According to reports, public speaking is one of the most feared activities. I’m not going to say no to it. When I delivered my team’s final project @ Salford (circa ’97), I nearly fell flat on the floor due to nervousness and stage fright. Almost…
Since that day on, I made a promise to myself not to be in that situation anymore.
When I joined the civil service, memang nak tak nak, you will be required to talk in front of others, be it in small groups or larger groups of people that are waiting eagerly to hear what you’re about to say.
Last week when I was at Penang, delivering a 30-min talk on one of the projects my department is currently working on, somehow or rather, I felt that was my best performance so far. I kept asking myself, what was the x-factor? Pikiaq punya pikiaq, I just realised something…
When the MC mentioned my name and invited me to the stage, the first thing I did was simply saying the customary greeting words ,
“Terima kasih Tuan Pengerusi Majlis.
Yang dihormati Ketua Jabatan ABC etc, dan seterusnya Tuan/Puan hadirin hadirat yang dikasihi sekalaian, Assalamualaikum, Salam Sejahtera dan Salam 1Malaysia.
Terlebih dahulu saya mengucapkan terima kasih kepada pihak penganjur kerana memberi peluang kepada saya selaku wakil dari Jabatan XYZ untuk bersama-sama berkongsi pengalaman, berkongsi cerita mengenai pelaksanaan sistem QWE dengan Tuan/Puan pada pagi ini.”
in a relaxing mode, not too fast and not to slow, while glancing to the audience from left to right…
What I found out later on, it actually helped me to set the mood and tone of my presentation. I was calmer during the presentation, not rushing to wrap up the presentation. Cuba try test, it worked well on me 🙂 …
Of course, you still need to practice delivering your presentation the day/night before until you’re comfortable with it.
Btw, you can always tell whether a presenter is talking at you or talking to you. A good presenter uses the slides to assist in in delivering the points, referring to them once in while to remind him of the things he’s about to say.
Not to read from the slides verbatim…
Troy, Shah Alam and ... 