This blog is about presentations & public speaking - how to make 'em, how not to make 'em and how other people are making 'em. Feel free to read, use and comment on what you find here. And good luck with your presentations...
Let’s call her H….
…….because that’s her initial.
I’ve been working with H for a couple of months now, seeing her once every couple of weeks for a reasonable length session and she’s very happy with the progress we’ve made together. To be fair though, any ‘problem’ was solved (at least in my head) within the first hour.
H had a very ‘girly’ sounding voice and she was having difficulty keeping people disciplined because of that - and her job required her to do just that. We noticed together that, because she was from Germany, her English, although very good, was slightly accented. She and her managers had put the lack of discipline down to that - obvious but wrong, I’m afraid.
The real problem lay not in her German accent but in her German thinking. Despite living and working in the UK for a few years (and I take my hat off to her for that because my languages will barely allow me to order in a bar or a restaurant when I go overseas) she still ‘thought’ in German. That meant her vocalisation was a very ‘intellectual’ process.
Consequently, she was breathing by using her inter-costal muscles, as most people do when they’re thinking hard and/or stressed.
… and it was this inappropriate way of breathing that was leading to her sounding immature and people thinking they could ignore her….
The story has a happy ending, I should add, because I worked with H to shift the focus of her breathing do her diaphragm. She quickly got the hang of it and was surprised by how confident and authoritative that made her sound.
Another reference to another page…
… but this time it is one of mine!
Our regional paper runs a brief “how to” article by yours truly, here.
Patsy’s Presence
Patsy Rodenburg knows a thing or two about having ‘it’ – whatever ‘it’ is. She’s the Director of Voice at London’s Royal National Theatre and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. In short, she knows her stuff.
So, when she brings out a new book about ‘Presence’, I pay attention. You can read my review of Patsy Rodenburg’s book “Presence” online.
Some sensible powerpoint tips….. not mine!
It seems a bit of a cop-out in writing a presentation skills blog to do nothing other than point you to another blog, but what the hell, this one deserves an honourable mention. It’s not rocket science but it does cover some of the basics of PowerPoint pretty clearly.
