Your voice is a powerful tool that you can practise to help you have more confidence in yourself. Today we talk about a situation when you must prepare for a speech in a very short time.
How will you react when you suddenly are required to present a speech of 15 minutes in length, while you only have 10 minutes to prepare?
According to conventional thinking, the longer a talk is, the more difficult it has to prepare. But not really. In fact, the difficulty of the speech does not depend on the length, but it depends on the subject you are about to present.
My own story of having to prepare a speech in a period of short time
In an interview that I once participated in at a multinational corporation, which somewhat forced me to present a brief lecture on an unpredictable theme. More surprise was that I did not know beforehand of this presentation.
So when the interviewer asked me to present a brief on the theme topic that was not of my choice, I completely surprised. And I only had 10 minutes to prepare.
I’m not going to talk about how I managed in that situation. But I’ll tell you why employers often give a short form of such tests. Even if you apply for a sales position, usually you will be asked on the spot how to sell a certain product that the interviewer offer. It could be anything on the table.
Although these are short tests, they say a lot about you. Because they make you feel surprised and requires fast processing, they will show your ability to solve problems and your experience.
Because you do not have much time to prepare in advance, the employer will know your true experiences are at what level. Your weaknesses and your strengths will be clearly expressed, they are things that if you have a longer time to prepare, the employer may not find out.
Return to my story above when I had to present an unprepared topic in a short time. The secret to success is to make your idea really simple and easy to understand. The message should be short and have to achieve the objectives of the presentation.
The most difficult point in a presentation with the is that you do not know where to get ideas from. You can not search google to find ideas, or go to a bookstore to find ideas. You can not do that. You only have 10 minutes only.
Three steps to prepare a talk in a short time
So the secret is that first of all, you need to divide your layout into three parts, including opening, body, and conclusion.
- At the opening, you show reasons why you talk about a topic. Do not say you present this topic because the interviewer gives it to you. Look for any reason for any topic you are presenting. Why do you say about this subject? Why is the topic important to you? Think up fast two or three reasons.
- Next, give some solutions, do not need too much of these. But that was not enough to convince your audience. So far, the technique is to add stories from your own experience, or anyone that you know.Even in cases when you have to prepare a speech in a place without internet then your best bet is to tell a story of yourself. Any story that you know and has a high level of authenticity.There are two things about telling a story:
- When telling a story, you will erase the distance between you and your audience. At the same time, you relieve the psychological pressure to yourself when you do not know what to say. Moreover, you do not need to memorize, no need to try to remember as it is in yours.
- Let’s make the most of your life experience. Whether you think it’s not fun, but others still want to hear because it’s old to you but new to them. Your main story is the stuff stored in the listener’s memory the longest.
- Finally, to the end of all, you can summarize the main ideas that you just said and ask some suggestive questions to the audience, such as “How do you deal with the kind of problem that I just told you?”, “What is your experience?”, “What are other aspects that you want to bring to the table?”. Now you will turn your attention toward the listener. You will take the pressure off the talks than if people just focus only on you.
In summary, if you fall into the situation to present a brief lecture suddenly, all you need to do is to immediately find one or more reasons for the topic you are presenting. Then give some solutions to the problem together with stories from your own experience. Finally, you summarize the main ideas and provide discussion questions for the audience to finish your presentation.
Next time, when you are asked to give a speech without preparation time, remember these tips in mind to act fast and show your talent.