Debunking the
Myths of Public Speaking
By Jeanette Henderson
There’s
a very good reason why so many people are afraid
of public speaking; it’s because the advice
they typically get is so full of old wives’
tales and gobbledygook, they instinctively know
that it just can’t be right, but they don’t
know what else to do, so they just go along with
it, thus perpetuating the myths. They seldom stop
to ask the question, "Why?" Yet if they
were to stop and ask the question, they might be
very surprised (and relieved) at the answer.
Let’s start at the beginning. The opening
of a presentation is critical and many theories
have been offered as to what the best way open.
Here are some of them, and why you should NEVER
USE THEM. The reasons are simple once you know why.
1. The Joke - When you start with a joke, there
are four possible
outcomes: 1) People will get the joke and laugh,
2) people won’t get the joke and won’t
laugh, 3) people will get the joke and think it’s
not funny or appropriate and won’t laugh,
or 4) will have heard the joke before and won’t
laugh. So even if you tell the joke perfectly, with
the timing of a professional (which is unlikely),
you have a 75% chance your audience won’t
laugh. Or worse, sometimes they laugh a little just
to be polite, but are saying to themselves, "How
lame." So why would anyone start with a joke?
2. Asking a Question - When you begin by asking
a question, there are numerous possible outcomes,
with the most likely being: 1) People will think
the question is rhetorical and won’t answer,
2) people won’t know whether they are supposed
to raise their hand or call out the answer, and
because they don’t want to risk embarrassing
themselves, they won’t answer, 3) people will
be afraid they’ll get the answer wrong, and
don’t want the speaker to point out their
error, so they won’t answer, 4) they’ll
call out an answer that is wrong, which means you
have to correct them, and you’ve just alienated
that person and everyone else who might have agreed
with him or her, or 5) they call out the right answer,
which means there’s someone (or many people)
who have just figured out they know as much about
the subject as you do, so any motivation to stay
for the rest of the presentation has just fizzled
out.
3. Talking about Yourself - When you begin by talking
about yourself, (the most common mistake made in
the political arena) these are some of the possible
outcomes: 1) People will see you as a self-centered
bore, in the same way they would if you were simply
having a one-on-one conversation with them, 2) people
won’t care about who you are, they just want
to know what you can do for them as a result of
your presentation, so they’ll turn you off,
or 3) people will find things in what you say to
dislike about you, or with which to disagree, an
impression you must now work twice as hard to overcome.
4. Saying Something Shocking - When you start your
presentation by saying or doing something shocking,
there are several possible outcomes; a) People will
think that you believe they have the attention span
of a child and must be treated as such, and will
immediately resent you for that assumption, b) people
will find the statement or action so outrageous
they will be in disagreement with you right off
the bat, making the rest of your presentation and
long and difficult uphill climb, or c) people will
think you have a screw loose, and will realize that
it wouldn’t be possible to believe anything
you say after that anyway, so they’ll try
be focused on a way to escape rather than on any
subsequent explanation you might care to give about
your shocking statement or action.
5. Starting With an Apology - When you begin by
apologizing, which most often includes some excuse
for not having enough time to prepare, there are
several possible outcomes: 1) People will realize
that you cared so little about the value of their
time that you decided you could waste it, 2) people
will think you got stuck making a presentation to
them, making them feel unwanted, 3) people will
think you must not know very much about the subject
if you needed that much effort to prepare, or 4)
people will realize that you are simply making preemptive
excuses for the bad job you are about to do, and
will look for the quickest way out.
6. Telling the audience what you’re going
to tell them, then telling
them, then telling them what you just told them
- When you begin with the age-old, misguided approach
of tell ‘em, tell ‘em, tell ‘em,
(which is the equivalent of telling your audience
the moral of the story before you’ve even
begun) these are the likely outcomes: a) People
will hear the conclusion, will usually assume they
already know the path to get there, and will lose
interest in going along for the long and arduous
ride, b) people will decide they don’t want
to know about that particular subject and will look
for a way out, or c) people will believe you must
think they are stupid to have to hear something
three times in order to get it, and will not be
inclined to want to listen to someone who thinks
they are stupid.
When you ask the question "why", it’s
easy to see the reasons these old myths should be
eliminated from the public speaking lexicon. They
simply don’t make sense. Which leaves the
question, "What does?"
The purpose of the opening of a presentation is
to get everyone
together, to make sure everyone is on the same page,
to get everyone in agreement as to the state of
things as they are now, so that your presentation
can progress from there. The best and only 100%
effective way of doing that is start by making an
irrefutable statement with which everyone can agree.
(Jeanette Henderson is author of the book “There’s
No Such Thing
as Public Speaking” to be released by Penguin
Books later this year. A writer, speaker, speech
coach, teacher, presentation consultant and Special
Correspondent for the radio talk show Viewpoints
on WCPI-FM in Middle Tennessee, she is co-founder
of Podium Master, a nationally-recognized presentation
consulting firm. She may be contacted through www.podiummaster.com)
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