How To Give a Period of Instruction by Max Garcia

I was recently sitting in a class given by a co worker and realized that there are many business speakers that simply do not know how to teach a class. What was puzzling was that the business speaker was teaching such a basic class but was horrible at it. What was even more shocking was the fact that he had been with the company for several years. People looked up to him and asked for his expertise on a daily basis. Yet his presence in front of only a few peers was embarrassing. At that moment I realized even many of the most seasoned business speakers just get up and start talking with no format or formalities what so ever. With out first gaining rapport with the crowd even the best inspirational speakers would not be effective.

One thing I have learned from inspirational speakers and as a Marine is that you have to warm up to your crowd in a professional manner. If you are a business speaker and your intro is simply a greeting and then you roll right in to your material you will lose people. You have to give time for people to stop day dreaming and start paying attention to your class. In the Marine Corps we use a format that I will teach you over these next few posts. Anyone can apply this great system. It will work for all you inspirational speakers as well. I even hold regular classes with the leadership in my company just to ensure they use this format because it screams professionalism.

These days companies want business speakers who can communicate effectively. The days of a business speaker hiding behind a podium sounding like a mouse are over in this economy. See you on the next post!