Public Speaker: Do Not Think on your Feet
When it’s your turn to speak to an audience, don’t make the mistake of hoping to wing it. Don’t believe that you can always think successfully on your feet and speak effectively at the same time. Perhaps you’ve been lucky, but luck is fickle.
Winging your presentation is like spinning the roulette wheel and hoping for the best. That’s not a good approach to anything especially delivering a presentation that might be important to you.
A smarter approach is to be prepared. Prepare yourself to speak about the topics that you might be asked to speak about.
An effective presentation is the result of a well planned, well rehearsed presentation and well-developed presentation skills. Just ask any presenter who has just delivered an effective presentation. They’ll tell you how much effort they put into preparing. A successful presentation is seldom the result of luck.
Successful presentation is the result of a rehearsed skill set. Like any skill set you get there with study, practice and training. No one takes the gold or any of the medals at the Olympics by luck. They prepared. They practiced and they worked with a performance coach. And then they worked some more.
When it’s your turn to speak don’t try to think on your feet. It’s too dangerous. When you try to wing it you leave too much to chance. You might be sharp today. Or, you might be ill or even in a foul mood. Thinking on your feet is experimenting with your audience. Don’t gamble the success of your presentation on the throw of the dice.
Public speaker: Don’t think on your feet. Your presentation might crash, and it will get you into trouble soon.
Instead, be prepared. The only thing you should do on your feet while delivering your presentation is to consider options.
Before you speak analyze your presentation, the strengths, the weak points, and your audience. Consider the possible questions, objections and interruptions. Then prepare and rehearse your response to all of these possibilities.
Why should you do that much work? Because the pros in any field do it. Are you a pro or are you a novice hoping to wing it? Plan the strategies and tactics that you will use to deal with the possible challenges in your presentations.
Public Speaker: Don’t think on your feet. That is the formula for presentation suicide. Instead think and prepare before you stand up to speak.
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