invisible blog

Money and Power Tuesdays on invisibleblog.com feature posts on personal finance and/or politics

by JayGee

Four Score & Seven Year’s ago our forefathers, such as Frederick Douglas and W.E.B. DuBois knew what it was to get up in front of a crowd and deliver and awe-inspiring speech. Today, speech giving is either a lost art or a skill left to academia.

For professionals interested in climbing the corporate ladder without backsliding, the ability to deliver speeches becomes crucial. From small presentations to the 30 second elevator resume to the Quarterly earnings update, knowing how to craft your words to deliver a concise, poignant and memorable speech is a sure fire career enhancer.

One website on Speech Tips & Pointers we found suggests:

“In preparing any speech, the generic first step is to brainstorm on your chosen topic. When you have finished brainstorming, go back over your list of thoughts and try to find natural groupings for different thoughts.”

Another terrific article we found was on Answers.com, Speaking Skills in Business. While this may be a great primer on how to go about building stages toward speech delivery, it does leave out how to shake away the nerves or elevated heart rate that may come prior to speech delivery. For me, what generally works is prior to walking on a stage, I develop a deep breathing cadence and deliver my speech to that cadence. Doesn’t always work, but has served me the best thus far. For information on how to tame those jittery nerves, we recommend you take a look at Tim W’s weblog on English Communication. He writes a great article on ‘how to attain serenity before giving a speech.’

If you have any other suggestions on effective methods of speech delivery, please feel free to grab our soapbox and let us know.

[sources: thebeckoning.com, answers.com, mtannoyances.com]