CGM blog: In keeping with HRH

04 Dec CGM blog: In keeping with HRH

So Prince Harry has admitted he gets nervous and struggles with public speaking.

His Royal Highness is in good company. Being able to stand up and speak with confidence and authority whether it is a formal speech, business presentation, proposal or even a pitch for funding is a barrier for many business people.

The stakes can be high. Effective speech making can enhance your career, exude authority and raise your profile, reputation and credibility.

Walk away from it and, well, we have a familiar phrase at CGM – nature abhors a vacuum – which, writ-large, means nature dictates that space exists to be filled and if you stand back the chances are someone else (a competitor/rival voice, maybe?) will fill that gap…becoming, say, your industry’s voice, expert, go-to guy etc – then how do you feel?

That’s why our Presentations and Speeches executive training course is designed to enable business leaders to overcome their fight or flight fears so they can deliver note-free speeches (yes, every single delegate we’ve trained has left our seminars having delivered a 10 minute speech without reference to notes!).

Small wonder it is one of our most popular media training courses. We derive enormous pleasure seeing past delegates achieve astonishing success.

Not only are they able to fulfil speaking obligations but often confident to actively seek fresh speaking opportunities and take advantage of the consequent openings that can arise.

So here are three quick tips to help you make a successful office speech this Christmas:

1 – Structure your speech – do this in outline only rather than infinite detail. You’ll never remember it word by word so don’t try. Remember to start well, have good solid content in the middle and end with a message and on a high.

2 – Look ’em in the eye – Focus on your audience. Most folks will be with you and you’ll enjoy the experience of delivering your speech if you share eye contact with them. You’ll feel more relaxed and be able to relate to your audience.

3 – Remember to breathe! It’s a basic human function and we can’t survive without air. Slowing your breathing before you speech will clam you down. Remember to pause throughout so you don’t run out of breath.

Chris Green is CGM’s managing director and a former author and broadcaster. CGM provides a range of executive media training courses. For more details visit CGM media training.