Speaking at Work: Presentations, Meetings...
13 July 2011
Read by 1553 persons
You have a presentation to give to your colleagues and you're already trembling at the thought of public speaking? Coach Bernard ORTEGA gives you instructions on how to manage your stress.
Public speaking is an ordeal because our privacy is revealed. It's an immodest act, and actors, whose profession it is, have an immodest, even exhibitionist character. But if the actor didn't cover his voice with author's words, he would often be clumsy. The voice testifies to or betrays our most secret emotions. That of fear that suffocates it, of anger that transcends it, of love that softens it. Even when evoking cold and professional subjects, it is always our voice, our vital energy that must express itself before others.
To top it all off, our body in public feels observed, spied on. The mirror effect of these glances sends us back a heavy, clumsy and borrowed body that increases our embarrassment and betrays our behavior. Hands reach for pockets, feverishly (men especially) and the face pointedly fixes on the ground, like the ostrich that imagines, thus, that it is not seen.
It is only during festive moments, alcohol helping, that one throws oneself into the fray. What's more, daily habits don't allow our voices to escape (offices are carpeted and speaking loudly is vulgar). As for our body, it's good at going from the elevator to the parking lot, from the car to the subway; to sit in the armchair of his office, then tap on the keys of his computer for hours. But, here, nothing to transform our gestures into free, open and harmonious movements.
When we prepare a speech, it is information and not communication that will emerge. The notion of body, of movement is absent. We want to say but we don't want to do, and yet it is indeed a body, a voice, inflections, a look that we will discover in public. During the presentation of a project, the organization of a meeting, a tight negotiation, a conflictual meeting, we are constantly in the exercise of speech and communication in front of an audience. Controlling our emotions and our behavior will be the key to success that will lead to adhesion, or arouse reluctance.
Through training in breathing techniques, concentration, and techniques borrowed from the work of the actor, our ease in "being" will open the door to our ease in "transmitting". This transmission is nothing other than full, serene, efficient and enthusiastic communication that leaves behind "the fear of public speaking." When we place ourselves in the space of communication, in a pragmatic and not theoretical way, we open the door to "well-being". Indeed, all professionals of "saying better" understand this reality of "well-being" which becomes indispensable.
Stepping back: To know how to speak, you must know how to be silent, understanding the rich meaning of silence. To practice silences in one's communication, one must encounter the great silence of distance, of distance, of concentration. In this silence one observes oneself, one becomes aware of one's breathing. If the breathing is not good, if the rhythm is not flexible, the speech can only be its reflection. We speak quickly and jerkily as we breathe. Exercises on mental calm allow the enthusiastic communicator to convey his speech in perfect balance. The marriage of calm and dynamism produces a surprising effect on the interlocutors.
The body and its behavior: "Well-being" must integrate the behavior of the body as the accompaniment of the calm mind. Observation of the body by all audiences accounts for 57% of their attention. Energizing one's gestures with harmonious and broad movements opens up the potential of the body's energy and vitality. By finding gestures, movements, open movements, the communicator feels better. By identification, those who listen to them feel this harmony, this ease of movement.
The voice, vital energy: People seized with panic cannot let out a sound. Others will scream. But whatever the reactions, the sound will be the manifestation of our own energy. Training to diffuse the sound, to feel these vibrations throughout one's body, to play with the modulations allows our energy to circulate. If the voice is free, words will dress it in an elegant or powerful way. They will then influence a captivated audience.
Speech, body and mind: A clear and calm mind frees itself from stress, and in turn frees gestures and words. Through this harmony of the whole, presence and charisma manifest themselves.
The observation is verified. Work on communication is part of a register of good health for communicators, for any responsible person who must be heard and seen. The act of communicating is no longer trivial. Energy being communicative, those who observe a "well-being" program for "better speaking" will seduce and lead their peers, their collaborators and all beings who only aspire to follow authentic, efficient and serene leaders.
Bernard ORTEGA
Coach for top management of large groups such as Alstom, GrandVision, Otis, Saint Gobain, Suez, Bernard Ortega created the M.B.O. method.
Posted online on July 13, 2011.
www.sourcea.fr
Public speaking is an ordeal because our privacy is revealed. It's an immodest act, and actors, whose profession it is, have an immodest, even exhibitionist character. But if the actor didn't cover his voice with author's words, he would often be clumsy. The voice testifies to or betrays our most secret emotions. That of fear that suffocates it, of anger that transcends it, of love that softens it. Even when evoking cold and professional subjects, it is always our voice, our vital energy that must express itself before others.
To top it all off, our body in public feels observed, spied on. The mirror effect of these glances sends us back a heavy, clumsy and borrowed body that increases our embarrassment and betrays our behavior. Hands reach for pockets, feverishly (men especially) and the face pointedly fixes on the ground, like the ostrich that imagines, thus, that it is not seen.
It is only during festive moments, alcohol helping, that one throws oneself into the fray. What's more, daily habits don't allow our voices to escape (offices are carpeted and speaking loudly is vulgar). As for our body, it's good at going from the elevator to the parking lot, from the car to the subway; to sit in the armchair of his office, then tap on the keys of his computer for hours. But, here, nothing to transform our gestures into free, open and harmonious movements.
When we prepare a speech, it is information and not communication that will emerge. The notion of body, of movement is absent. We want to say but we don't want to do, and yet it is indeed a body, a voice, inflections, a look that we will discover in public. During the presentation of a project, the organization of a meeting, a tight negotiation, a conflictual meeting, we are constantly in the exercise of speech and communication in front of an audience. Controlling our emotions and our behavior will be the key to success that will lead to adhesion, or arouse reluctance.
Through training in breathing techniques, concentration, and techniques borrowed from the work of the actor, our ease in "being" will open the door to our ease in "transmitting". This transmission is nothing other than full, serene, efficient and enthusiastic communication that leaves behind "the fear of public speaking." When we place ourselves in the space of communication, in a pragmatic and not theoretical way, we open the door to "well-being". Indeed, all professionals of "saying better" understand this reality of "well-being" which becomes indispensable.
Stepping back: To know how to speak, you must know how to be silent, understanding the rich meaning of silence. To practice silences in one's communication, one must encounter the great silence of distance, of distance, of concentration. In this silence one observes oneself, one becomes aware of one's breathing. If the breathing is not good, if the rhythm is not flexible, the speech can only be its reflection. We speak quickly and jerkily as we breathe. Exercises on mental calm allow the enthusiastic communicator to convey his speech in perfect balance. The marriage of calm and dynamism produces a surprising effect on the interlocutors.
The body and its behavior: "Well-being" must integrate the behavior of the body as the accompaniment of the calm mind. Observation of the body by all audiences accounts for 57% of their attention. Energizing one's gestures with harmonious and broad movements opens up the potential of the body's energy and vitality. By finding gestures, movements, open movements, the communicator feels better. By identification, those who listen to them feel this harmony, this ease of movement.
The voice, vital energy: People seized with panic cannot let out a sound. Others will scream. But whatever the reactions, the sound will be the manifestation of our own energy. Training to diffuse the sound, to feel these vibrations throughout one's body, to play with the modulations allows our energy to circulate. If the voice is free, words will dress it in an elegant or powerful way. They will then influence a captivated audience.
Speech, body and mind: A clear and calm mind frees itself from stress, and in turn frees gestures and words. Through this harmony of the whole, presence and charisma manifest themselves.
The observation is verified. Work on communication is part of a register of good health for communicators, for any responsible person who must be heard and seen. The act of communicating is no longer trivial. Energy being communicative, those who observe a "well-being" program for "better speaking" will seduce and lead their peers, their collaborators and all beings who only aspire to follow authentic, efficient and serene leaders.
Bernard ORTEGA
Coach for top management of large groups such as Alstom, GrandVision, Otis, Saint Gobain, Suez, Bernard Ortega created the M.B.O. method.
Posted online on July 13, 2011.
www.sourcea.fr
