Assertiveness skills / presentation skills??

B

bibibobo

Guest
Hi

My job requires that i do presentations from time to time and speak up at meetings. I'm not too bad at presentations as they are usually very well rehearsed. I dread answering peoples silly questions and ad-lib'ing but thats another story. When it comes to speaking up at meetings I'm fairly crap (although i do have good moments occasionally). I tend to be nervous and clumsy in my thoughts and this is exasperated by the presence of soon management figures. I guess i'm not unlike others in ireland where we are not encouraged to speak out and be confident in school.
Does anybody know of good courses (or websites) which will help me with my personal / career development in terms of presentation, articulation and assertiveness skills?

Has anybody else sufferred from such problems which relate to dealing with other people in large organisations? If so, how have you dealt with it. I am basically a work shy person who has a great career. With my job (technical) the further along a career path one goes the less technical work with machines etc you do and the more talking / meetings and waffling you need to do. I know I can perfect skills in this area so any pointers or observations from people would be gratefully received.
 
Have you tried rehearsing the presentations beforehand and getting some trusted colleagues to grill you with the likely questions in a safe environment where you can make your mistakes behind closed doors? This makes a huge difference when you come to actually make the presentation.
 
Typed a long post and lost it!!

The basis of improving your presentation skills is practice. There are many night courses available (www.nightcourses.ie I think) I did a course with the Peoples College in Parnell Square that I thought was quite good.

The other organisation that could help is toasmasters, there are meetings all over the place. They do public speaking about twice a month. I have not been to a meeting, so I can't tell you exactly what it's like!

Best of luck.
 
Many training companies run courses in presentations skills but it can work out quite expensive if you have to pay yourself. However, very often, an employer will bring in a trainer to train several staff simultaneously and the per-head cost can be quite low.

I suspect toastmasters is more about giving you the confidence to speak publicly through practice and encouragement whereas the training courses address things like structure, presentation, visual aids, etc.
 
FWIW, the course in the Peoples College cost (from memory, you may want to check) was about €55 for 10 weeks two years ago, and it covered presentations, public speaking, off the cuff speaking, interviewee and interviewer skills. The man giving the course was good. I do know that many courses are much more expensive!
 
Hi, firstly to declare interest, I am a member of Toastmasters.

When a person joins Toastmasters they initally follow a programme of 10 speechs which cover all aspects of public speaking i.e vocal variety, using props, body language. There is also a section on impromtu speaking skills which from my own experiance has helped me in job interviews when asked unexpected questions. The sky is limit really in Toastmasters, the more experianced a person become. And of course as in any club there is a great social element to Toastmasters, you are meeting people from all walks of life that you might never come accross in your day.
 
bibibobo said:
I tend to be nervous and clumsy in my thoughts and this is exasperated by the presence of soon management figures. I guess i'm not unlike others in ireland where we are not encouraged to speak out and be confident in school.
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Hi Bibibobo, if you are anxious and nervous it will inevitably reflect in your ability to concentrate, to think and to speak. I wonder if you need to do some sort of relaxation so you're not worried? Assertiveness will generally cover whether you are passive or aggressive with people, and public speaking tends to concentrate on presentation skills. If you cannot get yourself relaxed, you might find a couple of sessions with a psychologist useful. Hope this helps although I may be way off beam here.
 
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