Tag Archives: public speaking

“Should I Get Accent Reduction Lessons?”

Leave a reply

This is a very common question I hear from immigrants and overseas workers as we discuss their coaching options.  Though everyone’s case is unique, here is my general advice:

If your (heavy) accent is stopping you from being confident, from making friends and/or from making (more) money, then YES.  Do some accent reduction for your own peace of mind and to become a more confident speaker.

If your accent does not interfere with daily communications, and people are not constantly asking you to repeat yourself or say it again in a different way, then you are probably okay.  You still may choose to modify your accent anyway, but at least you should know that it is not a pressing issue that will halt your career.

How can you modify and reduce your accent?
1.  Watch English movies and TV.  Rent DVDs of shows and sit-coms and play them over and over again, with and without English subtitles.
2.  Listen to the radio and/or sing English songs.  Look up the lyrics online.
3.  Meet native English speakers and practice.
4.  Buy a good pronunciation book, preferably with audio CDs, MP3s, podcast etc.  Choose carefully BrE or AmE.
5.  Attend Toast Masters or another public speaking practice forum.
6.  Attend an ESL class that focuses on pronunciation or lots of speaking practice.
7.  Hire an ESL tutor who has experience teaching the above, or whose voice you want to imitate.  Don’t be shy to ask for details of experience, materials used, references etc.
8.  Hire a professional Communication Coach with a solid background in ESL and accent reduction.
9.  Hire a professional linguist or speech pathologist.
10.  Practice practice practice.

It Had To Be YOU!

Leave a reply

Question: What is most people’s favorite topic?

Answer:  Themselves!  Harvard Business School reports that “you” is
one of the top five selling words. Your listeners’ ears will perk up
when they hear you say the word “you” or “your” in your presentations
(this works in one-on-one conversations, too). In our workshops and
coaching sessions, we refer to this as the “You Factor.”
Increase your “You Factor” and you will increase your group’s attention
and retention of your ideas.

Here are a few examples of how it works:

Instead of saying: “This plan saves an estimated $10,000 each year.”
Say: “This plan saves you an estimated $10,000 each year.”

Instead of saying: “Forty percent of the population will contract heart disease.”
Say: “Forty percent of you and your loved ones will contract heart disease.”

Instead of saying: “This will significantly impact the bottom line.”
Say: “This will significantly impact your company’s bottom line.”

Instead of saying: The four areas I will discuss today are . . .”
Say: “The four areas you will learn about today are . . .”

Review your presentation notes and ask yourself: “Where can I add impact
and connect better with my audience by using the “You Factor”?
Remember… It had to be YOU!

Reprinted with permission from David Greenberg’s
Simply Speaking, Inc. 1-888-773-2512 or 404-518-7777
http://www.davidgreenberg.com

Transfer Worker from China gets Speaking Award

Leave a reply

Hello everyone,

I would like to share an email I received today from Grace, one of my private coaching clients here in Toronto.  (I have her permission to share this.)  Before I do I just want to give you a little background on her.  She has been transferred here from Shanghai, China, and works for a large financial institution.
In addition to working with me to improve her business English (which by the way is already really good) I coach Grace on interpersonal and professional communication skills.

Currently Grace is enrolled in a fun, dynamic Dale Carnegie course, which I fully support.  However, I had the opportunity and ability to take her DC training further, by adding to what she was learning and advising her on how to improve her public speaking.  (There are advantages to one-to-one training over large group workshops, right?) 

Here is the unedited email I received today:

Thanks a lot, Ric!

I can’t wait to share the great news with you that I won the
Breakthrough Award yesterday at my Carnegie’s class!

I did restructure my story as you suggested and applied the body
language you taught me. My classmates were very impressed and voted
me as the winner of the night. I think the credit goes to you.
Without your help and inspiration, I would never get there. Thanks
so much!!!

Grace

_____________________

No Grace, thank YOU for being a hard-worker and a brave public speaker in English as a second language.  It is not easy.  Keep up the good work in your DC class as well as in our coaching sessions!

Coach Ric

Winning Body Language

6 Replies

Hello my friends,

Recently I have had the pleasure of reading a new book on body language and presentation skills that I found most interesting and useful for improving my client’s professional communications.

Many leaders know the feeling of talking yet no one is listening! Often, it is not the actual words causing the audience to tune out, but the way the words are being communicated.

Last week I sat down over a coffee with the author, Mark Bowden, and we discussed the need for effective communication skills and specifically some of the main points in his book. Mark is a world-renowned body language expert and the creator of TruthPlane, a unique communication and presentation training used by Fortune 50 companies, CEOs and G8 Leaders. His new book Winning Body Language explains how we mainly rely on nonverbal communication to determine what we think someone else’s intentions are when they communicate to us.

Here are the top three techniques from Mark’s book on presenting body language that will help you make your intentions clear, and gain trust and attention when you speak.

#1
PUT YOUR BODY ON DISPLAY
When speaking, step away from the podium; when sitting at a meeting, pull your chair back from the table to display more of your body. Your audience’s instinctual “Reptilian” brain and emotional “limbic” brain need to see your body to make a decision about what your intentions and feeling may be towards them. The less information they see, the more they simply make those feelings and intentions up, and tend to default towards the negative. Simply speaking, being open indicates honestly and trust. Hiding parts of your body indicate deception and danger to the primitive brain.

#2
SPEAK FROM YOUR BELLY
Place your hands in the “TruthPlane”, the horizontal plane that extends 180 degrees out of your navel area, to display that you can be trusted. This is a very vulnerable area of your body so to bring an audiences’ unconscious attention to it makes them (and you!) feel like you are very confident. This is a simple technique that you can incorporate right now to enhance your meetings and presentations.

#3
GET THEM IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND
Show your palms open with nothing in your hands, to let others know that you mean no harm and are speaking for their benefit. This gesture is universally recognized across the world as “friendly”. So, when someone else is speaking keep your hands in the TruthPlane so that they understand you are open to what they are saying too.

For more information on Mark Bowden, TruthPlane and his new book Winning Body Language, I have attached his contact information below:

Mark Bowden
Web: http://www.truthplane.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/truthplane

Enjoy!!
– Coach Ric

Be a Great Public Speaker – Top 10 Tips

1 Reply

Public speaking should not scare you to death, but the truth is, it is the number one fear for many people. Personally, after watching the movie Jaws when I was a kid, I can’t think of anything worse than being chewed up by a shark! However, it is important to recognize than the anxiety caused when we have to speak in front of others can be overcome. Hiring a Communication Coach can help you deal with this properly, so you can enjoy your public speaking, whether for business or social functions. For now, here are a few golden tips that you should keep in mind.

1 – Expect nervousness every time, but don’t expect disaster. Expect success.

2 – Stick to what you know well, so you can ‘talk’ about it at length, with ease.

3 – Ask lots of questions of the event organizer ahead of time, to find out the size of the room, equipment, expected number of attendees, etc. Visit if possible.

4 – Talk to people in the audience before you speak. If you have a chance to meet some of them before the speaking date, or at least before your talk try to mingle a bit and find out what they expect. It is good to have a few allies in the audience, and it is great for you to know what they expect to hear.

5 – Reduce ‘separation anxiety’ by re-framing the speech as an ‘informative conversation’ within a group. Talk to them, not at them.

6 – Prepare point-form notes or cards and practice a lot with family, friends, etc. No sentences. The less you read the better. Add pictures to your notes.

7 – Remind yourself during to slowdown, pause, breathe, relax and smile. Actually write those words in the top right-hand corner of your notes on different pages.

8 – Research as much as you can ahead of time, so you can be THE up to date expert on the subject of what you are talking about. Anticipate questions and have good answers.

9 – Always relate directly to your audience. It is not about you, but them. Making your speech relevant to your audience and their world is key to their enjoyment and interest.

10 – What is the overall focus? Is it to inform, to entertain, to motivate, to shock your audience? Your whole speech needs to be centred around this vision.

BONUS # 11 – To become a good public speaker and presenter, you simply must do a lot of speeches or presentations, long or short, in your personal or professional life. Tips and techniques help, but there is no real shortcut.  Get out there and get heard!

Coach Ric

What is ‘ConfidenceWorld’?

Leave a reply

A very famous Life Coach & Business Coach out of the U.K. named Sean McPheat, who was a very big influence on my coaching career when I first started out, has a new website simply called “ConfidenceWorld”. Here you can sign up (no charge) and gain access to 30 articles, newsletters, a 120-page ebook, reports, a 7-part e-course, 4 audio downloads and great tips on building and maintaining confidence in your personal and professional life. There is a lot that he gives away for fr*ee, and at the same time, like any successful entrepreneur, he also lets you know that he has a Gold Membership, if you are interested, for a small one-time payment of 39 bucks only. The Gold membership has a lot to offer for sure, but like any smart shopper you probably want to get the f*ree stuff first and take advantage of the wealth of inspiring and confidence-building information. I did!  You can see that he is straight forward, clear and motivating – three good reasons why I have benefited immensely from his help over the years in developing my coaching style and practice, not to mention my ebooks. Thanks Sean!

Okay, right now, ask yourself how confident you are on a scale of 1-10, and if the answer is lower than an 8.5, you can benefit from this world of confidence that Sean provides. Check it out and enjoy his excellent articles, ecourse and so much more.  Just CLICK HERE.

If you need me for confidence and/or communication skills building, you know i offer coaching and training right?  just let me know!

So, what are the qualities of a good speaker?

1 Reply

Here are a list of the qualities and characteristics of a good public speaker/presenter.

Make sure you include these points when you have to speak in public.

1. They talk to us as though we are having a conversation
2. They speak our language
3. They look as though they are enjoying themselves.
4. They inspire us to find out more about the subject
5. They tell stories/use the human-interest angle
6. Someone who conjures up pictures in our mind
7. They don’t talk for hours
8. They let us know where we are going
9. They look at us – not their notes
10. They stress important points and pause to allow ideas to sink in
11. The talk appears well prepared but has an air of spontaneity

By Sean McPheat – included in his ‘ConfidenceWorld’ program.

Comparing Communication and English Conversations Skills

3 Replies

What are the English Language Conversation Skills?

English Language Conversation Skills include language abilities, conversation skills, social skills, culture knowledge and non-verbal communication skills.

Non-verbal communication skills are classified as posture, body movements, gestures, facial expressions, proximity and eye contact.

In English speaking countries the non-verbal messages can represent from 50-93% of the meaning.

Social skills and culture knowledge can be generalized as “what to say, when to say it, where and why to say it, and most important how to say it”.

When learning English Language Conversation Skills ESL students must learn: language abilities, conversation skills, social skills, culture knowledge and non-verbal communication skills. ESL Students need everything if they actually want to converse with native English speakers.

ESL Students can not just learn English vocabulary or English pronunciation as it represents less than 50% of most conversations.

What are some of the Professional Communication Skills?

The ability to add charisma to your speaking and interpersonal communications.

The ability to create initial rapport even on first phone calls or meetings.

The ability to build rapport easily in meetings, networking functions, or conversations.

The ability to use specialized industry or business English using industry-specific vocabulary for accuracy.

The ability to emote the appropriate emotion at the correct level.

The ability to create and deliver persuasive and dynamic presentations and speeches.

The ability to display confident leadership and competent management or knowledge.

Other specialized skills include customer service, handling complaints, conflict management.

There are many similarities between conversation and communication skills. Both are very important. One could generalize that communication skills add extra dimensions to conversation skills. One example: Conversations can transmit information where communication skills can transmit trust.
(original post by Ross McBride – ESL in Canada. Reprinted with permission)

Saying the Oath of Office Again

1 Reply

Dear Mr. President (if he really were listening…),

Don’t worry about having to take the oath again. Even though both of you were understandably nervous during the inauguration, it was not your fault. If the other guy would have simply spoken 3-4 words only at a time, and waited for you to repeat them, then went on to the next 3-4 words (instead of saying sentences of 5-10 words at a time) it would have gone a lot smoother! Think of wedding vows – same rule applies, no matter how much you practice the vows ahead of time. Being nervous is natural and understandable, and that is why the lead-speaker needs to slow down, speak clearly and absolutely ‘chunk’ up the sentences to manageable small parts.

Common sense I know, yet…President Obama had to take the oath twice.  🙂

Obama’s Speech and the Use of Threes

Leave a reply

Like many of you, I thoroughly enjoyed watching Barack Obama give yet another powerful and persuasive speech today at his inauguration for presidency. He motivates, inspires and gives hope by using creative speech, story-telling devices and references to great people of the past. He also creates a vision in our heads of what a better future might actually look like and feel like. Truly uplifting and inspiring.

For those of you that missed it or want to hear it again, it is a mere Google search away. Here is one link out of many that you can follow to read and see his speech again.
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/Inauguration/story?id=6689022&page=1

He is a masterful speaker and I know we can learn from his style. Pay attention to his device of the use of three. He uses three adjectives, verbs or nouns often, as I did above, to speak more poetically and retain the interest of the audience. You too can do this. Sometimes use 2 descriptors or key words, mostly use 3, and you will notice that your public speaking is improved quickly, easily and with more added persuasion.
Enjoy!