Top Ten Ways To Improve Your Public Speaking

Nervous about presenting or speaking in public? It needn’t be an ordeal. Follow these straightforward tips to speaking with more confidence.

  1. Think through your audience’s expectations, particularly with regard to questions. Do they expect you to know everything?   Of course not. In fact, a speaker who is confident to admit gaps in their knowledge will be given far more credit than someone who bluffs.
  1. Focus on your audience, not what they think of you. Make eye contact with individual listeners & maintain a sensible pace. Talk as if you were talking to a single person.
  1. Put the speech / presentation in to your audience’s language, not yours. It’s what they understand that counts.
  2. Make it meaningful/moving. What do they really care about?
  3. In order to “sell” a message, you want to be liked, trusted & respected. By all means establish your credibility at the start with a (very) short bio’, but let the content establish your credibility and let your focus on the audience allow you to be liked.
  4. Be yourself. Be as natural as you can! Ideally don’t read out notes and don’t rely to heavily on PowerPoint…
  1. Be clear with the audience whether their input is helpful or not!
  1. Think how much with they remember (not much!) Don’t dazzle them with facts & think through what you want the outcomes to be.
  1. Whatever you want to say in the time allocated, cut it down! It is better to say less but to do so clearly rather than to rush through lots of content.
  2. Preparation is the most important thing of all! Know how long you have and how long you will take.

 

Executive Coaching will help improve your communication skills, from Public speaking to difficult conversations. These days, most top performers in business work with a coach.

If you would like to invest in yourself and the value of your business then call me on 07730 700258 to arrange a free introductory Coaching session.

 

Interested in other Communication skill tips?

Please see “How to Hold Effective Performance Reviews and Appraisals”.