The handy guide to improving your public speaking skills

A couple of months ago, I started organizing small trainings at work, to help my colleagues develop their communication skills and use communication tools to improve their work impact on the business. The first thing I did was sending out a small survey to know which topics would interest them the most. And to my surprise, what came out first by a mile was the subject of "public speaking". So I brainstormed a little bit, did some research and put together a one hour, very interactive workshop.

photo credit: d'n'c via photopin cc

The workshop was very well received so I'd like to share some of my findings with you.

Why is it important that you master public speaking?

The first exercise, after a round of introduction, was to discuss this question. Why is it so important to master public speaking, and why is it important for anyone, not just professional speakers?

Here are a few answers to consider:

• To be taken more seriously by your colleagues, clients or superiors


• To learn how to convince, to win people on your side


• To look professional

Like I said, public speaking is not a skill needed just by professional speakers, but by anyone in business. It's also a very useful skill in your social life and can even help improve communication at home.

When are you subject to be presenting or speaking in public?

The most obvious situation is when delivering a speech at a conference, but there are many other situations in which you will find yourself speaking in front of others. Let's review some of them:

• During a team meeting


• In your one-on-one meeting with your manager, whether it is an annual review or a weekly meeting


• When visiting a supplier, service provider or client


• At a job interview

Sometimes you might be speaking in front of one person only, like during a job interview. But the same principles still apply. You still have to look composed, find your words, appear professional and convince.

What types of presentations can you face?

In terms of how you deliver your presentation or speech, we can also identify various situations:

• You might be in front of a crowd, presenting some powerpoint slides - the most common situation when we talk about "presentations".


• You might simply be sitting around a table during a meeting, with slides projected on the wall, or maybe just with printouts.


• Or simply you are answering questions that arise in the middle of a meeting, without any support material.

I wanted to address these various situations, because they all require some kind of preparation, as we'll see later.

What scares you the most when speaking in public?

Now, this one is an interesting question, and if you do a quick search on internet, you'll find that public speaking is actually a very common fear, sometimes ranked higher than fear of death!

So why are we so scared to speak in front of people? Again, there can be a few reasons, as came out during our workshops:

• Fear of embarrassing ourselves.


• Fear not to be taken seriously, or not be listened to.


• Fear to forget what we want to say.


• Fear to be judged.

Are all these fears justified?

I guess indeed if we deliver a very bad speech, turn all red in front of everyone and leave the room, yes, we might lose our credibility. So the best weapon is preparation. Preparing for the content of our speech or presentation, but also preparing our mental attitude for getting out there in front of people, appearing confident and doing a great job.

So let's take a look at a few tips to help you improve your public speaking skills.

Watching your body language

I'm sure you've already heard many times that body language is an important part of your communication. Heck, some people are even specialized in studying body language and use that during interviews or other assessments. Yet we do little to prepare ourselves to send the right "messages" with our body.

I'd like to show you a little video to give you just three important tips on how to improve your body language. It's just a couple of minutes, so make sure you watch it:

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Here are a few additional tips that you can also apply in your daily life:

• Give a firm handshake when meeting someone


• Don't cross your arms or legs, keep an open position


• Keep eye contact, but don't stare


• Don't be afraid to use space if you're on a stage or standing in front of people


• Relax your shoulders


• Nod when people are talking, show that you are listening


• Don't slouch, sit up straight


• Smile or even laugh if appropriate


• Restrain yourself from touching your face or neck

If you have another 18 minutes to spare, I would highly recommend watching this popular Ted talk from Amy Cuddy, on how your body language can also shape who you are.

Dealing with impromptu speeches

If you want to become more comfortable when speaking in front of people, you can work on your improvisation skills. There is quite a difference between delivering a speech that you prepared yourself and suddenly having to answer a question in front of others. You can see how you could easily get stressed, search your words and struggle to deliver anything coherent.

The idea here is to practice impromptu speeches, by speaking for a set time on any subject. It doesn't matter too much if what you say doesn't make sense, the point is to speak and get at ease with improvisation.

I learned this exercise when I attended a ToastMasters meeting last year, and here is how it goes: You will need a group of people willing to practice with you. One person will select some random subjects or questions, and ask people in the room to stand in front of everyone and speak on this subject for at least one minute.

Here are some funny questions that can generate some interesting speeches:

• What was the strangest food you have ever eaten?


• Describe how to tie a tie or shoe laces, without using your hands


• What is your idea of the perfect ringtone?


• what would you do if you won a million dollars?

When speaking in front of others, remember these few tips:

• Articulate


• Speak loud enough


• Slow down


• Breathe


• Watch your Er, Ah, Hum..


• If you loose your thread, keep calm, mark a pause and start again.

If you want to take public speaking to a new level, I highly recommend visiting your local ToastMasters group. They hold meetings everywhere in the world and you can attend one as a visitor without any engagement to see if it is for you. When was the last time you went outside of your comfort zone or tried something new?

Question: What tips do you have to share?

Do you pay attention to your customers satisfaction?

Have you ever been to a restaurant only to regret getting a table there because the service was so bad? You'd think friendly service would be the first priority of a restaurant, yet I am so often surprised and frustrated by the poor quality of service we get, so I'm sure it happens to you too.

photo credit: Alba Soler Photography via photopin cc

If I was a restaurant owner, I would make sure that my staff is friendly - patrons are what keep restaurants afloat so they should come first and be treated well. That would be my number one priority. Or Maybe number two, after food safety and hygiene of course.

I just don't understand that business owners can forget so easily how important it is to keep clients happy. It is obvious for restaurants, but the same applies for other businesses, especially the ones who offer services more than products.

So the question is, where does customer satisfaction rank in your priorities? And more importantly, how do you measure it?

Technology now makes it possible to send endless surveys to customers, and we all received these questionnaires when coming back from a hotel, plane trip or conference. Surveys are good, but I would say they're just the starting point.

To me, the success factor for ensuring customer satisfaction is to build within your business a customer oriented mindset.

In every work that you do, across all teams, you should always have your customer in mind. It's not just the customer service team having to be friendly on the phone, it's also the accounting team finding new ways to simplify procedures for customers, or top management sending regular communications to show that they care.

Boost your productivity with the Pomodoro Technique

[caption id="attachment_712" align="alignright" width="300"] Learn more about the Pomodoro Technique on the official website: www.pomodorotechnique.com[/caption]

I think I might soon fall into the category of Productivity Nerd. I constantly seem to be searching new methods to increase my productivity. I don’t think it’s a bad thing, but to some people working next to me I might appear unstable.

So one of the latest techniques I’ve been using, quite successfully, is the Pomodoro technique, invented by Francesco Cirillo in the 1980s. The idea is to use time blocks and focus all your attention to a particular task for 25 minutes, then allow yourself a 5 minute break before working on something else – or continuing the task.

What the Hilton can teach you about freebies

Everyone loves free gifts. I'm not teaching you anything new there. In fact, offering something for free to attract customers is becoming a huge bait on internet, with most websites offering a free eBook or course in return for an email address.

But I think we can look further than websites, and business owners who work offline should remember the power of freebies not only when trying to win new customers, but also for keeping existing ones and turning them into loyal clients.

Let me tell you a couple of stories.

When I met my husband, he didn't own a car anymore, so we went to prospect a few car yards to buy a new one, and he ended up buying a BMW. The last car that he had bought before that was an Alpha Romeo (yes, he's into sport cars), but for the past year he had been driving a BMW, free of charge. That BMW, free for a year, was a prize that he won from a business award in New Zealand. So, needless to say that after driving the car of his choice for a year, he was converted to the BMW brand and went back to buying one, without much hesitation.

OK, this story might be extreme, I don't know too many businesses that will offer such a grandiose prize, but the result is highly efficient: you turn influential people into loyal customers and advocates for your brand.

Let's take another example, from our recent holiday to the Seychelles. Last June we stayed at the Hilton for a week. Beautiful, amazing in fact. Very nicely designed hotel, luxurious rooms, and excellent service. But what surprised us nicely were the three vouchers that we got given when we checked in (on top of the fresh fruits and glass of Champagne): one for a massage, one for a romantic spa and the last one for a nice afternoon tea at the bar.

You might argue that these gestures are the least the hotel can do to please you given the rate that you pay, but in fact how many luxury hotels do offer little treats like that? Even if you paid a lot for the service, little attentions like these ones (did I mention that we also received fresh delicacies and souvenirs from the island every day in the room?) always turn you into a more loyal customer.

How does this translate to your business?

Well, it's simple. Surprise your clients, go the extra mile, offer something that they don't expect. This will make them happier, and happy customers return. But also, it will generate some very nice word of mouth, because if they are like us, they will tell the world about their experience and how nicely they were treated by your business.

And if they're not customers yet, your little bait should help convincing them to buy from you.

So here is my question: are you ready to give something away to your clients?

How much can you achieve in 15 minutes?

Like most working mums, I'm a very busy person. I work full time, commute an hour each day, do the grocery shopping, prepare dinner, look after our son, etc.. So I don't have the luxury of time in my life and if I want to learn something new or work on a side project, I have to be very organized about it. But what I've discovered mainly is that I don't always need large blocks of time to work on something. Trying to find large blocks of time can actually be stressful or even depressing and I've come to the conclusion that working on something in small doses but consistently over time is a much better approach.

photo credit: Rishi S via photopin cc

The best example I have to share is about self development. Last year I discovered a daily motivation podcast, Morning Coach, that I listen to every morning. All episodes last between 15 and 18 minutes, addressing various topics. Of course in 15 minutes you can't cover a huge amount, but if you listen to them 5 days a week, Monday to Friday, you end up with a lot of ideas to contemplate, and there's always at least one good advice to take away from these podcasts. So I listen for 15 minutes daily, it doesn't take any of my time since I listen in my car while commuting to work, but I can assure you that the impact is massive. After a year of listening to the podcast, I feel like I have come a very long way in terms of self awareness and motivation, but what is more important is that because I don't feel like I spend a lot of time working on myself it never becomes a chore and I can keep going on the long run.

But enough talking about me, what I wanted to share is the simple fact that 15 minutes a day can bring a lot of improvements in your life.

What can you do in 15 minutes a day?

• Learn a new language: You can read a few pages of a book, listen to a podcast, do some grammar exercises or watch something on the web to practice the new language you want to learn.


• Learn how to play an instrument: With all the videos available on Youtube you can easily watch a tutorial and practice a few songs every day.


• Write a book: How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. So if you've always wanted to write a novel, a short book or even blog articles, all you have to do is write something every day.


• Read a book: You don't need to finish a chapter every day. Read for 15 minutes daily and before you know it, your book will be finished.


• Exercise: 15 minutes is not a lot, but if you build the habit of exercising 15 minutes every day it will become easier and easier, and over time you might want to increase the length of your session. The problem with exercising is often getting started, so if you start small but get in the habit of exercising daily, half of the battle is won.


• Remove clutter: Nobody looks at a messy garage and says "I'm so excited to clean it up, I'm going to spend the whole day reorganizing it". Instead, why not focus on 15 minutes a day, removing one thing at a time, cleaning one area after another? You can start with your desk, then your office, then move to other rooms.

I could continue for a while, but you get the idea. You don't always need 3 hours to make an impact. In fact, after reading Zen Habits for so long now, I have slightly changed my view on reaching goals, and instead of considering goals, I prefer to think of habits, because building habits is what really makes me go forward.

What about you, is there something that you do on a daily basis?

What does your Out of Office say - about you?

Every company has a corporate logo, a standard business card and maybe an Email signature template. That's good, it makes things consistent, it gives you a brand, people recognize you quickly and know what they're always dealing with the same company, regardless of who they approach in the company.

But what about your Out of Office message?

I've become the OOO police officer at work, tracking messages that don't fit our template, don't reflect our values. I've seen a few and some quite interesting. No salutations, confusing dates, no backup contacts, no thank you, silly fonts, etc...

You might say: "Common Christelle, It's not the end of the world", but it still reflects who you are and how you care about people trying to contact you.

Do you have a template?

Why I won't buy from China again

A few years ago while still in New Zealand, I was preparing for the launch of a new headphones brand and I needed to buy some promotional items to use as give-away goodies. It didn't really go like I wanted, in fact it was quite a disaster, so I'd like to tell you the story, so that you don't repeat the same mistake, and also just to entertain you.

Photo from the Big Boys Toys website

We were going to launch the new brand at a gadget/entertainment trade show ("Big Boys Toys", the name says it all), so I needed some branded goods to give away during the show and create some publicity. We chose to buy Tee-shirts and lanyards. So far, not much risk and nothing overly complicated.

I could have ordered from local suppliers in Auckland, but since we had an office in China it made sense to get them to source the goods directly, to get a much better price. I got good advice from my husband (also my boss at the time) to be really precise when telling our Chinese colleagues what products I was after. In fact I went to a shop in Auckland and chose a couple of tee-shirts which had a great cut, and shipped them to China. The idea was that they would replicate the exact cut of the tee-shirts to make sure they were nice, and at the right dimensions (I shipped 3 different sizes). Unfortunately for some reason the package never arrived, even if it was sent by DHL, and since the show was starting fairly soon we had to make do without giving them models to copy.

No problem they assured me, we'll get a nice cut and take European sizes. Being me, always positive and trusting, I didn't think much of it and went along with the new plan. We ordered quite a few boxes of tee-shirts and waited for the delivery.

A few weeks later, the boxes arrived in Auckland, and the first bad news was the huge Duties fee we had to pay. We usually imported headphones or components from China and for some reasons clothes get taxed much more, and we didn't know. Bummer.

But the worse part was yet to come. The tee-shirts had been printed with the brand logo, exactly as I had designed them, so I was quite pleased with the result, but unfortunately the sizes were completely wrong! Everything was way too big. No way they took standard European sizes.

We ordered new tee-shirts, but needless to say they didn't arrive in time for the show, so we used the large ones anyway. The only positive side of the story was that Islanders and Maoris, who can be really big, were very excited to fit a Medium size!

I mentioned that I also wanted to order branded lanyards, to use as key rings. I told my colleagues what I wanted, a lanyard with the logo printed on it, but with a ring at the end to hook keys on, not a clip for holding badges. From there came the confusion, and my colleagues made lanyards that were approximately 15cm long.. Maybe long enough to go around your wrist, but for sure too short to go around your neck.

So that was it, needless to say that I got called in the CEO's office (still my husband, but not so loving that time) and got told off properly. Lesson learned.

So what do you learn from this? Check, check and check again that you got understood and that your goods will be like you want them to be!