Self-presentation is, first of all, the ability to influence an audience through impressions. An effective speech can not only influence the audience, but also allows the speaker to get what he needs. The most popular example is getting a job. If self-presentation is correct, the applicant can be confident in successful career advancement. The impression of you depends on the very first interview, so it is important to take self-presentation seriously. At the same time, there are several ways to make a self-presentation. Let's look at them.
Making a self-presentation
Self-presentation can be divided into several parts. The first is the introduction. The second is the main part. The third is the final part. The most important part is the first part, as it allows you to interest the listeners. The introduction should be short, informative, and outline the main points of your speech. In your introduction, you will establish rapport with your interlocutors, set a time frame, and explain to them why this information is important.
Next, consider an example of a brief self-presentation at an interview:
- A story about yourself.
- Your own description from the 3rd person (how others see you).
- Previous place of work.
- Reasons why you left your last job.
- Description of superiors from previous work.
- Information about a new place of work that you have heard somewhere.
- Your advantages over other applicants for this job.
- Your strengths and weaknesses.
- Responsibilities you like and don't like to do.
- Your purpose in life.
- Your description in a few years.
- Your hobby.
- Your preferences regarding salary size.
The main goal of self-presentation is to demonstrate your strengths and turn your weaknesses into strengths. You should also always be prepared for tricky questions from the employer.
Self-presentation in public: rules
Public self-presentation is needed if, for example, you want to get a job or introduce yourself to a new team. For successful self-presentation, the following rules should be observed:
- Preparing a text or speech in advance. Before speaking, you need to re-read it several times, but not memorize it, so that the speech seems natural. Don't forget about improvisation either. The text plan ideally consists of three parts: a bright, light introduction, the main part with your portfolio, and a conclusion.
- Record your speech on a voice recorder and listen to it. This will make it easier to identify its shortcomings in order to correct them.
- You should always be prepared for tricky questions. To do this, you need to study in advance the people who will listen to you. An example would be a teacher who gets to know the students in the first class, then notes strengths and weaknesses, identifies methods to get them interested, and then begins teaching.
- Emphasize your good manners.
- A good “life hack” for gaining the trust of your listeners is friendly gestures. It allows you to convey your message to your audience more clearly.
- One of the main rules is appearance. It is better to wear a classic suit or dress to show your authority and dominance. But sometimes it happens that a classic suit may be inappropriate, in which case you can replace the suit trousers with dark jeans.
Types of public speaking
There are 4 types of public speaking:
- Protocol and etiquette.
- Persuasive.
- Entertaining in nature.
- Informational in nature.
Since ancient times, protocol and etiquette self-presentation has been considered the basis of oratory art. Basic rules when drawing up protocol and etiquette self-presentation:
- Brevity.
- Energy.
- Emotionality.
- Inspiration.
- Awakening positive emotions in listeners.
- Dominant self-presentation
When presenting a personality, the main emphasis is on dominance. To do this, it is enough to identify yourself as an informal leader at a given moment in time. But this technique may not be suitable for all types of listeners, since among the interlocutors there may be leaders who will not perceive you as a leader. With dominant self-presentation, a very important emphasis is placed on the appearance of the speaker, his gestures, manners, speech, and ability to communicate with the public.
“Bumps” of first communication
Let's determine what the goals of self-presentation are? We will not go into details, but will highlight three main tasks when starting to communicate with any person: to be remembered, to arouse interest, to hook.
If you manage to do this, the interlocutors themselves will initiate further meetings. Of course, if during the first conversation you do not make mistakes that many people stumble on:
- Lack of eye contact. When you don't look your interlocutor in the eyes, it seems that everything you say is fiction or a lie.
- Untidy appearance. No comments.
- A painful pause. If you have nothing to say, why did you come up, start a conversation and waste time?
- Lots of terms and unclear words. In this case, you will either be considered a bore and a snob, or your interlocutor will feel like a “teapot.” Neither promotes further interaction.
- Lack of emotion in speech. This way you won’t “hook” anyone.
- “Putting” yourself or your services from the first minute. You want to run away from such an interlocutor as quickly as possible.
- An endless monologue instead of dialogue. Each of us has two ears and only one mouth. Learn to talk less about yourself, listen more actively to yourself and others, ask leading questions that will help you figure out how you can be useful to another person.
Take action!
How to behave at the first meeting to make a worthy impression?
Remember the main thing: talk not about yourself, but about your benefit; talk about what your interlocutor can gain as a result of the development of your communication.
To make it easier to talk about your own usefulness, do the following task: write a list of 20 items called “Why am I the best at what I do?” or, if we are talking about a date, “Why am I the best among girls/men?” When answering the question, try to forget about the stereotypes that have been embedded since childhood - praise yourself, be immodest, present yourself!
Advertising will be placed here
After the list of advantages is ready, proceed to the text of the self-presentation. A sample plan might look like this:
- Who am I?
- I help (who?) - describe the portrait of your target audience.
- Achieve a certain result (what?).
- Due to what (experience, technologies, methods).
- A successful final.
The finale of the self-presentation must be productive. A call to action is needed! For example: let's call next week or I invite you to my office. Be sure to agree on a specific date and time for your next communication!
Say the written text several times to yourself or someone close to you. Correct phrases that sound stilted, abstruse, or pompous. Spoken language is different from literary language, try to be as real and authentic as possible.
As an example, here is one of my self-presentations:
I, art-business coach Elena Zhavoronkova, help shy and insecure people, using special art therapy techniques, to overcome the fear of public speaking and improve their level of public speaking skills.
If you want to learn how to enjoy public speaking instead of fear, contact me - I know how to do it!
Choosing the type of self-presentation
Self-presentation is a special method of presenting yourself as a person from the positive sides, as well as attracting to your advantages. It is very important to control feelings and emotions when preparing it. In fact, every person encounters this. We adapt to a given situation, control our speech, manners, and behavior.
- So, the first type of self-presentation is adjusting to the people around you. This is a rather complicated technique, but quite feasible. For example, if you want to get to know a company, you first need to know its behavior, manners, topics of conversation, and speech from the outside. This helps to feel people more strongly and quickly find a common language. After this, there is only one thing left to do - join the company and become part of it.
- The second way of self-presentation is leadership, dominance and authority. This method is much more complicated than the first, because the speaker is required to fulfill a much larger number of rules and conditions.
RULES FOR THE SECOND METHOD
Firstly, the person who is presenting himself must look elegant. To do this, you don’t need to buy any expensive, special things; it’s enough to emphasize elegance with the help of the right clothes. For example, for a man, a fitted shirt, a slightly fluffy tie is suitable, and for a woman, a dress that emphasizes her waist, soft jewelry and a neat hairstyle.
Secondly, always think before you say something. Speech should not contain filler words and should be clear and precise. It is important to think about every question, as any stupidity can put respect in society at risk.
Thirdly, it is necessary to highlight and emphasize strengths. The mark of a leader is turning a disadvantage into an advantage. Different companies may have different strengths. For example, a girl understands cars, a man cooks deliciously, and a woman knows martial arts. You need to find your own “zest” to stand out from the crowd.
Fourthly, you need to present your personality and inner qualities. But self-presentation should be unobtrusive, as should focusing on common interests. The best action would be to immediately show your nature, and not a mask, so that in the future there will be no disappointment on the part of your interlocutor.
Tips for beginners
It is important to remember that self-presentation first of all helps to greatly develop confidence in yourself and your abilities. The public is like metal, which when heated and certain actions takes the form desired by the blacksmith. Therefore, there is no need to be afraid, because if you try, you can take control of any public.
It is also worth remembering the importance of visual images, since a person perceives most of the information through the eyes. Try to give and create more visualizations, use technology to present information more accurately.
Concept and why self-presentation is needed
Submission rules
Self-presentation is the process by which individuals present themselves in the social world. This process occurs at conscious and unconscious levels, usually motivated by the desire to please others and satisfy one's needs. Self-presentation can be used as a means of impression management.
Self-presentation is any behavior designed to create, modify, or maintain an impression of oneself in the minds of other people.
Self-presentation serves three important functions:
- helps social interaction
- allows people to achieve material and social rewards
- helps individuals create the IDs they want
Possible problems with self-presentation
Very often a person may have problems associated with psychological trauma, psychological barriers, and also with the fact that he does not know himself. All this can affect not only the conversation, but also communication with the interlocutor.
Therefore, an important rule when drawing up a self-presentation will be to take into account one’s own characteristics, that is, hiding them or, conversely, emphasizing them.
Self-presentation will give maximum results if it is exciting, informative, but not drawn out for a long time. At the same time, it is very important to listen and hear other people’s opinions, think about your words and actions, and completely maintain control over the situation.
Reasons and possibilities
We all come from the Soviet past - a system that was aimed at suppressing individuality. Education, the media and Soviet culture in general instilled in citizens a belief in a powerful and wise party that leads everyone, cannot lie or make major mistakes and, if necessary, will give the right advice. As a result, Soviet-style education did not instill in citizens sufficient independence and the desire to take responsibility for their lives. And how many times in your childhood have you heard the words: “Keep your head down!”, “Be silent when your elders speak!”, “Bragging is ugly!”, “Don’t praise yourself, let others praise!”... The reasons are clear, it’s time to move on to action.
“You never get a second chance to make a first impression!” – these words are attributed to Coco Chanel, Bernard Shaw and Alan Pease. It is not so important who said them first, what matters is their essence.
The fact that the first impression of a person is formed within 30–60 seconds of communication is noted by many scientific studies. You probably know about this.
It is also a known fact that the greatest influence on the interlocutor and the audience is exerted by the visual picture (appearance, posture and gestures of the speaker, illustrations and presentations), and not the content of the text itself, which many worry about most.
Why is this happening? The fact is that people think in images, not words. And if I say: “black wet,” then each of you will have your own image in your thoughts. One will think about wet asphalt, another – about a black sea stone, a third – about a wet black cat...
Danish publicist Thor Norretranders in his work “The Illusion of the User. Downplaying the importance of consciousness,” provides data from a neurophysiological study during which the throughput of various sense organs was measured (Fig. 2). The results showed that unconscious vision perceives information 250 thousand times faster than consciously.
What does this mean? The fact that the interlocutor will form an impression of you even before you utter the first word.
