First Published 12/07/11 Purple Crabs
Developing Personal Communication Skills
One of my problem areas in communication is effective public speaking. Over the years I have gotten much better, but I still have to develop different techniques and skills to be the most effective in business environments. I am seeking more verbal poise and delivery in communiques, media and public discourse of issues relevant to the setting in order to have lasting effect on my listeners. I would welcome additional training and opportunities to become more effective in my public speaking. Specifically applying greater verbal and presentation skills to inform, educate and acknowledge issues as I grow my business opportunities, would advance my personal and professional communication skills.
Often when I address audiences, my mind goes through phases and anxiety attacks me just prior to beginning. This has always been a concern. Over the years, I have developed ways to deal with this, but generally I try to focus on one theme. My delivery style is usually extemporaneous although as a past classroom teacher, and organizer, I can and have delivered effective impromptu speeches. Generally, my planned public speaking episodes have been designed to incorporate an extemporaneous, focused delivery and presentation (O’Rourke, 2010). This style has helped eased my personal anxieties that occur when addressing an audience.
According to Casey Gueren’s from Sandbox to Soapbox, Psychology Today (2011), my anxiety in public speaking is commonplace and success as a public speaker may lie in focusing past memories as I speak. Gueren cites work done by Claremont Graduate University, psychologist Kathy Pezdek, as she states “the anxiety serves as a retrieval cue for other anxiety-producing experiences and sparks a snowball effect. The positive memory breaks that accumulation of negative memories.” (Gueren C., 2011). While initially I always feel anxious when speaking publically, I tend to settle in after a couple of minutes and focus on subject matter and delivery.
In 2009 I was speaking to a church congregation and remember vividly that day. I tried to stay positive although I may have had three or four different thoughts in my mind as I was preparing and speaking. As complex as utilizing my positive memory to produce a better public speaking engagement sounds, I have been utilizing this technique unknowingly. I recall the internal warmth that came over me when I felt that I had the congregation’s full attention. It was as if speaking to one person as oppose to 300. Everyone was engaged in the topic and I seem to have risen to that occasion. That day I learned that old remedies do not always work on all crowds.
Picturing people in their underwear doesn’t work – it just makes you giggle. Practicing in front of a mirror makes one overly self-conscious. Learning how to find our voice is a real need in our world, especially given the current levels of widespread, free-floating anxiety. (“MUSINGS AND MUTTERINGS: Reflections on life and faith from a Presbyterian (USA) pastor.”Credit: By The Rev. Christopher Keating: From St. Louis Post – Dispatch. A.9.).
Often when I address audiences, my mind goes through phases and anxiety attacks me just prior to beginning. This has always been a concern. Over the years, I have developed ways to deal with this, but generally I try to focus on one theme. My delivery style is usually extemporaneous although as a past classroom teacher, and organizer, I can and have delivered effective impromptu speeches. Generally, my planned public speaking episodes have been designed to incorporate an extemporaneous, focused delivery and presentation (O’Rourke, 2010). This style has helped eased my personal anxieties that occur when addressing an audience.
According to Casey Gueren’s from Sandbox to Soapbox, Psychology Today (2011), my anxiety in public speaking is commonplace and success as a public speaker may lie in focusing past memories as I speak. Gueren cites work done by Claremont Graduate University, psychologist Kathy Pezdek, as she states “the anxiety serves as a retrieval cue for other anxiety-producing experiences and sparks a snowball effect. The positive memory breaks that accumulation of negative memories.” (Gueren C., 2011). While initially I always feel anxious when speaking publically, I tend to settle in after a couple of minutes and focus on subject matter and delivery.
In 2009 I was speaking to a church congregation and remember vividly that day. I tried to stay positive although I may have had three or four different thoughts in my mind as I was preparing and speaking. As complex as utilizing my positive memory to produce a better public speaking engagement sounds, I have been utilizing this technique unknowingly. I recall the internal warmth that came over me when I felt that I had the congregation’s full attention. It was as if speaking to one person as oppose to 300. Everyone was engaged in the topic and I seem to have risen to that occasion. That day I learned that old remedies do not always work on all crowds.
Picturing people in their underwear doesn’t work – it just makes you giggle. Practicing in front of a mirror makes one overly self-conscious. Learning how to find our voice is a real need in our world, especially given the current levels of widespread, free-floating anxiety. (“MUSINGS AND MUTTERINGS: Reflections on life and faith from a Presbyterian (USA) pastor.”Credit: By The Rev. Christopher Keating: From St. Louis Post – Dispatch. A.9.).
Since that time in 2009, my verbal communication skills have grown with practice and reflection. It is when I look at my past ineffectiveness in my communications, and public speaking that I actually move into something different. Having never given this topic much self conscience discourse in the past, I now see that I am a very much a personal “work in progress”.
My resolve is in order to become a more skillful public speaker; I will have to speak more. In recent months, I have begun several publications and successfully authored and published my first book. In the upcoming months, I will be touring throughout trying to speak to as many people as possible to sell my products. The research in this body of work has allowed me to see that deep psychological connection between personal growth and business success. Often as a potential leader I have acknowledged and implemented only external remedies and concepts to improve myself; now I am learning to examine the therapeutic need to address my past psychological space while moving forward in all aspects of life.
My resolve is in order to become a more skillful public speaker; I will have to speak more. In recent months, I have begun several publications and successfully authored and published my first book. In the upcoming months, I will be touring throughout trying to speak to as many people as possible to sell my products. The research in this body of work has allowed me to see that deep psychological connection between personal growth and business success. Often as a potential leader I have acknowledged and implemented only external remedies and concepts to improve myself; now I am learning to examine the therapeutic need to address my past psychological space while moving forward in all aspects of life.
By, Marty Smith
References
Gueren, C.. (2011, September). From Sandbox to Soapbox.
Psychology Today, 44(5), 18.
Retrieved October 17, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 2441512091).
Psychology Today, 44(5), 18.
Retrieved October 17, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 2441512091).
“MUSINGS AND MUTTERINGS: Reflections on life and faith from a Presbyterian (USA) pastor.”Credit: By The Rev. Christopher Keating (2011, August 13). St. Louis Post – Dispatch, p. A.9. Retrieved October 17, 2011, from ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 2425219921).
O’Rourke J.S. (2010). Management Communication: A case-Analysis
Approach(4th Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
(Management Communication: A Case-Analysis Approach, 4th Edition. Pearson
Learning Solutions p. 111).
O’Rourke J.S. (2010). Management Communication: A case-Analysis
Approach(4th Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
(Management Communication: A Case-Analysis Approach, 4th Edition. Pearson
Learning Solutions p. 111).
