Rodchenko Igor - Master of the word. Public speaking skills

About fear public speaking

I imagine with horror the moment when the door of a small plane (something like an AN-2) swings open and I need to take a step forward, fly to the ground and pull the ring in the air so that the opened parachute will slightly throw my body up, and then swing me into the air. heavenly cradle. No one will ever force me to do this, I tell myself, no one ever!

Surprisingly, I know people for whom skydiving is much less exciting than speaking in public. Mystery! There, if the parachute does not open, the body will be flattened on the ground - but what can happen here, on the illuminated stage, among pleasant people waiting for your word?

I’ll tell my story because I know about this problem firsthand. I experienced it, as they say, in my own skin.
Once, many years ago, in a play based on Friedrich Dürrenmatt’s play “Playing Strindberg,” I played one of the main roles. It was in Amsterdam, at a theater festival. Something went wrong, either I didn’t prepare properly, or I didn’t catch the mood, in general, there was a failure. The director publicly criticized me after the performance. It seems like a small thing, but something happened to me. I couldn’t sleep for a long time, I was very worried about the failure. In the morning I had to go on stage in a children's play. I was shaking with fear. I drank ten cups of coffee, went to the toilet ten times, even sniffed ammonia. And my heart kept beating and beating loudly and often! I stood in front of the hall on wooden legs. My hands trembled, my face trembled, I wanted to hide, disappear... Since then, every exit to the site became torment for me. I understood perfectly well that if I didn’t solve the problem, then I had nothing to do in the profession. Once, after another failure, sitting by the window with a cigarette, I tore a sheet of paper out of my notebook and drew a dirty stain of my own fear on it.

On the back I wrote all the reasons that I thought made me afraid. There was a complex of unpreparedness, dissatisfaction with one’s appearance, fear of being reprimanded, and much more. There were at least a dozen and a half reasons to shake like a leaf. As I thought about it, I made two simple discoveries.

Firstly, fear is not permanent. Sometimes you're afraid to speak in front of strangers and you feel completely calm among your loved ones, and sometimes everything happens exactly the opposite. More often than not you are afraid at the beginning of a performance, but sometimes fear catches up with you at the end. For me, this meant that the spot of fear is changeable in its boundaries, and therefore, it can be controlled, it can be reduced, because if it were stable, then the disease would be worth treating in a clinic.

Secondly, there are not fifteen or twenty reasons. There is one universal one. It's not that I wasn't prepared, it's that I don't want others to notice. The point is not that I am ashamed of my appearance - I live with it alone and nothing - the point is that I do not want to be judged by others. The reason for our fear is addiction. But addiction is a serious matter, and getting rid of it is difficult. Some are dependent on alcohol, some on cigarettes, some on specific person, and everyone, without exception, depends on the opinions of others. Just to varying degrees. Our entire modern culture with its focus on success, our entire upbringing of children with its constant taunting “What will Princess Marya Aleksevna say?!”, the entire system of not fraternal, but competitive relationships in society feeds this dependence. And what is public speaking if not a space in which each of us tells people: “Here I stand in front of you. Rate my intelligence, my appearance, my professionalism...” And if we felt confident that the assessment would be excellent, then fear would not have happened, but this is not so. The gap between who you are aware of - a not very skilled speaker - and who you would like to appear to be - brilliant, capable of controlling any audience - is the space of fear. The greater the distance between who we are and who we would like to be, the greater the fear.

This means that by working with this reason, you can reduce the space of fear. How? On the one hand, destroy your addiction, on the other, increase your level of skill. Eventually the gap will narrow to a narrow strip of excitement, which is a sign of responsibility, as opposed to fear, a sign of vanity.

But how to work with this addiction? The same as with other dependencies. Some, for example, stop drinking. When? Then, when a fullness of something else appears in life - something that can take all the attention of the drinker and fill the great emptiness in his soul. It is the ability to switch attention from yourself and your experiences to something more important that is the basis of working with fear. When a novice speaker goes on stage, his attention is completely focused on his own experiences. He is all in his trembling fingers, in the redness of his cheeks, in his confused words. But we must take a step, the most important and difficult! No matter how scary it may be, in these seconds you need to turn your attention to your listeners. It is very difficult to look into their eyes, but you have to not just look, but literally stare into them.

Attention should go to where our goal is located. And she is in our listeners. You need to tell yourself: “I am not the most skillful speaker, but my business is much more important than me. I will work for others. And I don't care whether you like me or not. I’ll just take a shovel and start digging my garden.” When a person is busy with something, when he does it for others, when he sees and hears those for whom his speech is intended, then fear goes away. Fear does not like honest work. Advice for overcoming fear like “Imagine your audience as bunnies” or “Tune in for success, feel stronger than everyone else” is from the evil one. With the same success, an alcoholic can be treated with persuasion and horror stories about the dangers of the green serpent. In the case of “bunnies,” normal, equal relations with the audience are violated (and what kind of imagination do you have to have to imagine your director as a hare for an hour?). Setting yourself up for success leads not to a decrease, but to an increase in the level of anxiety. God forbid someone suddenly gets up and leaves the hall in the middle of a performance or starts yawning. All success will fall away like leaves in October.

So, dependence on other people’s opinions cannot be overcome except by working with values and attention.

First, you need to learn to shift attention from yourself and your experiences to the audience area. Your goal is to change the listeners, which means the attention should be there too. Switch it from yourself and your experiences to the audience, do not look away, on the contrary, pause, look, meet the eyes of the people who have come to listen to you.

Secondly, you need to set yourself not to succeed with the public, but to work for the sake of people and the common cause.“I’m nobody, and there’s no way to call me. Only the result of my work matters” - something like this. Success and true recognition come to those who do not chase them.

It is also important to find the stream that feeds the addiction. For example, many times I have encountered people who have some kind of speech impediment - for example, they cannot pronounce the sound “p”. They forgot to even think about how they were teased as children, but their subconscious reminds them, it still seems to them that listeners only notice this flaw. This is what fuels addiction. The found shortcoming can be eliminated, or you can change your attitude towards it. In any case, you need to understand it in order to move on.

Working only with the causes of fear is not enough. It is necessary to improve the level of your speech skills. If a speaker does not gain experience, does not read books, does not train, then he will not be able to overcome fear, no matter how much he convinces himself that someone else’s assessment is indifferent to him. The stain of fear must be erased from both sides.

Here are some tips for overcoming your fears when starting a speech.

1. Fear is often disguised as aggression. When we see a speaker who puts pressure and attacks his listeners, most often this behavior is a sign of the horror that reigns inside him. Therefore, you need to go to people with a kind heart. Kindness wins over the audience, and the listeners respond in kind. Fear cannot survive in this atmosphere. Just don’t confuse kindness with “chemical” positivity. An empty smile glued to the mouth does nothing but enslave large quantity facial muscles, due to which facial expressions are distorted and the voice becomes thinner and nastier.

2. Learn to control the condition of your muscles. Fear leads to tension and stiffness. When going out to the audience, keep your arms hanging freely along your body and try to relieve excess tension arising in the shoulder girdle. It's not that difficult. There is an acting technique called “muscle controller” that allows you to train this skill. This controller should turn into a constant assistant working in the background, it is something like a small video camera working inside your body. Imagine that you are going to perform. The moment you appear on stage, your controller detects excess muscle tension in the shoulders, neck and arms. Calmly, without dust and noise, you slightly tense your shoulders and immediately relieve this tension by exhaling imperceptibly. No special secrets. Try to tense your shoulder muscles right now and release them. Nothing complicated. You just need to accustom yourself to this practice. IN ordinary life, in all stressful situations, try to control the state of your body and remove excess tension immediately, preventing it from spreading and constraining your muscles, and with them your mind.

3. Never rush in the beginning. Speak a little slower than usual, breathe evenly and think, do not pretend to be speaking, but think and, while thinking, speak.
Gradually, with experience, with well-deserved applause from listeners, with a sober attitude towards yourself and your goals, confidence will come. This is not an easy path, don’t delude yourself. Fear will return more than once, but now you will already know how to defeat it.

In addition, I will say a few more words about the importance of emotional and physical preparation for a performance. They also help in the fight against negative emotions. Even the way you eat matters. It’s not for nothing that the famous football referee Pierluigi Collina once said in an interview: “Choose food and time for it correctly. What exactly there is depends on the time of the match. In Italy the games start at three o'clock in the afternoon, so I eat at 11:15, usually pasta with tomato sauce and a piece of pie with jam - this is instead of sugar. And if the match is in the evening, I eat at 12:30 - always pasta and sometimes grilled sole" Please note that at least two and a half hours must pass between the meal and the performance. Be moderate in your eating, avoid artificial stimulants like a glass of cognac. Alcohol will help relieve stress, but it will also ruin your breath and cause dry mouth.

Sports are vital for a professional speaker. Lethargy in the body will not allow you to be easy on the court. There is not enough strength to work in a large hall or for several hours of activity. Confidence that he looks good helps the speaker. When a person understands that he is dressed with taste, when he feels great, public speaking is much easier for him than for an unkempt, gloomy, lazy poor fellow.

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Legal support for the publishing house is provided by the Vegas-Lex law firm.

Yegorka, who prevented me from writing this book

Preface

A month ago, one of the participants in my training answered the question “Who likes to speak in public?” suddenly answered: “I hate speaking in public.” There was no panache in his words. Half of the first day he rolled the nodules on his cheekbones and yawned nervously. But training is training, it works like a trap. Unbeknownst to himself, the guy got involved. Believe it or not, he turned out to be the best according to the results of the three-day training. His final work received a storm of applause. He hated performing because he couldn't do it. It didn't work because he didn't know how to do it. When he understood exactly how to do it, he could. This guy believed in himself, and now there is no stopping him. He felt joy.

There are many pleasant moments in life. Do you know how much pleasure I felt when I watched the sunrise on the Brazilian beach in Trindade? The ocean slammed a two-meter wave along the sandy edge - like a woman rinsing clothes on the river and hitting them on the wooden flooring. The Milky Way flowed in the pinkish sky and faded before our eyes. The sun was rising - not crawling, not crawling out, but solemnly rising to its full height. I laughed with delight!

And this is just one happy moment out of thousands of others that life has shared with me. But I will tell you that the pleasure that a person gets who knows how to think and speak in public, who is able to be himself and not be afraid of anything when dozens of eyes are directed at him, who knows how to catch the breath of an audience and lead them with him, is a pleasure beyond anything. you'll exchange it.

Someone will say: “Nonsense! Not everyone can!” No, gentlemen! For all my professional life I have never met a single person who is unable to speak in public. Moreover, it is often enough just to tighten the nut or tighten the chain, turn the steering wheel in the desired direction and go.

This book is about bolts, handlebars and nuts. It's about how to prepare and speak in public. At least once. And experience joy.

We will try to go from preparation for the performance to its completion. Step by step. Sometimes I'll tell some stories simply because I'm bored of writing user manuals. Of course, it will be great if you find the opportunity to attend training with us at the IGRO company, then you will do much of what I write about under the guidance of specialists and understand something better.

Chapter first

Basic speaker training

Once, many years ago, speaking to a huge audience in Nizhny Novgorod, I found myself in a terrible situation. I didn't have enough material. I knew the topic superficially, but I was sure that with my experience, and having also read several articles on the plane, I could easily hold the audience for two hours. When I went on stage, the lights in the hall were turned off and several spotlights were pointed at me. In the circle of yellow light I found myself alone. He started cheerfully, but after half an hour he died down and began to howl, wave his arms in despair and repeat what had already been said. After another fifteen minutes, the same thought struck me as Ostap Bender did at the chess club in the city of Vasyuki: “It’s time to get my claws out!” Clutching my heart, I whispered into the microphone: “Sorry... I feel bad...” Compassionate listeners rushed onto the stage, and I, dragging my right (for some reason) leg, was taken backstage...

Since then, I have understood forever: a speaker must be ready for anything, and first of all, for his own speech.

Training consists of basic and target levels. Karl Marx would call them base and superstructure. The first involves constant improvement of one's abilities. The second is devoted to preparing a specific speech. I'm sure most new speakers prepare for their presentation. They have no other choice. Some do it right, some do it wrong. But the more experienced the speaker, the less time he needs to create a speech and the more often he is able to speak improvisationally. Basic training helps him in this, which a beginner lacks.

The concept of basis is based on knowledge, experience and training.

Chinese military strategist Jie Xuan taught: “Dig into the nature and destinies of man in order to comprehend the secret of the art of military leadership. Read the ancient books to thoroughly learn the methods of action of the troops. Study the images and numbers of the universe in order to have complete knowledge of the rules of army organization. Perform all duties yourself in order to understand the command and control of troops. Research different items to become knowledgeable about equipment. In your idle hours, think about immaterial things and make plans..."

We must know more than others, be completely interested different things in addition to our narrow specialty: sports, fashion, opera and art cinema, fiction and the latest discoveries in the field of biogenetics. For this there is the Internet and magazines, bookstores and coffee shops. They exist just for us.

My friend Zhenya Kuznetsov once told me: “The main quality of a good storyteller is curiosity.” There are so many interesting things around, everything that can be useful to us when preparing a speech! Just don't be an omnivore. No need to clutter your head with cheap junk. I'm talking about choosing information thoughtfully. It's worth spending time just on good book, good magazine, good movie.

As Marcus Fabius Quintilian taught: “For the formation of the mind and style, the quality of the books read is much more important, not their quantity.”

Choosing a good book or article is no different from choosing shoes. You need to try it on and try walking. Other people's reviews or recommendations don't matter. You need intuition and your own taste. You take a book off the shelf or open a magazine and read a few pages. If it doesn't work, put it back. That's all. You didn’t buy the book that you need today. at Sorry. Just trust yourself more than advertising. Reading is an entire art, so I recommend that you definitely familiarize yourself with Sergei Povarnin’s brochure “How to Read Books” and Mortimer Adler’s work with the same name, recently published in Russian translation.

Speaking of the benefits of reading fiction for a business person. I once read in the magazine “Secret of the Firm” an interview with Olga Slutsker, the owner of the World Class network of fitness clubs. She talked about how at some point she suddenly caught herself thinking that it was difficult for her to negotiate - there were not enough words. A friend advised me to read Leo Tolstoy at night. The problem was thus solved.

Don't stop reading! After all, the language dries up when we limit ourselves to only viewing the news feed and leafing through books on business. Our language needs deep rivers of the best texts so that the vocabulary does not become scarce and we can speak freely and easily. Talk about different topics.

Public speaking skills

Legendary training by Igor Rodchenko

Organization of training:

05.12.19-06.12.19

10-00 - 17-00, Thursday-Friday.

22,000 rub.

Cost if paid two or more months before the start - 20 tr., if paid one or more months before the start - 21 tr., if paid less than a month before the start - 22 tr.

Igor Rodchenko

To speak well in public, you need to do more than just know where to put your hands and what to say at the beginning. You need to try to change yourself in the public space: learn not to depend on assessments and critical comments, learn to think out loud and not recite a memorized text, learn to see the audience and manage their attention. In this program, we work to achieve real, qualitative changes in the public behavior of participants and at the same time master the most effective techniques that can be immediately used in practice. This approach allows you to achieve tangible results

from the history

For the first time, a two-day training called “Master of the Word” was held in St. Petersburg in 2005. Since then, several thousand people have been trained in this program both in Russia and abroad. In 2010, this program was recognized by the Delovoy Petersburg newspaper as the best for teaching public speaking. In 2013, based on the experience of conducting this program, the publishing house Mann, Ivanov and Ferber published the best-selling book “Master of the Word. Mastery of public speaking."

For whom?

This program is especially useful for senior and middle managers; leaders public organizations And social groups; people striving for development, who are ready and want to get results and do it under the guidance of a true master.

tasks

In this training, each participant will understand their strengths and weaknesses and learn to work with them, master various ways preparation for a speech and will work on techniques for interacting with listeners in order to be able to hold their attention throughout the speech. He will learn the most effective techniques for overcoming fear and responding to difficult questions and trolls in the room.

Program

First day

Criteria for assessing public speaking and individual diagnostics.

First presentation and tips for working with slides.

Typical speaker mistakes. Algorithm for preparation with limited time resources.

Levels of preparation for public speaking:

Working with the content of speech (identifying the main idea, setting the correct goal, determining the boundaries of speech).
Organization of space (laws of precise behavior).
Managing emotions and overcoming fatigue (the cause of fear and the ability to overcome it, secrets of managing emotions).

Performing exercises, warm-ups, problem solving and individual performances followed by corrective feedback.

Second day

Audience assessment: power resource and balance of power.

Techniques for making contact with the audience, tasks for the speaker, examples of successful actions, finding your own techniques.

“Working with your hands”: instant correction of the speaker’s behavior.

Creating a map using basic techniques for managing audience attention.

Techniques for neutralizing negativity in the audience.

Speech strategies: logical models in organizing speech content as a tool for maintaining attention.

Argumentation techniques.

The final part of the speech: how to answer questions from the audience.

Feedback with the designation of development zones in post-training and recommendations.

result

You will perform better.

participant reviews

“Wonderful training, which wonderfully discusses and examines general things through specific ones. The most useful topics for me were logic in speaking and working with objections. Very good technique working with video recordings"

Alexey Kharchenko, freelance producer

“I'm pleased. I liked the dynamics of the training, it positive attitude. I saw my “growth zones” and gained confidence, despite the stressful nature of the training topic for me.”

Khovansky Alexander, director of Apartment Center

“Very good training in public speaking skills, and effective speech in general. I saw that my problems were typical and therefore solvable."

Tolstoy Vasily, Principal Software Engineer EMC

“Great training. Dynamic. In addition to useful techniques, tools and practice, there was the opportunity to observe the trainer himself. I’ll take a lot of things into account in my training activities.”

Olga Dobrusina, head of personnel service, Leroy Merlin LLC

“High level of preparation, complete immersion in the topic. The result exceeded expectations, since there are no techniques, there is attitude. This is the first time I have seen a coach work at such a high level, when the coach is not only a consultant, but also an assistant.”

Savina Lyubov, training manager LLC Prisma

Igor Rodchenko

Master of the word. Public speaking skills

Legal support for the publishing house is provided by the Vegas-Lex law firm.

Yegorka, who prevented me from writing this book

Preface

Someone will say: “Nonsense! Not everyone can!” No, gentlemen! In my entire professional life, I have never met a single person who was unable to speak in public. Moreover, it is often enough just to tighten the nut or tighten the chain, turn the steering wheel in the desired direction and go.

This book is about bolts, handlebars and nuts. It's about how to prepare and speak in public. At least once. And experience joy.

Chapter first

Basic speaker training

Since then, I have understood forever: a speaker must be ready for anything, and first of all, for his own speech.

The concept of basis is based on knowledge, experience and training.

We are obliged to know more than others, to be interested in completely different things besides our narrow specialty: sports, fashion, opera and auteur cinema, fiction and the latest discoveries in the field of biogenetics. For this there is the Internet and magazines, bookstores and coffee shops. They exist just for us.

My friend Zhenya Kuznetsov once told me: “The main quality of a good storyteller is curiosity.” There are so many interesting things around, everything that can be useful to us when preparing a speech! Just don't be an omnivore. No need to clutter your head with cheap junk. I'm talking about choosing information thoughtfully. It's only worth spending time on a good book, a good magazine, a good movie.

As Marcus Fabius Quintilian taught: “For the formation of the mind and style, the quality of the books read is much more important, not their quantity.”

This is what makes good speakers. They have something to say. They have knowledge.

Someone said that the most useful thing in life is your own experience. “Never be afraid to take on what you don’t know how to do. Remember, the ark was built by an amateur, professionals built the Titanic.”

Experience is dynamic, it has the ability to be compared and transferred. Yes, it is vitally important for a speaker to speak in public - the main thing is acquired during speeches, but you cannot limit yourself to them only. Gain experience everywhere. Learn to compare and draw parallels. For example, with sports. Nothing resembles interaction with an audience like boxing or wrestling. And if you do something like this or just watch tournaments on TV, you will gain the experience necessary to perform effectively during public speaking. The same can be said about any other life situations. Take a normal conversation with a colleague. What did you do to convince him? Did it work or didn't it work? How did your hands behave, what happened to your breathing, to your face? Which words were heard and which were not? Experience gives understanding, and from understanding comes right action.

There you are specific example. I am writing these lines during the Summer Olympics in London. Yesterday the Russians failed to take first place in team wrestling in artistic gymnastics. They are not speakers, but an attentive viewer will take the awareness of the incredible relationship between the speakers as part of their skill. If you have to give a report in a line of other speakers and the previous one failed his speech, then be prepared for the negativity to be transferred to you. This happens partly due to the specific perception of listeners - they do not have time to readjust, partly due to monkeying, which, unfortunately, is characteristic of our nature. Many of us, as a rule, unconsciously pick up on someone else's mood and fall under its influence, beginning to behave accordingly. This is why an experienced speaker must be able to work “against the wave”, must feel the general rhythm and easily change it, and an experienced event organizer puts a strong player first on the list so that he sets a good rhythm.

Igor Rodchenko

Master of the word. Public speaking skills

Legal support for the publishing house is provided by the Vegas-Lex law firm.

Yegorka, who prevented me from writing this book

Preface

This book is about bolts, handlebars and nuts. It's about how to prepare and speak in public. At least once. And experience joy.

Chapter first

Basic speaker training

Since then, I have understood forever: a speaker must be ready for anything, and first of all, for his own speech.