How to Improve Public Speaking Skills and Confidence

Posted on: December 18th, 2017

Just the thought of how to improve public speaking sends shivers down people’s spine. Not everyone is as easily adapted to speaking in public. Controlling stress can be hard during the allocution without letting it reflect physically in the form of blushing, stuttering or mumbling. Even some of the most experienced and influential public speakers will tell you that nervousness and anxiety is a factor that all public speakers have to deal with at some point or the other. For experienced speakers overcoming shyness comes naturally but hesitation can set in after a long intermission with no practice.

Pre-Speech Preparations:

Make sure you know well in advance the details of the event for which you will be speaking. Try to find out everything about the event. How many people will be attending? Who else will be up on that stage? How long will the event last? What will be your role in the event? Who is the main attraction? Is the dressing going to casual or formal? Armed with this information you will need to prepare material like the best assignment writing service at work with no holds barred. Initially prepare pertinent material without consideration to the amount of total time you have to speak for. Sifting through the material to form a logical chain of thought will be a lot easier if you have excessive material.

How to Improve Public Speaking Skills & Confidence

Impressive Introductions:

This is the only time when not only the speaker but the audience will also be anxious to get started. The introduction should not be designed like a sociology essay which is tandem and boring. It needs to be thought provoking and grab the attention of the audience. Avoid trying to make a long and winding introduction. Introduce yourself by providing a bit of background information. Keep it simple enough so that each member of the audience can understand what you are talking about without the need for complicated explanations. Incorporating a bit of humour in to your introduction is an easy way to get everyone’s attention and keep the ambience relaxed. Throughout the introduction, try to maintain eye contact with the entire audience at some point or the other.

Holding the Audience’s Attention:

Memorising your speech word for word will not have the impact the audience will be expecting. There are a lot of things that can go wrong if you memorise the content. Even if you have memorised the content cover to cover, at the time of presenting the content you will risk sounding rehearsed. Or you could panic and forget your place and it will have a bad impact on the audience. The best way to hold the audience’s attention and still not sound rehearsed is to create bullet points. Each bullet point should connect with specific content which you will deliver during the speech. This way you have the flexibility of choosing when you want to cover which bullet point and in which order. Your hand and body gestures play a major role maintaining the spotlight. The same words when delivered with greater hand and body involvement and coordination will have a greater influence on the audience.

Interacting With Audience Members

Try to meet with members of the audience before the speech has begun. Chances are the audience has some background information about the discourse and will be excited to physically meet the persona. Instead of trying to prove how smart you are, try to connect with the audience on a personal level. In the discourse add some simple questions for the audience to answer so they can practically relate to the material. This will have a far better impact than trying to awe the audience in to thinking how smart you are with the help of audio visual tools. Audio visual tools will be more productive if you use them to introduce the spectators to new ideas. Avoid using audio visual tools simply to corroborate what you have to say. This will only make you sound rehearsed and arrogant. In the end, give your viewers a specific message to think about, which will resonate in their minds even after they get home.