Surveys regularly report that around three-quarters of people are afraid of public speaking. We also know–mainly from checking how, many meetings are on our calendars–that leaders regularly speak publicly to an audience of stakeholders. No matter your role in an organization, getting things done requires you to overcome that fear to deliver clear and effective messages that yield real results.
I asked Brenden Kumarasamy to chat with me this week about actionable strategies anyone can use to develop the mental agility necessary for overcoming the challenges of public speaking. Founder and President of MasterTalk, a free, interactive workshop helping people improve their communication skills, Brenden also shares his insights about effective communication with his more than 30 thousand subscribers to his popular YouTube channel of the same name.
As an overview, here are the top 3 lessons from Brenden’s episode:
- Practice when you can, wherever you can, to develop your mental agility.
- Inspiring communication doesn’t tell people what you envision, it invites them to help you achieve it.
- Learn to box with your fear, and always let your message get the final knockout punch.
Lesson #1: Practice, practice, practice!
Do not wait until the night before your big presentation to the Board to practice. Especially in front of high-stakes audiences, where you need to be able to manage audience expectations, questions, slides, and much more, daily practice will help you stay focused despite these competing priorities. Brenden suggests incorporating regular practice for no more than five minutes a day to build your skills and confidence as a speaker. If you practice just 5 minutes a day, 5 days a week for an entire year, that’s 1300 minutes for an entire year! There is one exercise, in particular, he recommends, the Random Word Exercise.
To complete the Random Word Exercise, have someone give you a word, any word, and then create a 60-second presentation out of thin air. Then, spend a few minutes reflecting on the presentation. What went well? What could be improved? Are there any habits you want to break? This exercise teaches us how to deal with uncertainty. It also proves that if we can make sense out of nonsense, we can make sense out of anything.
Lesson #2: Invite others to help shape the vision, so they’re inspired to help you achieve it.
Expert communicators aren’t experts because they talk at people. They’re experts because they invite their audiences to join them in the construction of the story, or the path for reaching their vision of a better product, of a better process, and ultimately, a better future. Brenden outlines a 3-part process you can use for inviting your teams and other stakeholders into the development and achievement of that vision.
The first way you can invite stakeholders in is through a method called Visionary Communication. Visionary Communication is simple: you express what the world looks like today and why it looks that way, as well as the world you’re trying to create. A form of storytelling, Visionary Communication also involves including your team by providing meaningful opportunities to contribute, such as asking them to brainstorm a list of ways that together, you can make the vision come to life. The second method is used when delegating to your teams. Each time you delegate a task, ask, “What did you hear? How did you internalize your next step?” This both checks for understanding and generates a sense of ownership. Third is celebration. Giving sincere recognition to the people who are examples of the vision we’re trying to achieve or the culture we’re trying to create solidifies their commitment. Lastly, there needs to be regular checks on us. As Brenden rightly identifies: “We’re the bottlenecks of our own businesses.” If we aren’t modeling what it takes to achieve the vision, it will trickle down and undermine all efforts to align people across the organization.
Lesson #3: Box with your fear, but never let it win.
Brenden has a powerful analogy for managing our fear of public speaking, because truth is, the fear never really goes away. Instead, Brenden suggests we “learn to dance with it” – namely, in the boxing ring. Imagine a boxing ring. In one corner is fear, stress, anxiety, all those negative emotions that cause our palms to sweat and our minds to race while presenting. In the other corner is our message and our reason why to do the presentation regardless of our fear. “For me,” says Brenden, “it’s not about saying how do we get the fear to leave the ring. But rather, mak[ing] sure that when your fear and your message meet in the middle of that boxing match, that your message gets the knockout punch.” If you can ensure your message wins the match every time, you will have successfully managed your fear.
To learn more practical strategies from Brenden to boost your communication skills, make sure to check out the full episode!
About Best Places to Lead
Your company has the potential to be great. The leader’s responsibility is to unlock that potential – or doom it to mediocrity.
On the LIVE Best Places to Lead show, you’ll learn the hard-fought lessons from the front lines earned by business leaders who have already had their teeth bashed in and lived to tell about it. We’ll share the tips, tricks, mindsets, and frameworks that allow great leaders to lead differently.
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