NLP Metaphors for Effective Public Speaking
Public speaking is a dreaded task for most people because it puts them in a spot where they are scrutinized and vulnerable to an audience that expects the speaker to be perfect and flawless in appearance and with the presentation that needs to be given.
NLP or Neuro-Linguistic Program aims to use the three most essential factors for producing human experiences (neurology, language, and programming) to get through the mind of a person and affect a positive change on the person. Such a powerful program can help make us better public speakers at the soonest possible time. One of the tools that it uses is the metaphor.
NLP Metaphors
One of the hardest things to connect to a person is the unconscious mind. And a good way to infiltrate is the use of metaphors. They are powerful in their ability to communicate to a person's unconscious. What is does is it paces a person's experience, distract the conscious mind, and enables the mind to find resources or solutions. In the end, it connects the ideas that should be communicated to the person's learning and behavior, facilitating the rapid improvement of the person.
Kinds of Metaphors
Shallow Metaphors – The simplest among the three, the comparisons are more obvious and explicit. Their straightforward quality unfortunately makes them less successful as suggestions for change. This type is commonly used with similes too.
Deep Metaphors – These are stories that have different levels of meaning are also known as life influencers. Everyone has grown up with stories within the family, childhood and the wider culture that surrounds us.
A good example would be the fairytales that we have heard and used in our lives to get through those bad or sad moments. For some, the fairytales have heavily influenced the direction their lives have taken and such is the power of the deep metaphor.
On the other hand, it could also lead to insecurities and feelings of inefficiency. Women who have waited for their handsome prince to come would tend to think that they are not worthy of his arrival in their lives because they are not capable of looking after themselves.
These metaphors would somehow dictate how we shall our lives and powerfully become the principles by which we live. Such can be the reason for the metaphor “Life is like a jungle – it's the survival of the fittest.”
Pop culture is also a good source for these life-affecting metaphors. Many are not aware but the stereotypes that pervade or television sets, movies and the lives of those who portray our heroes are transferred to us in the form of deep metaphors. Unfortunately, for those who are not able to portray the stereotypes that were programmed into them, the either turn unexplainably aggressive or nurture a feeling of great inadequacy.
The analogy of the stories also affects how we view our experiences that we view every interaction either as an attack or a need to be the attacker. Like for some, relationships are heaven while for others it is a nightmare.
Embedded Metaphors - This type of metaphor involves several metaphors linked together. The reason for this is pretty simple. To the client, the different stories do not really make sense and this allows the trainer to reach the unconscious resources and make the corrective suggestions that improve the learning of the client or heals as well.
To summarize the three, the shallow metaphors create the comparisons and consequentially a better understanding of things, the deep metaphors with its various levels of meaning allows for the entry to the unconscious and the embedded enables the trainer to communicate the desired changes.
Metaphors for Improved Public Speaking Skills
Metaphors so to speak are considered as bridges that effectively connect the new with the familiar, creating the desired new perspective that you would like your audience to have, regardless of how apathetic or skeptical they were in the beginning of your speech.
New concepts or ideas need a frame of reference for them to be fully applied and metaphors provide that. As they pique the interest of the audience, the metaphor facilitates the acceptance of the new idea and its association to the familiar. Like instead of just saying what an astronomer technically does, you can turn it into a magnificent metaphor like “peeping Toms at the keyhole of eternity.” Such play of words can definitely inspire great interest in the audience than just being direct about it.
Storytelling in Public with Metaphors
A very effective way of reinforcing the use of metaphors in your presentations is to add the element of storytelling to it. Instead of just presenting them cohesively, weave them into a story that tends to have a higher recall rather than presenting your points as individual facts.
Storytelling Pointers
And like the stories that you love listening to over and over again, storytelling with metaphors needs certain elements to make them more compelling. Transitioning from one point to another should be seamless. Your story has a beginning, a middle, and an end to keep your audience wanting for more. Make sure to incorporate experiences that are familiar to your audience for the story to become more relatable and memorable for them. Repetition is key to remembering and by reiterating your points with the story as your reference; you are bound to drive your point across, successfully.
NLP Metaphor Techniques
Below are the different ways we can use metaphors in our presentations.
Simplifying – Because metaphors are basically, short and precise, they allow for the effective transfer of the message. To simplify metaphors, make sure to use familiar concepts to create the communication links with.
Depersonalizing – There are some points in your presentation that can be offensive or embarrassing to some of the people in your audience and depersonalizing is the way to present it. This can be achieved by presenting a hypothetical story that doesn't have personal comments or observations in it. With this technique, you let the audience extract the information you want them to receive, minus the negative reaction they might have if you actually just gave them the points in a straightforward manner.
Stimulating Creativity – Metaphors work by accessing the unconscious to bring out the creativity of a person. Such creativity makes a person more open to different solutions and allow him to solve many problems. Planting the idea is the key element here.
Enlightening – Tell me the metaphors that a person uses and I will tell you what kind of person that is. This is because our language tells what we are. Such knowledge would all you to create rapport with your audience and effectively communicate with them.
Matching – A more complicated technique, it matches the values of the person with those in a story and ends with a different ending, an ending that introduces the new idea you would like your audience to get from your story. By doing this, you pace the experience and make them ready for the acceptance of the new idea.
Personalizing – From the point of view of the employee, companies seem to be impersonal or an unemotional entity. Metaphors can be used to personalize the message and make them appeal to audience a lot better.
Harnessing your public speaking skills can be a powerful tool towards unlocking your potential in attaining personal and career success. To learn more about using NLP Metaphors to improve your communication skills, Singapore NLP trainer Jacky Lim will show and teach you how it is done the proper way in his Public Speaking Training and Workshop.
This three-hour persuasive public speaking workshop will help you overcome your fear of public speaking and converse and influence with eloquence and confidence using NLP techniques, like Metaphors. To learn more, call us now or simply out our inquiry form today!