Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Preparation”
Habits, Practise, Routine, Repetition, whatever you want to call it, is an important aspect of becoming more confident and more effective in your presentation and public speaking skills. You need to get in the habit of speaking and the habit of speaking more frequently and the habit of speaking in more difficult situations. Napoleon Hill said “Habits are the Stairway …
In all of my public speaking workshops, regardless of it being overcome fear, beginners, presentation skills, off the cuff or presentation skills for leaders, I always teach that preparation is the foundation of every speech. It was Robert Schuller who said “Spectacular performance is always preceded by spectacular preparation. I have been lucky enough to be doing some training in …
When agreeing to do a presentation or preparing to deliver a speech always be clear on why you are delivering it and what you want to achieve. I always teach that there are two key questions that you must ask yourself and be clear about before you undertake a speech. If you are not clear on either of these questions …
The bucket model for answering questions is simply thinking of all the hundreds of questions that you could be asked to answer and then sorting them into common themes or buckets. It might be questions about price, planning, quality, time frames, contingency plans, return on investment etc. You sort these key themes and place each theme in its own bucket …
One of the rules that I lay out before each of my public speaking workshops is that “today there are no mistakes – just lessons”. And of course what I mean is that no matter what happens when you stand up in front of the group to speak, it is not a mistake, rather it is a learning experience, a …
Stephen Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, lists habit number 5 as “Seek first to understand, then to be understood”. He places a lot of emphasis on empathic listening and deep listening, without judging, analysing, problem solving or putting your point of view forward. Stephen later goes on to describe the importance of presenting your …
