THE POWER OF PROFESSIONAL PRESENCE, Spontaneous Speaking: Wisdom From Final Day At UNC

Professional presence is an elusive, “you’ll know it when you see it” quality. It’s a blend of personal and interpersonal skills that send all the right signals: the impression you make, how you make others feel, and how effectively you communicate both verbally and non-verbally. It enables respected professionals to connect with others in a meaningful and authentic way by projecting confidence, integrity, and perseverance.

In the final 1/3 of the "Power of Professional Presence" program at UNC we discovered how effective leaders use presence to communicate, influence, and inspire specifically in spontaneous situations. We learned from Clinical Assistant Professor Greg Hohn on theater and impromptu techniques and mindsets that can translate over to our professional work life. Here is top wisdom points shared on how to make a difference by presenting yourself confidently to others in spontaneous and impromptu speaking moments:

• Improv is the art of the moment and becoming an expert at thinking on the fly. To be good at spontaneous speaking it starts with having great "situational awareness". Be aware of the people around you, the setting, read the vibe and room, and then communicate best that makes it all about the people around you.
• While improv and spontaneous speaking is based upon spontaneity, it's very important to still be prepared with key talking points, messages, and themes to pull from.
• Remember the quote, "Plans are useless, but planning is essential". You must always be prepared and practiced for your main communication points to have a well to draw from, but use the spontaneous moments as opportunity to improv to make the message best for the time, place, and people in that moment.
• When in doubt speak from the head with a story and/or speak from the heart powered by emotion that people can relate to.
• In a spontaneous speaking moment if anxiety arises remember to "Feel the fear, but do it anyway". Use the rational mind to calm your emotional mind. Ask yourself what is the worst thing that can happen? What really are the stakes here rationally? Most things are not life and death and that big of a deal. So rationalize it and then calm your emotional mind to just go ahead and deliver your message the best you can. Just bring your A game! Send it!
• Good improv always focuses on your audience and/or person communicating with. Get out of your head and escape your own ego to focus more on the other person. Be connected with the person and audience! Your results of your message will be superior when connecting with your audience and speaking with their hearts and minds as your first priority with message.
• Deliver your message around what that person or audience cares about. Make it all about them. Stick to benefits. What the message means to them. Then keep it simple. Simplify to break down your points to deliver a crisp easy to understand message.
• Understand the difference between perception and projection. "See what you see, not what you think you see". Don't let your assumptions project falsely on what you see in reality. Just see what you see neutrally and perceive all more positively and with an open minded.
• Body balance= Mind balance. If your body is straight, shoulders back, and head up with nice deep breathing then your mind and emotional state will reflect that good body balance posture. So if mind is frazzled focus on good body balance to help bring more mind balance.
• If you get nervous or anxious before a big speaking moment remember two steps. First, accept you are nervous. It's ok. Acknowledge it, but then set it aside. Speak positive to yourself that you will deal with that later. Step two is implement techniques that physically reduce tension like your good straight body balanced posture and deep slow breathing techniques.
• Remember this quote, "A calm body is a good home for a calm mind". Stand up straight relaxed with shoulders back and head up with a smile. Then breath slowly with depth. This makes your body relaxed to evoke a relaxed mind.
• Give people something to trust. The best way for people to trust you in spontaneous moments is to see authenticity and vulnerability in you. To see you genuinely caring to connect with others.
• Remember communicating is all about connecting. And we connect through transparency, honesty, vulnerability, and authenticity. Be the real you and communicate to others in that fashion. The more authentic and vulnerable you are, the more trustworthy and like-able you become.
• It's important to share emotions to convey your message. Know what you want your audience to feel and take away, then communicate from the heart to help evoke that emotion and connect with that message.
• Finally, "Care and Be Aware". Care about the moment, the present, and the people there and the message you want to impart with goodwill. Then be aware of setting, the people, the vibe, and ensure communication matches that setting in the best way possible to connect with all. If you care more about the people you are communicating with then you and care more about the message being helpful to others versus you telling it, and are aware your audience and setting, a great message will be delivered.

Overall a great UNC executive program on communications. Thank you Greg for the wonderful teachings at this class! Hope this helps support your aims to communicate better!