I often recommend Toastmasters to my students as a means to regularly practice presentation skills and receive constructive feedback. And I have seen some excellent speakers come out of Toastmasters. The speaker who gives advice for the following article, has also honed his skills in Toastmasters International. Here Dananjaya Hettiarachchi shares what he has learned and gives advice on how we can all improve our presentation skills.
5 Presentation Tips From The World Champion Of Public Speaking
Public speaking can be terrifying for many people simply because they’re not accustomed to having a room full of people paying attention to their every word and action. There are also plenty of people brimming with self-confidence who, due to a lack of practice or preparation, give a presentation that doesn’t connect. In both cases, the result is a wasted opportunity to teach your employees, impress your boss, or win over clients.
To find out how to give an excellent presentation, we turned to one of the best public speakers in the world, Sri Lankan human resources consultant Dananjaya Hettiarachchi, recently crowned the World Champion of Public Speaking by Toastmasters International. Hettiarachchi survived seven rounds of a competition that lasted six months and included 33,000 competitors from around the world.
He and eight other finalists competed at the Toastmasters annual convention last month in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. On Aug. 23, Hettiarachchi took first place for his speech “I See Something,” which clocked in at seven minutes and 20 seconds.
(Here) he shares his best advice for novice public speakers. Read more…