The ultimate goal of any speaker is to be “in the moment.” When you are able to reach this point in a speech, nothing else matters. You are a communicating machine and your audience will love you.
I am reading Improving Your Storytelling by Doug Lipman. On page 14, Lipman says:
Now you can see why advice is often unhelpful. It makes you think things like, “I should never change a folktale. I should stop saying, ‘Um.’ I should try to make eye contact.” These thoughts tend to take you out of the moment, diverting your attention from what is actually happening during the storytelling event.
In this sense, all advice is bad advice. The thought, “I should look my listeners in the eye” may distract you just as much as “I should not look my listeners in the eye.”
Lipman then goes on to say that an understanding of the principles is helpful.
I believe it is critical to know how to use them and when they are appropriate. You need to be so relaxed with the advice that it becomes second nature. When you receive your next evaluation, listen to the advice, and work on areas of improvement over time. Don’t beat yourself up if you say “too many” um’s! It will come over time.
Posted under evaluations
This post was written by john on July 27, 2009
I like your advice John. It is rather sage wisdom when you think that being in the moment is a true reflection of yourself, no matter how that compares to so-called standards of speech making. The audience senses that you are in that mode and I believe gets caught up in it no matter what!