Being an effective public speaker
Last week, I attended a week-long series of career workshops in California. I really dislike the cheerleading and false enthusiasm that always seems to accompany HR related events, however, the public speaking seminar was moderately useful.
Photo Credit: tedxsomerville via flickr
Public speaking is a task that many people dislike. A good number of people actually dread it. For me, public speaking makes me nervous, but I usually manage. Most of us have to speak in a public or semi-public manner at some point. It might not be on stage in front of a crowd, but it might be during a meeting with important colleagues or a presentation to another department. During the seminar, I picked up a few good tips to be a better and more confident public speaker.
Put authority into your posture
Many people don’t know what to do with themselves when they are the focus of attention. Instead of pacing the stage or room aimlessly, stand tall with your feet hip width apart, shoulders relaxed, and your hands at your sides. That’s it! As you grow more confident in that simple pose, try turning your body to the left or right, occasionally, to make eye contact with both sides of a room. Finally, try taking a few measured steps, again, only occasionally, from one side to the other while speaking. Do not pace!
Be aware of your hands
Hand gestures can add emphasis to a conversation, but fiddling should be avoided. If you find that you fiddle with a ring or a pen while speaking, just avoid wearing a ring or holding objects when you’re in the spotlight. Instead, use your hands sparingly and only to emphasis a point. When in doubt, just keep your arms at your sides in a relaxed position.
Speak with passion and emphasis
Speaking in a monotone is a sure way to bore your audience quickly and efficiently. So don’t do it. During my public speaking seminars, we practiced speaking passionately using nursery rhymes. Try it! Pick a story that you know well and don’t think too much about what you’re saying. Instead, focus on just saying those words with emphasis.
We practiced using “Mary Had a Little Lamb” and, ridiculous as it was, it did provide a useful way work on speaking with emphasis.
Use tone carefully
When we are uncertain, we often let our voice rise at the end of sentences. This has the unfortunate effect of making our words seem questioning rather than confident. See this exchange between Leonard and Sheldon regarding noble gases.
Instead, when we want to appear confident, we should let your voice drop slightly in tone at the end. A good tip to remind yourself to do this is to nod your head slightly at the end of a sentence and drop your tone. We tried this again using “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. Try it yourself!
Do you have any public speaking tips? Do you enjoy public speaking, or dread it?
26 Responses to “Being an effective public speaker”
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I dread public speaking. I think part of it is due to me being an introvert, but have never really liked it. Running our own business though has allowed me to practice a little more at doing it.
I’m a big introvert as well. I find that I need to be comfortable with what I’m speaking about before I can speak publicly. It helped practising the techniques using nursery rhymes though – it made me focus more on what I was doing rather than what I was saying.
I am medium on public speaking. It always depends on the audience and my topic, for me. Those are great tips, thanks for sharing.
Other than the cheerleading thing, I usually really like skill-development sessions and wish there were way more where I work/live
If there had been more skill development sessions, it wouldn’t have been so bad. But I really got tired of hearing “inspring” stories from HR people who don’t do the work that 90% of new hires at the company do :S
I actually enjoy public speaking! I’d like to add a few suggestions to yours. Use your body language effectively. Don’t grasp the podium and hang on to it for dear life, use your hands to emphasize key points you are driving home. Don’t overdo it though, looking like a windmill will detract from your message. One very important thing to do is to engage your audience. Don’t just focus on one person during your entire presentation. Shift your attention to different members of the audience, make eye contact for a few seconds and shift to some one else. Use that to your advantage as well, pay attention to your audiences body language. Their gestures and posture can tell you a lot as to how they feel about your message. -J-
You’re one of those strange… er… rare people then!
Good tips though. I do find that if I’m holding something while speaking, I tend to get very tense and fidgety.
I love it! I’m working on ways to increase my number of speaking gigs. My advice is to have your talk down SOLID. TED speakers spend one hour for each minute they speak, so 30 hours for 30 minutes. I’ve never spent that long prepping, but a lot of practice makes me feel much more comfortable. Still nervous, though.
That is a LONG time… No wonder TED talks are so great. And they all look so natural while doing it too!
I actually enjoy public speaking. Being in Marketing and the need to speak in the boardroom or at trade shows made me a natural. I seem to use my hands and humor a lot. Apparently my eyes lit up when I talk passionately about something. Hard to see my self though.
I did notice that when the marketing and business hires spoke – they all carried themselves much more naturally while speaking than us techie types.
But I’d like to see them try to code a game engine…! ><
These are really good suggestions. Being in education, I’ve been speaking in front of parents and students for years. Something I have noticed is that when I get my audience involved, they stay attentive and I have more fun. I know that is not possible in every speaking situation though.
I struggle with “getting people involved”. In the past, when I’m speaking publicly, it’s presenting an idea or giving a lecture – I want people to listen to me, not start talking and hijacking things! But in certain situations, for sure, getting people involved makes a talk more interesting.
I love your tips on public speaking. I’ve been to a few conferences and some people make it look so easy but what most people don’t realize is that their is so many little nuances that need to be understood such as ton, and movement. I would like to try speaking sometime in the future but I feel I have a lot to learn before that time. Great post.
It’s all about practice, like anything else, I guess! I don’t think I’d ever *want* to speak at a conference myself, but I am trying to speak more confidently in my day to day interactions.
When it comes to public speaking, I am usually nervous at first. But once I get going, I am okay and my confidence goes up. The topic that one is speaking about is important as well. When you know what you are talking about, it shows to your audience.
So I guess you’re more of a momentum kind of speaker
I find I get more nervous over time actually. All of my anxieties start building up until I’m tense and sweaty. Bleh.
I don’t have any tips because I am terrified of public speaking!!!
Apparently it’s a very common fear. The guy at my session claimed that more people were afraid of public speaking than dying. :S
Good tips. Public speaking can be hard for a lot of people. The more somebody does, the more confident they become. The thing that helps the most, I think, is knowing your material and practicing it.
That’s a big issue for me in my new job. Sometimes, I don’t feel confident because a lot of the technologies are new to me. So I have to remember to *act* confident even if I am not entirely certain of things.
Great stuff! Public speaking is a challenge and is something I’m not overly comfortable with but I’m getting better at it. From what I’ve noticed, the best public speakers know when to speak with emphasis and are excellent with pauses and voice fluctuation. Most of us speed up and get rushed, but silence at the right time can be very powerful.
That’s a good observation. Emphasis, when correctly used, is very powerful. I had it when people rush through what they have to say. It makes it harder, as a listener, to follow along.
I’m like you in that I’m nervous, but don’t dread it with ever fiber of my being. I don’t have that many opportunities though to practice, so I’ve been meaning to go to a toastmaster meeting to learn some skills in case that opportunity every comes up.
I’m not sure if I need to practice *that* much, but it’s a good idea for people who need to speak publicly a lot for a living. We do a stand up meeting each day, so I just try to use those times to practice speaking confidently.
Definitely dread it. Introvert and all. But I usually practice tons and in front of a mirror to a point where it seems normal. But it will never be on a list of things I enjoy doing.
The nursery rhymes exercise is interesting; I’ll definitely have to try it!
It’s kind of funny reciting “Mary Had a Little Lamb” in great seriousness, but it worked! Practicing in front of a mirror is a good idea too – the guy at my seminar suggested video taping yourself.