As well as chairing committee and public meetings, the chairs of national committees, regions and branches inevitably have to represent IWA at various events and will be looked towards for leadership by members of their part of the organisation. This may be a daunting prospect for many people but this does not mean they could not be a very good leader.  Indeed, anyone who has no doubts about their leadership abilities is probably the wrong choice as a chair in IWA.

If you have some management experience it may stand you in good stead so long as you remember the one huge difference with a voluntary organisation –  hire or fire is more difficult and no one has to do the work you want them to. On the other hand “a volunteer is worth ten pressed men”.

Instead of pondering your leadership abilities, it is probably better to establish what needs to be done and get on and do it.

This may seem easier said than done, but don’t forget you have a committee to help you. A leader is not required to have all the ideas or all the knowledge but does need to be able to work with other people.

Public Speaking

Some people are already confident public speakers, but most of us feel a little (or a lot) nervous about public speaking, and this is no bad thing – most leading actors are nervous before a performance – it just means we want to do well.

Being prepared is half the battle. Know what you want to say, who your audience are and their likely area of interest. Some people like to have full notes of what they are going to say others prefer just some brief headings to keep the talk on track. In either case, it is important that the talk sounds interesting and not like someone reading a shopping list. Enthusiasm is the key to an interesting speech.  The personalities of the speakers may vary greatly but an enthusiastic and knowledgeable speaker can make any subject interesting.

Structuring your talk is important. The speech is made up of three parts: the introduction, the body and the summary (or ‘tell them what you are going to tell them’, ‘tell them’ and ‘tell them what you have told them’). The body of the speech must also have a structure that is:

• Logical to the listener;
• Built on what went before;
• Relevant to the purpose of the talk.

Using Visual Aids – ‘one picture is worth more than ten thousand words’, according to the ancient Chinese proverb, and it is still true today. What we see and hear together is more memorable than what we just hear. There are a wide variety of visual aid techniques available including PowerPoint presentations, projectors, flip charts, white boards, models, film and video. Which (if any) you choose to use will depend on:

• Your subject matter;
• The equipment that can be made available;
• The venue to be used;
• The expectations of your audience.

Delivering the speech is the culmination of all your preparation but it is no good if the audience cannot hear you. When speaking without a microphone to an audience for the first time most speakers tend to be inaudible to those at the back. To get over this problem it is necessary to project the voice (rather than shouting) by speaking at a slightly higher pitch, a female voice has an advantage here, and by directing your voice to the people in the back row rather than those at the front.

Avoiding Irritations to the audience that could distract form your message is also important. We all have some mannerisms that are part of our normal speech and personality and these are all fine unless the audience find them distracting. Avoid:

• Repeated meaningless words and phrases such as ‘err’, ‘you know’, ‘do you see’;
• Fiddling with notes, glasses, clothing, etc;
• Moving about pointlessly;
• Tapping your fingers or feet.