Delivering Your Presentation - Create a stage presence

Robert Keiber - Sun, 02/01/1998 - http://www.trainingmag.com/article/delivering-yourpresentation-create-stage-presence You can't learn to present effectively by watching other great speakers and then trying to imitate or copy their styles. That copycat approach is difficult if not impossible. You may be able to eventually imitate speakers, but you will never become comfortable or effective. And worst of all, it will never appear natural, because their styles are not your style. Although you can analyze and identify what characteristics make certain speakers more effective communicators than others, you simply can't apply speech-making skills just by watching. Like good acting, presentation prowess comes from within. Almost every young actor begins her career by imitating some famous star of the day. Copycat James Deans and Marilyn Monroes clutter auditions. Would-be Al Pacinos and Meryl Streeps appear on stages everywhere. I personally started my career as a Marlon Brando, then switched to Jack Nicholson. But I didn't begin to get real acting work until I started being myself -- Bob Keiber. Actors never really become successful until they find out who they are and what is special about themselves. What separates the good actors from the bad is a certain charisma. Everybody has charisma and charm. To be an effective communicator (and enjoy speaking in the process), you must tap into your natural charisma, not try to emulate Winston Churchill's, John F. Kennedy's or Martin Luther King's. These were all great speakers, but what made them great was not necessarily their strong voices or large vocabularies. What made these speakers great was their personal charm, which came out stronger than anything they said or did. What is charisma and how can I get some? Don't worry -- you already have it. Charisma is what makes you interesting, charming, appealing. It is what makes you...well, you. Here's the secret. When you relax and let your natural, heartfelt emotions communicate your message, your charisma comes out and you touch the audience. When that magic happens -- when your natural emotions are bared for the audience to see -- they begin to listen to you, believe you and follow you. The Charisma Factor explains charisma as "a specialized form of communication techniques used by leaders to reach the hearts and minds of those who follow them." Charisma comes from your emotional makeup and your personal beliefs, and visions of what you feel is truly important. Since our deepest-held beliefs are personal by default, it is literally impossible to borrow or imitate someone else's charismatic style. You can try to analyze the words of charismatic leaders and try to understand what gives them their presence, but only in an effort to search for and identify your own personal emotional characteristics. Whatever you do, forget the art of speech-making Forget about the art of presenting. That's the wrong way to think about it. Art is nonfunctional; effective presenting is a function. When you speak before an audience, you have a purpose of action. A presentation is not a tap dance that you do for someone's appreciation. It has a goal -- inform and persuade. There is an ancient Greek adage, "When Demostracles speaks, the people say, 'My, what a

wonderful speaker he is,' but when Pericles speaks, the people say, 'Let us march!'" By focusing on being informative and persuasive whenever you present, you remove much of the pressure of trying to perform. One of the intimidating factors regarding presenting is that we have too many false examples of what the art of speech-making looks and sounds like. We have a tendency to compare ourselves with the over-inflated, unreachable images of great speakers and actors, past and present. Developing the actual skill of effective presenting is akin to body building. The skill must be exercised with proper training, and you must always keep in mind that your personal efforts will bring about the best response to your public presentations. We are all interesting, charismatic people, and we must take some risks and experiment to identify and exercise our charisma. Begin to search for your own natural charm and continually practice using it in front of people. It is not so much an art as a very natural act that we have been performing all our lives. --------------------------------------------A former TV actor, Robert Keiber has more than 100 commercials and the role of Kitt on "All My Children" to his credit. Now president of The Tuxedo Group communications company (914.633.2903), in Tuxedo Park, N.Y., he is the author of I'd Rather Die Than Make a Speech.