.png){kind=icon}
Chapter Overview
Effective oral communication skills are essential to success in the workplace. This chapter focuses on four activities commonly encountered in professional environments: oral presentations, meetings, telephone conversations, and interactions with the media. You’ll gain insight into planning and preparing presentations, profiling your audience, and delivering speeches that range from impromptu to formal. You’ll also learn useful techniques for developing platform-ready posture and gestures, controlling and projecting your voice, and reducing performance anxiety. Finally, you’ll find strategies for designing and using visual aids, making valuable contributions in meetings, and handling questions from audiences and the media.
Learning Objectives
In this chapter, you will learn to do the following:
- Prepare for presentations and briefings by analyzing the occasion and profiling your audience.
- Gather material, select content, and strategically structure your presentation.
- Incorporate visual and multimedia aids, including flip charts, handouts, and PowerPoint or Prezi slides.
- Identify four methods of delivery for a presentation.
- Master effective public-speaking skills and apply strategies to increase confidence.
- Handle questions and conduct follow-up.
- Organize, manage, and participate in meetings effectively.
- Communicate by telephone productively.
- Deal with the media and get your message across.