Public Speaking Skills Training

The Art of Public Speaking
Our Public Speaking training seminars are designed for both the inexperienced presenter or as a refresher for more experienced members of your company or organization. Our training workshops are offered in most major cities across the United States and Canada. All public speaking skills training classes are small which will give you all the face to face time you need with our training team.

Our public speaking training courses (presentation training) will eliminate your fear or inexperience in public speaking and dramatically improve your speaking skills whether you are persuading, educating, or informing. Our highly interactive courses focus on professional business communication including preparation, structure, delivery, and strategy, use of visual aids, and handling questions & answers. Contact us today by phone at 713-627-7700 or via email: service@publicspeakingtraining.net

Public Speaking Skills Training: Using Public Speaking Skills To Avoid Offense

Winston Churchill was known for his public speaking skills, but not for appeasing people who pointed out his shortcomings. A lady once said to him, "Sir, you are drunk."

Churchill's response: "Madam, you are ugly. In the morning, I will be sober."

On another occasion, Nancy Astor told him, "Sir, if you were my husband, I would give you poison."

His response: "If I were your husband, I would take it."

In this regard, Churchill is not a good example for public speakers. You should do what you can to use your public speaking skills to avoid offense when speaking, whether individually or to a crowd. In most audiences, there is someone just waiting to be offended. Don't make their wait a short one.

Here are some suggestions for public speaking skills to keep the audience on your side.

Know how to pronounce any proper noun connected with the organization. If you mention someone in the audience, make sure you know how to pronounce the name. The name of the company, the city where you are speaking, a well-known local landmark, and the product lines are examples of words whose pronunciation you should check out before you speak. When President Kennedy, another master of public speaking skills, was speaking in Berlin, his efforts to connect with his audience began with, "Ich bin ein Berliner." With these words he intended to assure the people that he was also a citizen of Berlin. Unfortunately, to the local folks, a "Berliner" was, primarily, a jelly donut. Getting a foreign language right can be challenging, even for those with strong public speaking skills.

If you know you are going to be discussing an issue that will get resistance from the audience, early in the presentation you should stress areas where you do agree with the audience. For example, adequate profits are important both to the hourly worker and the CEO; the method of obtaining those profits may not seem the same for both. Talk first about profit management.

As we indicated in our new book, be sensitive to the themes that the person or audience may feel very strongly about and don't make light of them. Diplomacy is the beter part of public speaking skills in some situations. If you are speaking in Indiana, for example, you'd do best to avoid taking sides between the Indiana Hoosiers and the Purdue Boilermakers. Whereas each nickname is ripe for derision, public speaking skills wisdom dictates that you also avoid jokes about either. If there's an unusual statue in the middle of the town square, don't belittle it. As in the case of the Boll Weevil Statue in Enterprise, Alabama, local citizens may be very proud of their monument, even if it honors an agricultural pest. Learn the loyalties and allegiances that a group of people has and respond to them with poise, public speaking skills, and grace, leaving out negative references.

A public speaking skills rule of thumb: When in doubt, don't. Don't use profanity, or sexist or racist language, and do not ridicule any occupation or socio-economic background. Don't apologize for your lack of preparation or depth of content. Audiences will figure that out on their own soon enough. Don't talk about yourself extensively; do so only to establish credibility.

Learn as much as possible about the audience ahead of time so you will not inadvertently insult them because you are unaware of a problem they are facing. Not long after the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire in Northern Kentucky in which 167 people were killed, I made reference to that tragedy in a speech. A young man immediately got up and left the room. Later I found out that his father had died in that fire. Public speaking skills and decorum dictate a healthy interim after such a tragedy; this was too soon after the horrific event to discuss it publicly where there might be people who were directly affected.

Everyone does not have a sense of humor, but if they don't I wish everyone at least had the attitude Dolly Parton has. She said, "I'm not offended by all the dumb blonde jokes because I'm not dumb… and I also know that I'm not blonde."

Stephen Boyd: link

Subject: Public Speaking Skills Training