Tuesday 28th September 2021

Do you struggle to be heard?


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Do you struggle to be heard?

 

Do you want to be more confident when you are presenting?

Do you want to make more of an impact with your audience when you do stand up to speak?

All talents need to be polished, everything can be learnt so read on.

Do you believe that great presenters are just naturals and therefore it is a talent you are born with? And do you also believe you weren’t born with that talent?

That is what is known as a limiting belief and because you think that belief is true instead of putting some time in to work on it you just tell yourself, I cannot present well. Which in turn leads you to rarely give a presentation, or even speaking up in a meeting. Of course this is a cycle that confirms your limiting belief.

A limiting belief is just that, a belief. Henry Ford famously said, “If you think you can, or your think you can’t, you’re right. What he meant was, we are a product of our thoughts, not our ability. On top of this we have confirmation bias, we will always pay more attention when our limiting believes are confirmed, without questioning what drove the outcome, our thinking or our ability. 

No one is born a natural presenter, it’s a craft like any other, time and practice is needed to become good. I agree some have some helpful qualities; interesting accents, nice tone etc. but these are just some elements that go into a great presentation, all the rest can be learnt.

At the recent the recent Manchester CIH conference Carl Brazier of PCH asked the audience “Hands up who gets nervous before speaking in public,” A wave of hands shot right up in the air following the question. It’s likely that many of those with their hands up will not enjoy the experience of being on a panel and will not even put themselves forward to go onto a stage, that makes me sad.

Sad because there are so many voices that are not heard and wisdom that is not shared. Sad because being good at presenting can make a difference to everyone’s career and their impact in the world.

I am not going to tell you it is easy, it isn’t, we all have nerves but that is a good thing, we can learn to channel those nerves so they improve not diminish our performance. I have trained individuals that are confident presenters, they work with me to improve their impact. I have trained people that were terrified of presenting but need to conquer their limiting believes and they did.

WISH recognise that women are more likely to avoid presenting or speaking up so we are running The Art of Presenting programme to create an opportunity were women in social housing can come and learn together and support each other. No matter how talented you are if you cannot be heard or articulate your ideas well to an audience whether that is to your leaders, your peers or even at an interview, you will struggle to progress and fully utilise your talent and wisdom.

See link for more info


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