your speech and play it back. The more you practice your speech, the more familiar you become with the topic, which will lead you to sounding less nervous and more like an expert.
Final Touches
Speaking in front of a crowd or to a client may never come easy, but there are ways to overcome those fears and to make someone sound more like an expert. Deborah is always coming up with new tips to improve Trainer’s ability to speak in public settings.
The three main points to remember are to slow down the pace, use inflection, prepare, and vary the tone in your voice. In no time, you will be speaking to top executives sounding like the expert you are.
This section of Trainer University covers the basics and provides tips on how to improve your speaking skills.
Why is This Section Important?
Public speaking is one of the most common fears of individuals. This section will allow you to better understand the tips on how to overcome that fear and sound more like an expert. The tips will include ways to control your nerves, vary your tone of voice, and add the final touches – so you can come off sounding like an expert, especially in front of Trainer clients!
Introduction
As part of Trainer’s on-going training and development, Trainer invested in a “trained professional” Deborah Biron, to conduct speech training for all employees. Deborah has worked with Trainer in developing great communications skills not only around the office, but more importantly, when speaking with clients. The following are techniques Deborah shared to overcome certain obstacles when speaking in public and in private.
Slowing Down the Pace
One of the most common habits is speaking too fast. Everyone has those butterflies before going in front of either a small group to a large group of people. People tend to think, “If I speak faster, the sooner I will be done.” When in reality, the audience tends to feel puzzled and confused because they can’t understand what you are saying. Deborah provided the following advice and steps to “make those nervous butterflies fly away” and help you slow down the pace.
A very helpful breathing exercise naturally helps slow down the heart rate and, in turn, the pace of your speech. People tend to speak from the throat, rather than the stomach, which makes it more difficult to keep track of your breathing. The breathing exercise is to breathe from the lower part of the stomach, controlling the chest movement. In order to do this, you will need to focus on your body, but not too hard, let it come naturally.
Breathe in from the lower stomach for five seconds, then hold for five seconds, and breathe out for five seconds. Doing this process over and over will calm the nerves and will bring the heart rate down.
Breathing out of the lower stomach will help with not projecting from the throat, resulting in you gaining more confidence with the audience.
Sounding Confident
The overall goal when speaking to a crowd is to exude confidence and assert yourself like you are the expert. Every exercise Deborah provides helps the staff to sound more confident.
The first path to take to sounding more confident is to be conversational. In order to do this, it is all in the preparation of the speech. Instead of writing the entire speech, and reading it word for word, you should make an outline or bullet points of the main topics. The point of this exercise is to refresh your memory of what to say next.
Another way of sounding more conversational is to picture someone you feel comfortable with in your head. For example, pretend you are talking to your mother or father, like you are explaining something to them. Having that image in your head will make you more relaxed and conversational.
The next step to sounding more confident is using inflection. Inflection is the alteration in pitch of the voice. You will want to emphasize the more important facts in your speech. For example, when speaking to a client on an upcoming release, you will want to use inflection when speaking about the date and what the release is about. Use inflection when you want to emphasize certain points in your speech to let the audience know the importance of that topic.
Another aspect of sounding confident is the tone in your voice. In most cases, the tone in someone’s voice changes when he or she is speaking on the telephone or in front of an audience. The tone may change because someone is nervous, or not sure of what he or she is saying.
A way to change your tone to sound more confident is simple -- prepare and do your homework. Make sure you know the topic like the back of your hand. In order to prepare for the topic, you will need to do some research to make sure you understand what you are saying. For example, if the topic is an award submission, make sure you know the opportunity well enough to approach your client in a way he or she will understand. The client looks to you as the expert. If you are unsure of the opportunity, the client will be unsure and may lose some of that trust.
Another way to have your tone make you sound more confident is to practice. Practice saying your speech out loud, either while you are driving to work, in front of relatives, or even record your speech and play it back. The more you practice your speech, the more familiar you become with the topic, which will lead you to sounding less nervous and more like an expert.
Final Touches
Speaking in front of a crowd or to a client may never come easy, but there are ways to overcome those fears and to make someone sound more like an expert. Deborah is always coming up with new tips to improve Trainer’s ability to speak in public settings.
The three main points to remember are to slow down the pace, use inflection, prepare, and vary the tone in your voice. In no time, you will be speaking to top executives sounding like the expert you are.