Why Should Anyone Listen? Day Three NCCWSL
Three of the biggest mistakes women speakers make include; apologizing, not including quality humor, and not taking up space on stage - according to Nancy Denney. Denney is a professional speaker and speech coach who has opened for celebrities like Dr.Phil, owns a publishing company, and visited 900 college campuses. This "Be Better: Enhamced Speaking Skills for Women" workshop was a component that made this conference worth while. Tips you can apply to become a more competent and effective speaker include...
* Practice, practice practice - practice longer than it took to formulate your speech.
* Make meaningful controlled gestures while speaking.
* Memorize your speech but don't sound robotic during delivery.
* Think on the fly during your speech to keep your audience engaged and connected.
* Have someone introduce you to establish credibility.
* Continue to establish your credibility throughout the speech.
* Remember that you are worth listening too, you are the expert and there is a reason you are up there speaking and no one else.
News show host Melissa Harris-Perry expressed the value of women contributions in college, community and congress. Harris-Perry is an author, Ph.D., and professor. She shared the need to teach the history of underrepresented individuals and recognizing them in public spaces. After this keynote I am much more interested in learning and respecting history than when I bumbled through K-12 history classes. Her "call to action" for us included holding ourselves and others accountable to vote in elections, listen to stories of members in our communities and be mindful of the where we get our news from. Even as a show host Harris-Perry advises we not get news from major networks rather with a grain of salt from public radio and podcasts.
Reflections of the day were "Does it matter what women know?", "Why should anyone listen to you?" and "What if we had taken her seriously?". Ways we can be heard include being confident in your competence of a subject, walk your talk and back up your views with fact. Women as a whole need to improve on being effective communicators and the whole country can improve on being better listeners.
Following a keynote, two workshops, a career fair, a graduate school fair, and lunch we were bused out to D.C. to sight see. My group power walked around hitting all the major monuments!
