Solution to some of the questions of managerial communication subject for MBA

1. Assignment II
Managerial Communication
1. How do appearance, body language, voice and visual aids
contribute to oral presentation?
Ans.: Oral Presentation or public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of
people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence or
entertain the listeners.
For structured and fruitful oral presentation the speaker needs to consider
different aspects to convey his message clearly to audience, among which how
appearance, body language, voice and visual aids also contribute the presentation
is explained as follows:
 Apperance and Body Language
Audiences only do not listens what you are speaking they are also looking
at you and your surrounding environment, so to improve your oral
presentation you should understand the effects of what the listeners see.
The effects include:
(a) Communication Environment: This indicates the physical things
that surrounds you as you speak i.e. the stage, lightning,
background and so on. So for better presentation you should be
aware of these factors whether they are maintained or checked
properly.
(b) Personal Apperance: This is also a part of the message your
audiences receives. Here your personal getup also affects your
presentation. So you should dress in manner appropriate for the
audience and the occasion. Be clean and well groom to add get
audience attention towards you. Dress whatever makes you
physically comfortable. Simple accessories also acceptable.

2. (c) Posture: It is the major contributing factor for your presentation,
which means the general form of the body. So proper body posture
needs to be maintained. Your body weight must be distributed in a
way consistent with the impression you want to make. You should
keep your body erect without appearing stiff and comfortable. You
should maintain a poised, alert and communicative bearing. So you
should do all this naturally and avoid artificiality.
(d) Walking: Walking also forms an impression to your audience. A
strong, sure walk conveys an impression of your confidence, but
hesitant, awkward steps convey opposite impression. Also
remember that too much walking can also detracts the listeners
from the message.
(e) Facial Expressions and Gestures: Facial expression like smiles,
frowns and eye contact also contribute to oral presentation by
making your presentation far more interactive with audience.
Here, a smile, puzzled frown can convey clear message. Eye contact
is also important, eye provides most listeners with information
about the speaker’s sincerity, goodwill and flexibility.
Gestures also contributes to the message you communicate,
though they have no definite or clear cut meanings. For example, a
clenched fist, emphasis to a strong point. But it also can be used to
show defiance, make a threat, or signify respect for a cause. Even
though gestures have vague meaning, they are strong, natural
helps to speaking.
In summary it should be clear that physical movements can help
your speaking.
 Voice
Good voice is also an important factor for inspiring and engaging
audiences. For good voice we need to check and be informed on these
areas of faults i.e. lack of pitch variation, lack of variation in speed, lack

3. of vocal emphasis and unpleasant voice quality. These areas has a
significant importance to oral presentation.
a) Lack of Pitch Variation: Monotones causes not to engage the
listeners in your presentation for long. So a wide variations in
pitch are needed during the presentation. Too high pitch and
too low pitch tone lacks appeal and authority. Deeper tone need
to be cultivated.
b) Lack of Variation in speaking speed: The main problem arises to
decide that how fast or how slow a presenter need to be present
his speech. Here a best solution to this dilemma is that simple
part of the message can be present in a fairly fast rate and the
hard parts need to emphasize at a slower rate.
c) Lack of Vocal Emphasis: Variation in manner of speaking is the
key for good speaking. This can be achieved by varying the pitch
of voice, varying the pace and varying the volume of voice. The
volume of voice also plays a big role for making good speaking.
So the volume need to be as loud as the audience can hear the
presenter. Emphasis in volume depends on the audience size,
so remember the audience size before raising or lowering the
voice. Whereas the variety in voice volume (i.e. loud to soft) is
also a key stroke for good speaking.
 Use of Visuals
The spoken word is limited to be remember than the visuals. A listener
who missed the vocal message may not have to listen it again. Because
of this limitation, speeches need the support of visuals like slides,
chart, tables, films etc. So how to present the visuals to make speaking
more effective, is discussed below:
a) Proper Use of Design: Those visuals need to be used which
helps to eliminate confusion or vagueness from presentation.
This type of visuals simplify complex information and improve
cohesiveness, as well as emphasize or add interest.

4. b) Types to Consider: There are many types of visuals types here
the strength and the weakness of these visuals need to be
understand. Use the visuals type that communicates the
information best. Non-projected Media (Poster, Flip chart,
Photos, Handouts etc.) and Projected Media type of visuals
displaying ways can also be used to present the visuals.
c) Audience Size, Cost and Ease of Preparation Consideration:
Choice of visuals need to be influenced by the audience size and
formality, the cost of preparing and using the media and the
ease and time of preparation. Like for Non-projected media the
audience size varies from small to medium, cost is quite
expensive and ease of preparation lies within short to medium.
For Projected, audience size varies from medium to large, cost
is less relatively than non-projected media and ease of
preparation is short - long.
d) Techniques in Using Visuals: Visuals include key parts of the
message, so this need to be emphasis. There are different
techniques to emphasis the visuals as per individuals. Here are
some points that a presenter need to know while presenting his
idea with the visuals:
>Make sure that the visuals is visible to everyone.
>Explain the visuals if there are some which can be
misunderstood.
>Organize the visuals as per the presentation.
>Talk to audience not to visuals, look at visuals only if they
look at it.
>Don’t be the wall between the audience and the visuals.

5. 2. Why should speaker analyze the audience in public
speaking?
Ans.: Audience Analysis is the study of relevant elements defining the makeup and
the characteristics of an audience. It involves identifying the audience and adapting
a speech to their interests, level of understanding, attitudes and beliefs.
Speaker should analyze the audience to discover the information that you can use
to build common ground between you and the members of audience. Analysis of
audience includes preliminary analysis and analysis during presentation which
helps to understand the audiences and their feedbacks. In Preliminary analysis the
audience size influences that how formal and informal the speech should be. As
well as demographic aspects also influence the speech.
Analyzing audience helps to know about the demographics of audience such as age,
gender, sexual orientation, education, religion, ethnic group. This will allow you to
anticipate and plan the message.
Analyzing audience creates the link between you and audience. You will able to
understand the world from their perspective. Through this process you can find
common ground with audience, which allows you to align your message with what
the audience already knows or believes.
Practical benefits of audience analysis, to prevent you from saying the wrong thing
such as jokes which offends, and to help you speak to your audience in a language
which they understand about things of interest to them.
3. How can you avoid ‘podium panic’ in your
Presentation?
Ans.: Podium Panic is the fear of public speaking. This can be avoid by the following
techniques:
 Preparing in advance: The common mistake is not to prepare the
presentation much earlier. As per many people they starting preparing
the night before the presentation which causes the people more
tensed and stressful which usually reflects during the presentation and

6. can be called as podium panic. So the preparation must begin much
ahead , that’s give more time to master your information and practice
over and over again, which makes the presentation more comfortable,
and makes more confident.
 Write out the presentation: Generally many people write out the
shopping list, but for the presentation they never does so. There are
mainly two benefits to writing it out, the first is that it lets you to
organize and edit the presentation until you get it into a format that
you’re happy with and the second one is that more thoughts you keep
up in your head, the more mental pressure arise to keep them
organized, which can cause anxiety. The more you write down, the less
you have to keep track of in your head.
 Practice presentation: Practicing or rehearsing out loud, helps you to
gain confidence with the repetition of the material, makes more
comfortable, less rely on notes. While rehearsing you are training your
body, hands, mouth to deliver you words more clearly and loudly.
Practicing before the presentation is the best way to avoid podium
panic.
4. What techniques might a speaker use to keep audience
interest at a high level?
Ans.: While you are presenting to a group of people, there are many things you to
do in advance to ensure that you presentation achieves the desired response. The
most important is to know and understand your audience as well as the venue.
To connect with your audience you need to follow the following techniques
discussed below:
 Tell them why they should listen: The audience need the answer and
the factor that why they should listen to you. You should tell about
those people who overcame their obstacles and how their lives were

7. changed. The main thing is that you should excite them before the
presentation which makes them engaged during whole presentation.
 Stick to your topic: Do not deviate from your topic. Talk only on the
things related to topic that the audience are interested to listen.
 Presentation must have a flow: Make the presentation so compelling
that the audience members may catch your every word. The
presentation should presents a challenge for the particular audience
which involves them to think.
 Make Change: A change is needed during the presentation to keep the
audience attention because same thing repeating over and over again
makes the environment boring. To make changes here are some tips
like changing slides to flipchart, showing a short video, make
interaction with audience, use a long silence before and after an
important statement etc.
 Tell Stories and take frequent breaks: Human being are more
interested on stories and facts so, including interesting facts and
incidents related to your presentation topic makes the presentation
more interactive and helps to grab audience attention. And frequent
breaks must be there for audiences.