- 16 Sep, 2024
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- 3 Mins Read
5 Essential Public Speaking Tips
Public speaking is a crucial skill that involves delivering a message or presentation to an audience in a clear, engaging and confident manner. Whether you’re speaking to a small group or a large audience, public speaking can have a significant impact on how your ideas are received and understood.
If the idea of delivering a speech to an audience makes your palms sweat, hopefully, you can find some reassurance in the fact that you’re not the only one who has this reaction. Research indicates that one in five people experience public speaking anxiety, or PSA, making it one of the most common types of anxiety today.
With the right strategies in place for fighting your fears, you can still perform well when you have a public speaking engagement or presentation of any sort.
Here are Some Key Strategies for Effective Public Speaking
- Prepare: The speech itself might be the scary part, but that doesn’t mean it’s the only part you should pay attention to. Preparation is key to success and will make you feel so much more relaxed and confident when it’s time to present. Whether you know a lot about the topic you’re talking about or it’s new to you, make sure you do the research. It’s good to have some facts and evidence about the topic in order to sound trustworthy and knowledgeable, but don’t overdo it.
- Incorporate Visual Prompts: If the idea of having all eyes on you makes you nervous, visual prompts are a good way to divert the audience’s attention yet still stay on topic. These prompts can be by way of a slide of an image or graph or something more concrete, such as pouring a half glass of water to emphasise the effect of “living with your glass half full.” It might feel good to have their attention diverted, even if only for a moment. Plus, it gives you something to do with your hands.
- Use (Minimal) Notes: If public speaking makes you anxious, there can be a tendency to write your speech out word-for-word so you can look at it if you forget your next statement. However, if you’ve ever watched a speaker read from their notes the entire time they are on stage, you know that this isn’t effective. You will lose your audience. Instead, keep your notes to a minimum, using only one- or two-word prompts for each point you want to make. This will help you keep your place without detracting from your audience. Notes are there to guide your delivery and not to drive an entire speech.
- Keep It Entertaining: There are numerous ways to make sure your speech is entertaining, and this doesn’t mean it can’t be on a serious topic. Besides trying not to repeat yourself or only reading from your notes or slides, there are a few things you can try. You can start your speech with a “grabber” which is something like a personal story or shocking statistic that will immediately get your audience engaged. It can also be a great tactic to follow a narrative, as an audience member will find it easier to follow and stay interested. Storytelling can also be a tool to create social change.
- Be Yourself: Audience members don’t want a perfect speaker with no flaws or mistakes. Instead, they respond well to honesty and you showing your personality. Even though confidence is powerful, so is vulnerability, so don’t be scared to slip up. The audience doesn’t want you to fail. In fact, they will probably empathise with any mistakes you make.
Final Thoughts
We hope these tips have helped you to conquer your fear of public speaking, but now it’s time to put what you’ve learned into practice. The next time you have a presentation, speech, or performance, remember to try out some of these tips. You may even find yourself enjoying it.