You may find yourself held back by these common myths. Each of these applies to any type of speaking, as well as speaking in Toastmasters. Read on, and learn how to identify and conquer these speaking flaws:
Error #1: Every speech has to be different.
- In professional or business settings, you wouldn’t want to give the same speech to the same audience over and over, but when the audience changes, you can use material that was developed for another audience. All you need to do is know your audience and make the small tweaks where you need to.
- In Toastmasters, this misconception comes from an erroneous assumption that you can’t take credit for the same speech more than once. Change that thinking! Don’t “take credit” for your speech…earn credit for it. Are you wondering what the difference is? Say you are wanting to practice a speech for a big presentation you have to do at work on the Johnson Account (or whatever). You can work on the Competent Communication (CC) manual speech project on Vocal Variety, give your speech and receive some useful tips to improve. Next, take those improvements and tighten it up. Go to the project on Using Visual Aides and practice it again. Now you are better prepared for that work assignment! Note: you don’t have to stop at two times, practice again if you need to.
Error #2: All of your material must be original.
- Clearly it’s a bad idea to plagerize the work of others. However, if you credit them and include what you’ve learned from experts in your presentation you can add to your credibility and improve the audience’s condition at the same time. Telling the audience how using that other expert’s advice made a difference for you can help them follow a similar path to success.
- In Toastmasters, there are some scripted programs designed to help members succeed with common speaking and leadership topics such as Goal Setting and Planning, Evaluate to Motivate, and Creating an Opening. I once asked a fellow member about giving a speech on Goal Setting. His reply, “I don’t need to do one of those modules right now Rob, I need to give a speech.” I replied “Joe, just give a speech on Goal Setting, you can reference your own experience as well as the module and other sources in your own speech.” This took a bit of back and forth to get through, because of the misunderstanding that he though to talk about one of those topics, you had to use the module. It’s not true, and like any source you just need to cite what you use when you speak. If, however, you want to read the script as designed, then of course that is not a manual speech, but how you present it as a module.
Filed under: Public Speaking Tips
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