設想一下,現在你正站在臺上,面對著臺下的幾十甚至幾百個觀眾。你迫切想讓自己看上去不那么緊張。屋里的所有人都有一大堆事要做,每個人腦子里都想著事情,大家要么在打電話,要么在發短信。面對這種情況,你怎樣才能抓住甚至保持大家的注意力? 尼爾·戈登是一名行政溝通教練,他在溝通方面有豐富的經驗。他表示:“觀眾在15秒鐘之內,就會對你形成第一印象。”所以說,從你開口時起的短短15秒鐘,就將決定你的演講的成敗。戈登接著解釋道:“人們之所以愿意聽你講話,之所以會產生投入感,是因為對接下來的事情感到好奇。這種懸念感會在一開始時達到頂峰。這是一個強大的工具,不要浪費它。” 可惜的是,在演講、開會或參加其他聚會的時候,我們大多數人都忽視了這一點。有時候,演講者本身就小有名氣,可能根本不需要介紹,但是按照慣例,主持人通常還是會禮貌地介紹一番。如果演講者恰好是你,“你有可能犯的最大的錯誤,就是在接下來的15秒甚至更長的時間里,感謝介紹你的人,感謝觀眾,感謝他們花時間聽你演講,或者說你很高興來到這里。” 當然,很多人之所以這樣做,是想給人留下友好和謙虛的印象。不過在戈登看來,問題在于,這種話大家已經聽得耳朵都起繭了。他指出:“這是一個意料之中的開場白,這時你的聽眾就會在腦海中自動‘關掉’你的聲音,然后查看一下電子郵件。你白白浪費了那種懸念感。” 那么,你應該如何充分利用這至關重要的15秒呢?戈登建議道,你只需要對介紹你的人微微一笑,簡單點個頭,深呼吸一下,然后“馬上進入演講中最吸引人的部分”。如果你不確定哪一部分最吸引人,你就要站在觀眾的角度來考慮。他表示:“人們會根據自身利益行事,如果你談的是他們最關心的問題,他們就最有可能仔細傾聽,記住你和你所說的話。所以你的演講就要從這里開始,之后,你可以加入自己的視角。” 戈登的很多客戶聽了他的建議后,演講的出場費翻了一番。戈登對經驗還不豐富的演講者也有很多建議。首先,在計劃說什么的時候,要現實地考慮你的演講應該包括哪些內容,又應該去掉哪些內容。他指出:“人們通常認為,演講的信息量越多越好。但事實上,大家每天都要面對大量信息,所以注意力都很有限。因此,如果你想讓大家繼續聽下去,就不能在一個45分鐘的演講中塞入七八個要點。” 他表示:“你應該將最重要的觀點提煉成一個大的想法,我稱之為‘銀色子彈’。要將你的主要觀點用一個有力的句子表達出來。”戈登對TED的演講者做了仔細分析,發現在前50個最受歡迎的演講者中,有46個都是這樣做的。同時這也是職場中最常用到的TED演講策略。不過戈登也承認:“一開始的時候,可能沒有你想的那么容易。”如果不行的話,就要再想。理想狀況下,“銀色子彈”應該是“一句簡單深刻的話,但能夠讓觀眾想到跟以前不一樣的東西”。他還表示,《孫子兵法》上隨處可見這種精辟的小短句,比如“兵者,詭道也”。 如果你的演講帶有教學性質,比如你在教你的團隊如何利用新軟件提高效率,你可以直截了當地介紹它的工作原理、使用方法,以及出現問題該怎么辦。“更有效的方法是,直接說這個軟件旨在解決什么問題,以前的辦法為什么不管用,特別是這個新軟件怎樣能夠讓大家變得輕松一些。只要你告訴了大家,他們為什么要學習這個東西,他們就更容易接受,而且更有可能記住它。” 如果不論什么場合,你只要一想到要當眾演講,就感到精神高度緊張,那也不要緊,并非只有你一個人有這毛病。戈登表示,他的大多數客戶,甚至是一些經驗豐富的演說家,都有焦慮的毛病。“有些人看到托尼·羅賓斯這樣的名人渾身上下都散發著魅力,便對我說,他們的性格當不了一個吸引人的演說家。” 然而事實并非是這樣。戈登表示:“記住,不論你是一個多內向的人,或者一開始你有多焦慮,你的目標是幫助你的聽眾更接近他們的目標。任何性格都能夠做到這一點。”(財富中文網) 譯者:樸成奎 |
So there you are, up onstage in front of an audience of dozens or even hundreds, hoping fervently that you don’t look as nervous as you are. Everyone in the room has an endless to-do list and too much on their minds, and the ones who aren’t talking into their phones are texting. How do you grab their attention—and, even trickier, hold on to it? “An audience forms its impression of you in just fifteen seconds,” says seasoned executive communications coach Neil Gordon. That quarter of a minute, as soon as you open your mouth, can make or break your whole presentation. “What keeps people listening and engaged is curiosity about what’s coming next, and that suspense is at its peak right at the start,” Gordon explains. “It can be a powerful tool. Don’t waste it.” Unfortunately, most of us do. Take, for instance, a typical speech at a conference or other gathering. The speaker is an illustrious person and, although he or she may need no introduction (as the popular cliche goes), he or she usually gets one anyway. If the speaker happens to be you, “the biggest mistake you can make is to spend the next fifteen seconds, or even longer, thanking the person who introduced you, and the audience for their time, and saying how glad you are to be there,” Gordon says. People do that, of course, because they want to come across as courteous and friendly. The problem, by Gordon’s lights, is that everyone’s heard it before —possibly many, many times. “It’s such a predictable start that your audience will just tune you out and go back to checking their email,” he points out. “You’ve squandered the suspense.” Eek. So how do you make the most of those crucial fifteen seconds? Smile and nod briefly at the person who introduced you, take a beat and a deep breath, and “launch right into the most compelling part of your talk,” Gordon advises. If you’re not sure which part that is, he adds, think of it from the audience’s point of view. “People operate on self-interest, and they’re most likely to listen closely, and remember you and what you said, if you address what concerns them most,” he notes. “So start there. You can add your own perspective later.” Gordon, many of whose clients have doubled their speaking fees by following his advice, has a few more tips for inexperienced speech-makers. First, when planning what you’re going to say, be realistic about what to include and what to leave out. “People often think, the more data they cram into a speech, the better,” notes Gordon. “But everyone has so much information thrown at them every day already, and attention spans are so strained, that you really can’t cram seven or eight big points into a 45-minute speech if you want people to keep listening.” Instead, he says, “distill your most important point down to one big idea. I call it the silver bullet. Convey your main idea in one powerful sentence.” Gordon did a detailed analysis of TED speakers’ presentations and found that 46 out of the 50 most popular (that is, most replayed on YouTube) do this. It is one of the TED speaker strategies most followed in workplaces, too. “The hard part sometimes is identifying that one idea,” he acknowledges. “It may not be what you think it is, at first.” If not, keep thinking. Ideally, the silver bullet is “a single insight that will make your audience think differently than before,” Gordon says, adding that The Art of War by Sun Tzu is packed with pithy one-sentence silver bullets, like “All war is deception.” Let’s say your presentation is instructional: you’re teaching your team how to use, for instance, new software designed to boost efficiency. You could, of course, launch right into how it works, how to use it, and what to do if something goes haywire. A more effective approach: “Begin by talking about the problem the software is intended to solve, why the old way wasn’t working, and especially how this software is going to make everyone’s day a little better,” Gordon recommends. “Once you’ve told people why they need to learn something, they’re much more receptive to it, and far more likely to remember it.” If the idea of talking to a big group, no matter the context, gives you a serious case of the heebie-jeebies, you’re not alone. Gordon says most of his clients —even relatively experienced speakers— suffer some anxiety. “They see celebrities like Tony Robbins who are dripping with charisma, and tell me that they themselves just haven’t got the ‘right personality’ to be a compelling speaker,” Gordon says. Not so, he adds. “Keep in mind that, no matter how introverted you are, or how anxious you are at first, your goal is to help your audience get a little closer to achieving their goals. Any personality can do it.” Good to know. |