Restarting the Public Speaking Journey – How to Ace That Physical Communication Setting
Are you ready to step back onto the physical stage? The thought of returning to physical communication settings may not be that enticing for all of us. This is so especially after the months of spending our time working from home, engaging in comfortable online meetings, and avoiding face-to-face interactions. For those who took this time to engage in more restful “me-time”, the prospect of opening up to a physical audience through energetic presentations, conversations, and interactions may be daunting!
Among the possible concerns, you may have the fear that you will need to un-learn and re-learn some relevant public speaking or communication habits you may have. Some of these habits may have been developed during the “new normal” of online settings, such as conversational style, emphasis on new media elements (slides, anyone?), or diluted delivery. These habits, however, may not be entirely relevant once we return to a comfortable physical setting. How then do we transit with ease to the physical communication settings again?
Returning to our “old normal” communication habits may not be as difficult as you think! In this article, we will share three habit types that you may need to adapt or modify as you adjust into your physical communication settings again.
Habit #1: Store Your Ideas; Plan Your Speech
The comfort of your home office, coupled with a casual, no-supervisor environment, may lull you into a comfortable ideation process. You can plan your presentation in comfort, with a greater degree of control over your schedule. Fast forward to the physical office – your proximity to your superiors may mean urgent timelines, distracting work, and other factors that may prevent you from carving out a comfortable planning phase for your speech or presentation.
Having your comfortable planning time and control over your to-do list, however, is a positive habit to adapt in the physical setting. Try to emulate this by creating a proper bank of ideas. One of the key changes as we transit to physical settings will be the amount of time that must be allocated to travel, waiting, and other menial tasks again. In these pockets of time, an idea may come into your mind, and you need to be ready to jot them down. Your bank of ideas can be as traditional as that spare notebook in your room or an application on your mobile phone. You can safely withdraw from this bank whenever you need a fresh idea or build on a new one!
Habit #2: Body Language Habits to Reignite
One of the public speaking techniques that have been affected by the shift to an online setting is that of body language. With the focus on online platforms such as Zoom or Google Meet, body language, or non-verbal communication is no longer as key as it was for the physical stage. With reliance on slides or other new media information channel, the focus is no longer on how you are presenting your content but on what you are presenting.
If you think about the period of the circuit-breaker thus far (almost 3 months, gasp!), you may not be faulted for thinking that any body language habits have gone out the window. We believe that these body language skills, however, remain important. It is not a matter of re-learning these skills but reminding yourself of the non-verbal communication habits that worked for you. Some of the key body language habits you may want to now incorporate are hand gestures (wide, expansive gestures), stage positioning (in using the physical stage), and eye contact (in maintaining a wide angle of attack). Doing so does not mean you start to pack and store the habits you had for online settings. Instead, understand the difference between the applicable habits for both scenarios and train yourself to be a versatile, “new normal”, communicator!
Habit #3: Pivoting to Small-Scale Settings
Finally, with the phased re-opening approach, one of the key features that continue to depart from how we behaved in physical settings are group sizes. With your audience size likely to be reduced, you may have to start pivoting your communication style to suit a more intimate and small-scale setting. Even for a formal presentation, your audience reception may no longer match what you would expect from a pre-COVID-19 scenario!
* 200 pax mass audience not allowed? Only less than 20 pax? May not be a bad thing! *
An advantage of smaller audience size is the potential for communicators to identify their audience interests quickly and efficiently. It is easier to tailor your content for that small-group presentation and an audience of 5, compared to one for an entire boardroom of 20 people. With this ease comes responsibility – take extra effort to understand the needs of your small-group audience and aim to meet them. Remember to still build interactive elements, pattern-breaks, and a clear structure to help guide your audience through your presentation.
All the Best!
The shift back to more traditional physical communication settings is definitely welcome news! But as communicators, it remains important to constantly evaluate the relevance of our techniques, based on a given context. As we switch our communication settings again, it may perhaps be time to remind ourselves of the techniques that are appropriate for a given scenario. We hope with the three tips above, you are well-placed to jump back into a physical communication scenario!
By The Way…
If you’re keen to take your public speaking & presentation skills (either business/corporate presentation or kids in-class presentation) to the next level so that you may public speak and present with flair and charisma, feel free to check out our offerings below!
For more about our Public Speaking Course for Adults :
https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/courses-and-programs/group-classes-for-adults/
For more about our Public Speaking Course for Kids / Children:
https://publicspeakingacademy.com.sg/group-classes-students-age-9-18/
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