By Julailah Wahid
You can dangle a snake in front of me, or make me down a [tiny] bottle of Tabasco sauce. You can even push me off a waterfall cliff.
But if I’m ever asked to address a room full of people, I might not make it out alive.
We spend an afternoon with JurongHealth’s aspiring Speech Therapist and come away with more than we expected.
By Kevin Lim
Wan Xin’s youthful looks, petite size, and delightfully excited tone have us doing a double take.
Is this the 26-year-old Master of Science in Speech and Language Pathology student we were supposed to meet?
A Beacon of Sunshine
Indeed she is, and she greets us with a warm smile that instantly puts us in a good mood – something we soon learn is at the heart of her decision to become a Speech Therapist.
As it turns out, Wan Xin didn’t always aspire to be a Speech Therapist. Her first job was in the field of clinical research at a hospital. There, she would often work with many elderly stroke patients who had lost their ability to speak intelligibly.
One of the challenges most speakers would face is to engage the audience or get them involved. To have a non responsive crowd would not be a good thing. The speaker with all his enthusiasm and excitement pounces into action to inspire the audience to speak and has a mental timer inbuilt waiting to be triggered off. One of the many outcomes the speaker could face is not knowing when would be the appropriate or right time.
It would be too late and awkward to realize from the time the presenter asks for the crowd's participation and coming to the rude awakening that he is not getting the desired outcome. That would crush him or cause him to make further mistakes, creating a not so promising atmosphere and an uneventful presentation.
We can avoid these situations. Let me spark off some ideas that could alter the course of your presentation and making it not only interactive but interesting as well.
Build bridges
Some preparation that you could do is to make as many friends with the audience as possible. You could do it before your speech or during the speech complimenting your audience, possibly gaining some favour or eventually some fans. Just by making friends ensure you are not talking to a cold audience.
Observe bodies that speak
Look out for possible gestures and movements of your audience and pay closer attention to those who nod or smile and build on them. They are your anchors that illuminate your environment. They can possibly assist you in the interactive portion of your presentation.
You must have heard hundreds speeches in your life. Do you remember all the speeches and the names of the speakers? I doubt it. However, I am sure there are a few speeches which have found a permanent place in your minds and hearts. In this article, I will outline few ways to add power to your speeches and presentations.
1. It’s not about how good you are
Many speakers make the mistake of showing their ‘talent’ and bragging about how good they are. Well, it is important to establish credibility that you are an expert, but it is unnecessary to brag a lot about your achievements. In the first few minutes of your speech, you have to answer the “What’s In It For Me?” question of your audience members. The audience must feel that they made a wise decision to attend your speech.
How can you do that? Simple. Focus on their needs. If you are speaking to a group of engineers, talk to a few engineers and discuss with them a brief synopsis of what you are about to present. Take their feedback and tweak your message.
2. Warm-up
You know the importance of a warm-up before you play a sport or working on your routines at a gym. Similarly, you must also warm-up before your speeches. Many speakers arrive few minutes before the speech and are busy setting up the equipment (mainly laptop-projector connections). That’s not warm-up. Here are a few examples of warm-up: