DO YOU HAVE BAD SPEAKING HABITS?
There is a lot of good stuff out there in addition to the Great Public Speaking blog, which I really like. Yesterday, thanks to Findlaw’s The Practice Paper e-newsletter, I ran across another one. It is an article by Carmine Gallo, a communications coach/author/speaker with an impressive background. One of his columns in Business Week Online covered “The 10 Worst Presentation Habits” (click on arrows at top right to move through slides).
- Reading From Notes (know material so well, you don’t need notes – that isn’t to say you can't sneak a peak every once and awhile as I have mentioned before),
- Avoiding Eye Contact (“maintain eye contact with your listeners at least 90% of the time,” according to Carmine),
- Dressing Down (always dress appropriately, but “a little better than everyone else”)
- Fidgeting Or Using Annoying Gestures (conveys nervousness. If guilty of doing so, practice with a video camera),
- Failing To Rehearse (winging it is never a good idea, even if you know your material by heart. See an earlier post on this point here),
- Standing At Attention (move around, use body language, be “animated in voice and body”),
- Reading Your Slides (always bad – his rule for slides “no more than four words across and six lines down”),
- Speaking Too Long (if you can get message across in less time, do it. Carmine says “listeners lose their attention after approximately 18 minutes”),
- Failing To Excite Audience (tell them why they should be excited about your talk and give them a “reason to care”), and
- Ending Without Inspiring (its okay to summarize your talk, but leave audience “with one key thought”).
So, how many bad habits do I have? Ain't tell’n. BUT I may see a point or two that I could improve on. How about you?
Sincerely tours Rodrigo González Fernández, consultajuridica.blogspot.com
