It’s happening again… You are passing by the aquarium when one of the fishes swims quickly toward the window. You could bet it; it actually swims straight to you, its body and fins swinging in rhythm with an unheard song; its mouth opening, closing, bubbles of expression dancing in your eyes. You can’t help, you pause and get closer, and so does the fish, a mirror of your thoughts. A few minutes later you are still there… eyes trapped in the fluidity of the swim, mind bubbling with ideas, ears looking for notes you cannot hear… listening, watching, wondering, seduced by just the right amount of movement, inspired, hypnotized.
Welcome to our blog series “Speak like a Fish”, an exploration trip of 21 days in the realm of public speaking. 21 days, for a 3 weeks program, 21 days for 21 posts.
Week ONE – tasting the water with some foundations
- 1 – Speak like a Fish
- 2 – Fluidity, humour and connection with the audience
- 3 – Structure, idea and connection with the audience
- 4 – Casual, in the moment, and passionate about the idea
- 5 – Public speaking, a step into self-leadership
- 6 – Exercise: finding inspiration
- 7 – Exercise: unravelling the mystery of communication
Week TWO – going a bit upstream, exploring
- 8 – What type of speakers are you?
- 9 – What about the audience?
- 10 – Creating curiosity
- 11 – Contrast, humour and storytelling
- 12 – When the content loses the thread
- 13 – Exercise: exploring body language
- 14 – Exercise: exploring voice language
Week THREE – still going upstream to new lands
- 15 – The art of “going personal”
- 16 – Courageous, spontaneous and surprising
- 17 – 10 tips for speakers and 1 more
- 18 – Using our 10 tips to prepare for meeting
- 19 – Using our 10 tips to prepare for public interactions
- 20 – Exercise: the unexpected
- 21 – Exercise: let’s wrap it up
Did you know that relaxation is a fundamental element to learning? Relaxation is also an element of self-leadership, knowing when to use it to recharge the level of energy. Relaxation is also a quality of great speakers, they appear relaxed and a relaxed speaker give permissions to the audience to be relaxed, and therefore to be more open to learning.
1 – Exercise ONE – Seat a bit more comfortably, maybe a bit more in the sofa, maybe another cup of coffee or tea, maybe a music you really like, and think for a moment about speaking in front of public. What comes up in your head? Note everything, whatever you see, hear, smell, taste, feel. Note any images, whatever comes up in your head, a black spot, a sailboat, a fish on a hill. And identify up to three elements you really like, note these three elements on a piece of paper –like a post-it- and leave the paper somewhere where you can read/see it on a daily basis.
2 – Exercise TWO – Self-leadership is a fascinating word. Self-leadership is having a developed sense of who we are, what we can do, where we are going coupled with the ability to influence our communication, emotions and behaviors on the way to getting there (Inspired from Bryant, Kazan 2012). Let’s take ownership of that word by making a conscious word with it. Write SELF-LEADERSHIP like an acronym, each letter underneath the other, and for each letter, identify a word in order to make a full sentence. If you want to review how a conscious word is made, look for a famous one – FAIL [First Attempt In Learning] – going around on the internet at the moment, you will get the idea.
Public speaking is a tool, and to develop this tool, we actually develop quality of self-leadership such as –emotional intelligence (that is reading, acknowledging, learning from emotions and managing them) –self-confidence –self-esteem –self-drive –Mindset management (and especially the development of a growth mindset, as well a notion of brain health) –flexibility and adaptability (with that notion of curiosity in other model of the worlds) –self-awareness.
What we are really doing by developing self-leadership is becoming our best partner.
You like our blog series, Speak like a Fish, exploring public speaking in 21 days. Join us then early 2017 and discover our eBook Speak like a Fish, 30 days to crack the aquarium. Contact us to pre-order your ebook or drop us a few lines on LinkedIn.
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