Speaking of public speaking skills, in one way or the other in our lifetime, there’ll come a time to speak to a group of people.
Whether it’s a compulsion, voluntary or an opportunity rests on what we think of public speaking.
If you’re wondering about making a good public speech, this post will help you with tips about public speaking skills and delivering a speech confidently.
Why Public Speaking?
The speech comes in different forms for all types of occasions whether you’re a student, parent, teacher, business executive, public leader, or in any position.
You might be asked or required to speak regardless of your profession.
Your speech also depends on the occasion, varying from a formal occasion to an informal meeting with a bunch of your acquaintances or co-workers.
A normal conversation with family members, friends, or colleagues is quite different from a public speech.
You can’t stand up in front of a gathering and talk as if you’re conversing with a friend. A public speech requires preparation and compiling relevant information on a topic to make your speech effective.
Why? In formal public gatherings, if you’re going to deliver a speech, normally you have limited time to speak.
This unspoken rule is relaxed if you’re engaged as a resource person specifically for more informal workshop sessions.
In some public engagements and public rallies, you have to think of a suitable topic to speak about according to relevant events.
On other occasions, as an expert in your field, you’re invited to speak on an assigned specific topic. This includes paper presentations at seminars, conferences, and other related events.
A good speech goes with thorough preparation and rehearsal.
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Prepare and Focus
While preparing your speech, imagine the whole scenario in play.
How the event could unfold when you actually speak. It’s good practice to rerun your speech in your imagination before the scheduled date.
Once you’re ready to present your carefully crafted speech, you want to make sure that things go as planned.
Although nothing can be perfect, you want to be confident and keep things under control even if some unexpected situation arises.
That being the case, if possible, paying a visit to the venue of the scheduled program will give you the entire picture and rehearse accordingly.
If it is a conference hall, you will know in advance about the sitting arrangement, seating capacity and size of the hall, which direction you will face your audience, and all possible details as much as you can take.
If it’s not possible to visit a meeting place, a little inquiry can assist you to construct a mental picture of the program and possible outcomes.
That will enhance your confidence and keenly anticipate engaging with your audience. You can also check out who is going to be your audience.
With the required information, you can have a fair idea to prepare and adjust the keywords in your speech.
You can tailor your speech according to the expectations and requirements of your audience. There are many possibilities you can do before your speech delivery.
Expect the Unexpected
You don’t want to lose the flow of your ideas, which you worked on painstakingly. To avoid losing your train of thought, you have to expect the unexpected as well.
For instance, you might imagine several hundreds of audience participants but on the day of the program, the crowd might not turn up as you expected.
To make things worse, you anticipated presenting your oratorical piece in front of a huge gathering.
In a situation like this, your focus is likely to be unsettled. That’s why it’s important that you head out to the venue with high hopes but also reserve some modest expectations.
With fewer expectations, you’re not taken by surprise. It helps you to concentrate on your speaking skills.
When you’re well prepared and have considered all possible scenarios, you’re definitely confident to give that fine presentation.
When you speak, your mind will be actively assisting you with the right words to keep flowing to your satisfaction.
As a result, you gain more confidence and your audience will get glued to your speech. The more your audience shows their interest in your talk, the more your confidence keeps going stronger.
This way, you consciously train your mind on speaking relevant points, while you are also actively aware of your audience’s reactions and responses.
Confidence and Adaptability
As it happens even for experienced public speakers, once in a while everyone gets jitters.
There comes a time when our confidence level gets low just before or during the speech. It could be due to plain nervousness or such an unwelcome emotional quagmire could depend on various factors.
Our emotions are always at play for good or for bad. Different things occur in our daily lives and those situations impact our moods constantly.
If we are dealing with negative forces in our lives, those factors dampen our emotions. In turn, they reflect our reactions to people and things around our immediate social environment.
For instance, facing the gathering with emotional stress could dent your confidence. Experienced speakers might somehow leverage their low moments with their tried and tested crafts.
When faced with such a predicament, the more viable alternative is to accept the situation as it comes. Remind yourself that you can do your best.
Having a positive mindset helps to take care of the situation for good.
No matter what the situation presents, adaptability and the ability to exude confidence will help not only you but also gain the audience’s admiration.
Self-motivation on a regular basis is important to gain public speaking skills in becoming a good public speaker.
Engage with your Audience
Focusing on your thoughts does not mean ignoring your audience.
Remember, your audience generally consists of diverse demographic backgrounds.
Among the audience, there are people who might already know or have better knowledge about your topic.
The important reason these people came to hear you speak is how you present your views from a different perspective.
Audience attention will stray if they think that you’re not speaking to them. It will be simply a waste of time and effort for a speaker not to engage with the audience.
In the middle of your speech, you don’t want to see the frozen blank expressions of your audience, wondering when you’ll finish your speech.
That is going to hit hard on your confidence level. You can’t pretend your audience is enjoying your speech and awkwardly try to draw their attention to whatever you’re trying to tell them.
To avoid speech mishaps, you need to engage with every individual in the crowd.
Now, how do you engage your audience? When you speak, look at them. Eye contact is important to send the message across to the crowd.
Keep your glance in all directions of your audience. Avoid targeting only a section of the audience. Everybody merits equal attention when you speak at a gathering.
Send out honest vibes that you are speaking to everybody in the hall. You’re there to speak to the entire crowd, not just to a few select groups who should listen to you.
Body Language in Public Speaking
Relax and make sure you maintain good posture while speaking.
A genuine smile displays warm gestures that you are happy to share your knowledge with your audience.
If you fumble for words or momentarily experience disruption in your thought flows, don’t apologize or make excuses.
It’s like your car hitting a speed bump unwittingly accompanied by your audible cursing. Soon, it settles down smoothly once again. But you wouldn’t want to swear in public speaking.
Similarly, avoid making awkward gestures. Take a deep breath as you regain your composure and continue your speech.
Use hand gestures to emphasize important points about what you want to tell your audience. It’s a good practice to incorporate some movements instead of standing motionless. Nobody wants to appear like a robot.
Your positive body language communicates to the audience about your dynamic personality and they will enjoy your presentation.
Connect with the Audience Using Relevant Anecdotes
To make your speech impressive, relate some real-life stories, relevant tales, or your own life experiences suitable to your topic.
People like to listen to real-life incidents or stories weaving analogies that connect to your topic. A good story-telling captivates the audience’s attention.
You don’t want to ignore this interesting ingredient part of public speaking skills.
You can cite a meaningful phrase or throw in some contextual references to famous personalities that shed light on what you’re speaking.
Your audience will understand your topic from different perspectives, which they might not be aware of. People cherish and speak fondly of the inspiring speech long after the speaker had left the scene.
They take pride in sharing their newfound knowledge with their children, and friends, or in their writings whenever an opportunity arises.
They’re profound in their praises about the speaker. Orators and experienced speakers achieve such feats leaving memorable impressions on the audience.
It’s true that we cherish the speeches made by great Statesmen and religious leaders in all societies. They added immense value to their speeches, attained great heights, and were immortalized for generations to come.
You never know that you could become one such orator who is yet to uncover the real potential in you lying dormant.
Another great speech ingredient is weaving into your speech the local community context. They will appreciate you for taking interest in their lives.
This is more appropriate when speaking to a particular area crowd. Without reference to the local community, there is a pitfall of alienating your audience if you confine your speech to the general context.
Humor in Public Speaking
We come across different types of speeches people deliver on a daily basis everywhere.
With variation in preferences, it is up to each person how and what they like about the speech.
Generally, the audience receives the humor well if you hit the right note blending with the topic. The ability to make your audience laugh is part of public speaking skills.
Apart from sharing anecdotes, consider throwing in a witty one-liner that reflects your topic on a lighter side to break the monotony of a dull speech, just in case.
Interspersing with brief humor is useful, especially when delivering a long speech.
Everybody likes good jokes and this will make your speech interesting. Humor can be contagious and your audience will thank you for saving them from typical speech boredom.
Communication is a great skill but for many on the receiving end – the people engaged in the listening role don’t have much patience.
So, a speech laced with humor intermittently will do the trick to entertain your audience. In fact, one good joke for an entire speech will also serve the purpose.
In all probability, they’ll show more interest in your speech. Your entire one-hour speech may seem to pass quickly.
When you’re connected with the audience, they will hardly bother with your time-consuming speech.
Time Management
Another important component of public speaking skills is how you manage the time when you speak in public.
Even if you’re a great orator, your audience deserves your respect for spending their precious time listening to your talk.
On any given day, everybody has so much to do and you should consider their time as a special gift from your audience.
Accordingly, you should reciprocate with your time management. You need to show your gratitude to your audience by way of sharing valuable information and keeping the speech within optimal time.
Length of speech time preference varies among people and speakers depending on the occasion and event.
To manage your time effectively, you have to consider the nature of the program and whether you’re the sole speaker or others will speak as well.
According to studies and professional coaches, here, it says, “aim for 20 to 40 minutes duration. Not too short and not too long”.
This study says twenty minutes of speech is considered an optimal time. In this timeframe, the audience can sit through without much distraction. Media Training Worldwide has a different take on speech duration. It stresses the quality presentation of the speaker rather than speech duration.
Personally, I’ve listened to speakers who took roughly twenty to sixty minutes and the speeches were terrific with all relevant points consistently capturing the audience’s attention.
Well, it’s not easy to come up with any hard rule on the optimal time of a speech duration. So, in your speech-making, you’re going to consider what works for you and your audience without fatigue.
On a personal note, I prefer a short and crisp speech.
As much as the audience admires skilled orators, they also appreciate speakers who are conscientious about time coupled with interesting speeches.
To recap, here are quick tips on public speaking skills when you give your speech.
Right Approach:
- Focus on your thoughts
- Exude confidence
- Positive body language
- Engage with your audience
- Give relevant examples/personal experience
- Keep track of time
- Substantiate your statement with facts
- Summarize important points and give a good conclusion
To Avoid:
- Don’t read out from your prepared speech unless the occasion requires
- Don’t memorize your speech
- Do not slouch
- Don’t talk to the ceiling or windows
- Don’t share random statements without verifying the source
- Don’t take your audience for granted