Improve Your Impromptu Speaking

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 September 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We all know that leaders need to captivate audiences and effectively convey their ideas. But not every speaking opportunity can be prepared and practiced. That's why it's so important to learn the skill of speaking off-the-cuff, and Matt Abrahams, lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and host of the podcast Think Fast, Talk Smart, has advice to help. He explains how to stay calm in these situations, craft a compelling message, and ensure you've made a good impression. Abrahams is author of the book Think Faster, Talk Smarter: How to Speak Successfully When You’re Put on the Spot as well as the HBR article “How to Shine When You’re Put on the Spot.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	So you got the job. Now what? Join me, Eleni Mata, on HBR's new original podcast, New
0:08.1	Here, the Young Professionals Guide to Work, and how to make it work for you. Listen for
0:13.8	free wherever you get your podcasts. Just search New Here. See you there!
0:30.0	Welcome to the HBR idea cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Allison Beard.
0:43.1	We all know the feeling of being asked to speak, or feeling like we should speak, when we aren't
0:54.0	really expecting to. The boss suddenly wants your opinion in a big meeting, a colleague
0:58.8	asked you to kick off a client dinner with a toast. You're giving a prepared speech at
1:02.7	a conference, but then you have to take audience questions after. Some people have no problem
1:07.3	addressing a crowd off the cuff. For most of us though, it's nerve-wracking and incredibly
1:12.8	hard to get right. There's so much advice out there on how to give great presentations,
1:17.8	but not nearly as much on how to talk well when we're put on the spot. Enter Matt Abrahams.
1:23.6	He's a lecturer at Stanford University in the host of the Think Fast Talk Smart Podcast.
1:28.6	He has a new book called Think Faster, Talk Smarter, and an HBR article titled How to
1:33.4	Shine When You're Put on the Spot. Hi Matt. Hey Allison, it's great to be with you.
1:48.6	To start, can you give us a sense of just how important the ability to speak spontaneously
1:53.7	is for leaders and managers? As I said, I think we focus a lot on public speaking and presentation
2:00.0	skills and practice those, but we don't spend as much time on impromptu comments.
2:06.4	Absolutely. Spontaneous speaking is prevalent everywhere in our personal and professional
2:12.2	lives. As you said, most of us, if we spend any time working on our communication, it's
2:17.0	in a plan sense when we're writing our agendas for our meetings or we're thinking about
2:21.6	our slides and our structure for our presentations. But the reality is, we are asked all the time
2:27.4	to speak on the spot, answering questions, giving feedback, making small talk. We really
	...

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