Introduction
From passion to technology, from soul to strategy’it’s all here. In PowerSpeaking© : How Ordinary People Can Make Extraordinary Presentations, you will learn the building blocks of excellent presentations while you explore the lofty heights of your own communication powers. You will learn (or be reminded) of the importance of passion and conviction in delivering any speech or presentation. And you will be introduced to my driving philosophy about the art and practice of public speaking: It’s not about perfection.
My goal with this book is to free the great speaker within you. I’ve done approximately 15,000 presentations in my lifetime, and the most important things I’ve learned over the years about what makes ‘great speakers’ are: they focus on what they care about, they take risks, they avoid perfectionism’and they practice, practice, practice.
What do you care about? What do you want to tell the world (or your department) about politics? about product development? about injustice? about technology? The list can go on and on. The point is’and you’ll hear this echoing throughout the book’the speeches and presentations that move us, that enlighten, that help us do a better job, that effect change, are given to us by people who care deeply about what they’re saying and who have worked hard to make their delivery live up to their passion.
The material in this book was written over a ten-year period and some articles were originally published in our quarterly newsletter to clients. While the book has been designed to give you the essentials in a format that is easy to read, PowerSpeaking© : How Ordinary People Can Make Extraordinary Presentations offers a breadth of information that is unequaled in the how-to market on this subject (and I’ve read them all!). The book’one third of which is written by other professionals and colleagues’ begins with three main sections which mirror the three-point training model we’ve developed: the substance, style and staging of speaking. From there we take you on a journey that spans the power, the business, the technology, the biology, the future and the soul of speaking. Furthermore, the information you will receive is truly leading edge’no endless lists of predictable do’s and don’ts here!
The book is designed to be read straight through and the chapters build sequentially. Depending on your particular interest or need, however, you may want to skip around. If, for example, you are a newer, inexperienced speaker, you might begin with chapters one to five. If you’re a seasoned speaker looking for fine-tuning, start with chapters five to nine. If you’re primarily a speaker on technical topics, start with chapter six. Of course this journey through the art and practice of speaking has an end: you, in front of an audience (again and again). However you approach this material, I’m confident your next audience will experience your best speech ever.
Frederick Gilbert, Ph.D.