Ums and Ahs: Improving Your Public Speaking
Most people are nervous about public speaking. One of the ways this nervousness comes out is in the form of ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’. A few aren’t a problem, but when every second word is ‘um’ and you pepper in the ‘ahs’ for good measure, the message gets lost in the delivery.
Most people handle this by avoiding getting up in front of an audience at all costs. Public speaking is one of the greatest fears people have.
But being a Lean leader of any sort—kaizen team leader, facilitator, manager in a lean company—requires you to be up in front of a room addressing a team.
So, use this quick strategy to help polish up your talk:
Record your presentation when you rehearse.
There is nothing like hearing your own voice to call attention to how often you ‘um and ‘ah’ your way through a presentation.
What other ways do you use to be a more effective Lean speaker?
2 Comments
Tim · September 17, 2009 at 10:05 am
No particularly helpful. If this is all you have better off to skip the topic and move on. I did a quick search and came up with this from Toastmasters:
http://www.toastmasters.org/MainMenuCategories/FreeResources/NeedHelpGivingaSpeech/TipsTechniques/10TipsforPublicSpeaking.aspx
Jeff Hajek · September 17, 2009 at 10:14 am
Tim,
I’m trying out different style articles to see if my readers prefer longer meaty articles, or if they prefer just a quick tip.
I’ll count this one as a swing and a miss.
Thanks for the feedback.
Jeff