Great presenters - Born or Made?
Posted in Confidence, Presentation Skills, Public Speaking on July 24, 2008 by Gavin
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I had a fascinating conversation today over lunch which I thought I’d share with you. I was speaking to a colleague who does a lot of work as a professional master of ceremonies and facilitator at conference and events Our conversation covered a range of interesting things including voice projection and accents but we happened to stray onto the topic of what makes a great presenter and from there onto the question of can anyone be taught to present well.
After batting the argument back and forth we agreed that, technically at least, almost anyone could be taught to be a reasonably competent and confident presenter . However the time and effort required may well be, in some cases, disproportionately large and in many cases it may make better sense to let a more confident and natural speaker deliver your messages. In other words we should play to our natural talents rather than trying to become great at everything.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this controversial topic. Do you agree or disagree post your comments and lets open up a lively debate.
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July 27th, 2008 at 1:40 am
I think most people can learn to be competent presenters. If they can have a one-on-one conversation, then they can also learn to speak to a group. It doesn’t mean that they will be confident presenters - for some people, the nervousness will always be there - but that doesn’t need to stop them and most of the time the audience won’t pick up on the nervousness. I posted on this a while ago http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/2008/07/14/you-can-learn-to-be-a-better-presenter/
July 27th, 2008 at 5:06 am
I agree that anyone can learn to be a competent presenter. But just like any other skill, not everyone is willing or able to put in the work necessary. Nor will they be willing or able to display the kind of passion and enthusiasm for a topic that makes even a mediocre speaker (skill-wise) engaging.
Even if you put in the training, say, to be an elite cyclist, that doesn’t mean you’ll ever win the Tour de France! You may find yourself forever a domestique: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cycling_domestique
And that’s fine for lots of people. Definitely play to your strengths and natural talents, but if you enjoy something, you should still go for it, even if you’ll never be the best.
August 14th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
I do believe that some poeple are having an intuition that gets them stand out the crowd,BUT this doesn’t mean that having such intuition is the key factor for there success,but what does really determin this is how much energy are you willing to put in this area to send yourself to the next level hand in hand with those talented people.