Mastering Public Speaking

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”  - Maya Angelou

Being able to successfully connect, engage with and inspire people enhances all areas of your life. It increases your general confidence and improves your day-to-day work, whether you are running a business, managing a team, leading a project, dealing with clients or trying to boost your company’s sales and marketing targets.

Mastering public speaking can be one of the best career enhancing moves you make this year and it’s easy to start learning.

1. Observe and learn from the experts

Nobody is born with great public speaking skills, but anybody can acquire them. Choose 3 great speakers you admire, observe their behavior and learn from them. Pay attention to specific skills such as:
- how they structure their speech
- how they tell their story
- their body language and gestures
- how they use the stage
- what verbal and non-verbal tools they use to connect with the audience, for example, jokes, universal experiences, specific gestures.

You will probably notice some patterns emerging. Note them down and start using these techniques when you speak in public.

2. Invest time and effort in preparing your speech

Preparation is the key to success. Careful research and planning helps you boost your confidence and stay calm during the delivery.

• Create well-formed outcomes for your speech

Set realistic goals around what you want to achieve with your speech or presentation. You can use the SMARTER criteria to test the quality of your goals.

• Choose one ‘Big Idea’ you want to convey

• Define your audience

Do some research on your audience – what’s their knowledge of the subject you’re presenting and what they will want to hear. Your success as a speaker lies in telling your audience what they want to hear, rather than what you want to say.

• Here are some useful questions you can ask yourself when preparing your speech:

• Storyboard the big idea

Use the structure below for building each section of the speech:
- Opening
- Supporting point 1
- Supporting point 2
- Supporting point 3
- Ending

• Use universal experiences to connect with your audience

Create and control the emotional states in the room and connect with your audience by referring to common experiences – something most of your audience would have experienced and can connect with. Define the state you want your audience to be in and choose relevant universal experiences to get your audience into the desired state. For example, you can use the experience of a first trip abroad to create a sense of excitement; receiving a first paycheck to create a sense of empowerment, etc. You can also choose industry or company specific universal experiences if you are addressing your colleagues or a group of professionals from the same industry.

• Use the ‘Power of 3′s’

Use 3 points to get your message across. This helps you to build structure and achieve greater consistency in your speech. It also makes it easy for your audience to digest the content, especially if you complement your 3 points with deliberate gestures.

• Use hooks

Use simple facts to grab attention, for example, statistics, quotes and rhetorical questions.

4. Deliver with confidence and charisma

In most cases your audience wants you, as a speaker, to succeed. Do not apologize for nervousness or thank the audience for having you speak. They are expecting you to deliver a great speech and the first step to achieving this is believing in your ability to speak and present. The presenter’s state affects the audience’s state, therefore it is crucial for you to be in control of your own state.  This will also enable you to be in charge of the stage and lead the audience to where you want them to go. Be aware of what’s happening in the room and how your audience feels. Keep your audience engaged and moving towards the outcome you want to achieve by using different tools and techniques.  These can include changing voice tonality, deliberate gestures, humor etc. Enhance your stage presence by controlling the space – divide your stage into sections and use each part of the stage for a different purpose, to help illustrate the content of your speech and boost your impact.

5. Finish in style

Often even great speakers struggle with finishing their speeches in style. Always keep your ‘Big Idea’ in mind. You want to inspire your audience and, probably, motivate them to take some kind of action. To end the presentation on a high note, finish with a call to action or a motivating quote.

Most importantly, have fun and enjoy being centre stage! You can be the presenter you’ve always admired!

*This article was featured in our newsletter “Performance Matters”, January 2013
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