Influence

How to make a speech

When I'm teaching people how to make a successful speech one of the most popular questions I'm asked is 'who you you think is a great speaker?'. Its a very useful question because when you watch the great speakers you find somethings in common - good storytelling, slow pace, and an abiility to use emotion and facts to persuade the audience. Another thing you will notice is their ability to echo the thoughts and feelings of their audience. Two speakers you can easily find online are US Democrat Barack Obama and CEO of Apple Steve Jobs. You can find speeches by Obama at http://origin.barackobama.com/tv/mostrecent.php and for a different execution of the same speech making principles have a look at Steve Jobs at Macworld 2008 at http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/f27853y2/event/index.html?internal=fj2l3s9dm

If you have an important speech coming up and you would like coaching to help you add confidence and impact to your delivery send me an email (peteranthony@mettagrp.com). Metta coaches prepare senior executives, sportspeople and politicians for major speeches, I can help you find out how you can learn these techniques from one of our coaches.

Great books on presenting

Here are some great books on presenting

Beyond Bullet Points: Using  Microsoft PowerPoint to create Presentations That Inform, Motivate and Inspire by Cliff Atkinson, Microsoft Press (March 2, 2005 ).

Life is a Series of Presentations: 8 Ways to Punch Up Your People Skills at Home, Anytime, Anywhere by Tony Jeary, Kim Dower, J.E. Fishman, Fireside (February 3, 2004)

The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Winning Presentations by  Jerry Weissman, Que Publishing (March 23, 2004).

The Leader’s Voice: How Communication Can Inspire Action and Get Results! by Boyd Clarke, Ron Crossland, Select Books (NY) (May 1, 2002).

The Strategic Use of Stories in Organizational Communication and Learning by Terrence L. Gargiulo,M.E. Sharpe (April 30, 2005).

Say it with Presentations! By Gene Zelazny, McGaw-Hill (2006).

Great Sites for Great Presenting

My favourite website for improving presentation skills is TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) it’s an invitation-only event where the world's leading thinkers and doers gather to find inspiration. Have a look at: www.ted.com/   

It’s also worth looking at the websites of the major international politicians and check the links to their speeches. You'll see the text and video examples of the best coached speakers in the world.

Here are some other great sites for presenting:

§  Indezine – website by Geetesh  Bajaj, http://www.indezine.com.

§  Presentations Magazine http://www.presentations.com.

§  InfoComm – http://www.infocomm.org/.

§  Presentation Samples from Distinction Services

§  http://www.distinction-services.com/portfolio_main.html.

§  Above and Beyond CD – Ten Ways to Avoid Death by PowerPoint – http://aboveandbeyond.ltd.uk/.

§  Business-related stories (http://makingstories.net).

§  Interesting PowerPoint Templates http://www.tonyjeary.com.

§  Templates and other resources  http://www.socialmedia.com.

§  Ellen Finkelstrein’s site  http://www.ellenfinkelstein.com/powerpoint.html.