Want to communicate with authority and confidence?
Look at the people you are addressing.
Dare to live this dizzying moment when your worlds collide. Dare to live that silence.
In short, become the audience of your audience. It’s so much more interesting.
For those who love Broadway musicals, for those who want to brighten up the dreariness of November, come and see us!
The renowned ‘The Bridges of Madison County’ comes to you in Zürich.
We will be on stage, acting and singing, with live music.
For those who have worked with me, you know this is my passion and at the very heart of what I do in the fields of Leadership and Executive Presence.
I hope to see you there, in the here and now.
In my Public Speaking masterclasses, I sometimes hear a timid voice telling me: ‘nice but … what about us, the shy ones ?’
Well, I often answer that being ‘at ease’ does not automatically make you command the room and be a great orator. Worse, having a predisposition could make you more complacent. ‘Talent without work is just a dirty habit’ said Georges Brassens, the French poet and songwriter.
It is fine to ‘be shy’. There is power in your reserve. There is depth in your restraint. If you apply yourself, with the help of some technics, you will win hearts and minds too.
You want to be more productive? Go beyond managing your time. Learn how to best use your cognitive resources to get the most out of your brain.
Modern life is full of distractions that keep us in a constant state of alertness. Scientific studies have shown that the constant use of email and phones makes your IQ drop by an average of 10 points! It has pretty much the same effect as a sleepless night….
So learn how to disconnect, even just for a short while. Give yourself the permission to switch off all communication tools when you have to complete a task that requires focus and reflection. Doesn’t it feel good to dive in that Flow state ?
You want to speak with power? Learn how to pause. Naturally and regularly.
Pausing gives space to your thoughts.
Pausing gives you breathing space and the confidence that comes with a well oxygenated brain.
Pausing gives your audience the time to process what you are saying and the chance to feel safe in your hands. Don’t think that you are wasting your audience’s time. You are instead leading it, thought by thought.
‘Music is the silence between the notes’ said Claude Debussy. Isn’t that a powerful analogy?
Our world keeps on accelerating. And while this increasing pace of life offers tremendous opportunities, I like to keep Hermann Hesse’s lines in mind:
‘Nature and everything that grows, peace and everything that flourishes, everything that makes the world beautiful is the fruit of patience, demands time, demands silence, demands trust.’
‘Anchor yourself when you speak in public!’. A good piece of advice indeed, but how?
There are multiple ways of anchoring yourself. A possible one is to notice something you can physically feel. For example, the ground beneath you. Feel your weight. Feel gravity.
Isaac Newton, one of the most influential scientist of all time, stated in his 3rd Law of Motion: ‘To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction’.
So trust the ground beneath you. You are safe.
Do you fear more virtual presentations than live ones? Do you feel like speaking into a void while maintaining camera contact? You are not alone. Virtual communication is very demanding.
My first suggestion is to set an image of a person to talk with mentally while maintaining camera contact. Imagine your best supporter there. And if possible, stand up as if you are giving your presentation to a live room. It takes practice and methods.
‘Behave truthfully under imaginary circumstances’ had once said the notorious acting teacher, Sandorf Meisner…
While working on Presence and Public Speaking skills, I often hear ‘I don’t know what to do with my hands’. Has this been one of your concern? If yes, keep reading.
What Louis Jouvet, on the most influential figures of the French theatre in the 20th century, would surely answer: ‘Your hands, leave them at the end of your arms’.
What he said is that once you’ve found the right anchoring, you will stop worrying about your hands. Anchoring yourself will allow you to free up your style. Your hands will just do what they should do. This is what I learnt as a singer & a comedian.
So, work on your supports: care for your audience, watch your audience, your feet on the ground, your head to the stars. Connect deeply to your messages: your emotions will colour your voice. This is how you can win hearts and minds and yet, forget about your hands….