I'm mediocre a giving presentations, but I have to work with someone who's socially inept. I can't even understand him when he's speaking to me one-on-one in normal conversation because of a strong lack of confidence and jargoning. It feels impossible to bring him up to speed. Today I had to give a practice speech among my co-workers, and it was obvious to everyone that I was doing everything. Sometimes my partner gets nervous and says things that contradict me, he didn't mean it, he was just nervous and blurted it out to make noise as if he's giving a useful speech. What would you do? Would you tell you're manager that it's not working? Solutions?
2007-07-20 15:55:29 · 5 answers · asked by Skullset 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Etiquette
So you dont want to be seen as doing a worse job because you are next to someone who you think is worse? How about help him. Suggest practice together. Its work, you have to work with these people , some cannot help being shy at talking to others. You have pretty big ego.
2007-07-20 16:28:41 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm not sure what the setting of the speech is -- is this a professional conference? A trade show? An office meeting? The importance of the speech will surely affect how much effort you should put into this. As I see it, there are basically three ways to go.
1. Talk to the manager and be asked to be reassigned to another speech partner. Instead of being negative about your partner's talents (which will only make you look bad) you can say something like, "I'm not sure if our teamwork is working out."
2. Work with your partner and write and practice a speech together that you can both feel comfortable about delivering. You could even ask your partner if he'd be willing to practice the speech in front of coworkers/colleagues to get their feedback, and then work on incorporating the feedback together. Again, it's not best to say to your partner, "I'm going to fix you because you are such a terrible speaker," but instead focus your comments on positive encouragement and making the speech the best it can be.
3. Continue as you are doing, doing the best job you can. It seems that people will think less of you because of your partner's performance. People are pretty smart and they can most likely see that you and your coworker have different speaking styles. A gracious, confident attitude can go a LONG way. Being able to work with people who do things differently from you is an essential skill in basically any workplace.
2007-07-21 00:12:23 · answer #2 · answered by drshorty 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would suggest that you "play off of each other" in your speech. Like Sonny and Cher did. Sonny was insecure at first, so he would say something and Cher would give the punchline, and take the laughs. When working with someone who is insecure, you fit them into the mix- for example, for your work:
If you are giving a speech that includes statistics and numbers, you give the information, and have the co-worker give the figures. You say "and we have a great savings in this department. Phil, how much did we save?" Then Phil only has to say "We saved a total of 15% in that department!" Then you can move on to "So you see, if we continue with this trend, we can save ven more!"
Basically you are giving them their moment, with you taking the lead, allowing them to give important information, but in a manner that does not put them in the spotlight enough to make them uncomfortable or insecure. You play off of each other, communicating. It will take practice though, to ensure the timing is on target.
By going to the manager with the issue, you are basically telling the manager that you can't handle anything that they throw your way, or that you can not always work with people. You want to prove that you can take those lemons and make lemonade with it and make it into something useful.
I am sure you will do just fine :-)
2007-07-21 04:55:48 · answer #3 · answered by AnAvidViewer 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Think that your manager will see for himself. Just do your best. You might want to suggest that your partner takes an effective speaking course like the one I have just completed. It is the Christopher Leadership and that is put on through the Catholic church (christopherleadership.org I think) but it is not Catholic and very very good. He just needs to learn the steps.
2007-07-20 23:01:27 · answer #4 · answered by curiouscanadian 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ok maybe you want to re word your question, cuz im definately not the only one thinking your question is goin somewhere else
2007-07-20 23:00:05 · answer #5 · answered by greenman 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋