Welcome to Reach the Top Connects. If you’ve read Malcom Gladwell's book, The Tipping Point, you’ll remember there are three kinds of people, mavens, connectors and salesmen. I am one who connects—people to other people, books, resources, places, ideas. Thus the title of this eZine, Each month I will focus on a different topic in the areas of coaching and leadership development. For each topic, I will connect you with an expert in that field, provide you with a list of resources for further study, and a couple of “nuggets of learning”. All resources will be identified. Use them. Learn from them as I and my current and former coaching clients have.

I also welcome your comments and experiences so that I may connect you with others in the community. Click HERE to share your thoughts.

About Donna Billings and Reach the Top. I’ve come to entrepreneurship and full-time coaching and leadership development after many years of trekking through both the academic and corporate worlds. I now focus all my coaching energies on women, helping them to be more powerful on their own life journeys. I work in partnership with for-profit and non-profit organizations, educational institutions and individuals in life/career transitions. Pittsburgh based and globally established, I can help you develop your leadership talents, increase productivity and performance, enhance team-building skills, or help you through major life/career transitions. All services are customized to meet your individual or company needs.

Why name my coaching practice Reach the Top? We all climb many mountains over the course of our lives—some physical; some mental; some emotional; some successful; some not so successful. Through coaching and leadership development, I act as the trail guide to help you reach new heights of power as you traverse whatever life transition you are now experiencing. Together, we will design an alliance and start where you are right now.

Which mountain are you climbing? Contact me if...:

• You are in a new leadership role, feeling overwhelmed—AND yet determined to succeed to the top of the mountain?
• You are trekking over major life transitions and looking for someone to guide you through to new horizons?
• You are challenged by how to manage multi-cultural or cross-functional teams?

Coaching can help you reach the top of your particular mountain. Contact me to learn how together we can forge an alliance to help you reach the top of your power.

REACH the TOP
Donna Billings, CPCC, MBE, PHR
Pittsburgh, PA

Phone:
724-935-1397

Email: donna@reachthetop.net

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Chopping Down the Fear of Public Speaking

Does your pulse rate skyrocket when you introduce yourself to a group, address a staff meeting or give a presentation? If so, you are not alone. Studies have shown that most people rank the fear of public speaking higher than the fear of death! Even experienced speakers suffer from stage fright. Steve Allen said that stage fright is a deceptive term: “It implies that you will feel nervous the moment you get up on the stage, when in fact you are nervous from the moment you get the assignment.”

I used to have a terrifying fear of public speaking.. As I drove to the meeting place, my hands kept sliding off the steering wheel because they were covered in nervous sweat, my neck ached with tension and I thought “Why am I putting myself through this! I’m never going to do this again!” These days I am not nervous about public speaking at all. Last week as I walked up to the lectern I was looking forward to it so much that I had to stop myself from skipping! Here are the steps that led me from nervous wreck to eager speaker:

1. Practical Preparation
You don’t need to know the exact words you are going to use, but you must outline your ideas. Lots of people make the mistake of underestimating the time needed to memorize a speech word for word. When professional speakers memorize every single word of their speech they often need one hour of preparation for each minute of actual speech time. If you don’t have one hour to practice each minute of your speech then rehearse from an outline instead of memorizing exact words. You will be far less nervous.

2. Improve your skills
Confidence develops with skill. Take the time to improve your speaking skills. When you have an important speech to give, find a presentation coach who will listen to it and give you feedback.

3. Motivation
Know the message of your speech and result you want to get. When you have a clear picture in your mind of how your speech will benefit people, it is much easier to relax. If communicating that message is important enough to you, then you will concentrate on the message instead of worrying about how you look.

4. Talk to the audience before the speech
Use the time before the meeting starts to talk to the other people in the room so that when it is your turn to talk in front of the audience, they are not all strangers.

5. Deep Breathing
Before a speech, relax your shoulders, make sure you are sitting straight, and then take deep breaths for relaxation.

6. Don’t rehearse at the last minute
Don’t run your speech through your head in the moments before you are due to speak. It’s too late to go over it then and if you do, you are telling your subconscious that you are not quite ready. That is bound to create panic.

7. Stand Tall
The position of your body can affect the way you feel. Try straightening your back and you will see that it immediately makes you feel more alert and purposeful. When you are nervous you tend to stand with your shoulders hunched and your back slouched. It is much harder to be nervous if you are standing straight! Before you walk up to the lectern, straighten your back.

8. Eye Contact
In normal conversation, there is always lots of eye contact and if you avoid looking the audience in the eyes then you won’t feel as if you are communicating with them. When you are speaking in front of a group and you feel nervous, the tendency is to avoid real eye contact. Ironically, when you least feel like making eye contact, this is the most important time to do so! Before you start your speech, look at the audience directly so that you deal with the fear of eye contact up front.

For more information contact Sally Chopping, Presentation coach at
Email: sally@hitresults.com
www.HitResults.com
Phone: (412) 478-6785

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>From Ron Hoff’s book “I Can See you Naked”... (My personal favorite)
Fill your head with knowledge before you prepare your presentation You should have at least seven times as much useful information as you will actually use. An ill-prepared presenter sends a dramatic message to his or her audience: “I don’t think you’re very important. If you were, I’d be better prepared.” Audiences are sensitive. They pick up signals and react to them personally.

Questioning is an expression of genuine interest in your presentation. There are no hostile questions, only defensive answers. Welcome every question. Consider it a compliment—and be thankful.

Never give a “generic presentation.” Localize it. Personalize it. Relate it to the news of the day.

Watch for “the barometer” in the audience. There’s usually one person who reacts more quickly and demonstrably than the others. Let that person help you anticipate the overall reactions.

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Hoff, Ron, “I Can See You Naked”, A Fearless Guide to Making Great Presentations, Andrews & McMeel, Kansas City, 1988 ISBN 0-8362-7946-8 (paperback)

Jacobi, Jeffrey, How to Say it with your Voice, Prentice Hall Press, 1996 ISBN 0-13-103664-5 (paperback w/ cassette)

Simmons, Sylvia, How to be the Life of the Podium, Openers, Closers & Everything in Between to Keep them Listening, Amacom, 1991 ISBN 0-8144-7827-1 (paperback)

Weissman, Jerry, Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Winning Presentations, Que Publishing, 2004 ISBN 0-79703121-5

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