The Art of Public Speaking

Public speaking skills come natural to some people whilst others seem to have to work their entire life to gain the confidence to speak in front of a group of people. Whether it be a work meeting or wedding speech, there is no doubt that having good public speaking skills allows others to respect you and often think of you as a highly confident, successful person.

There are several ways to improve your public speaking skills. By utilizing a variety of methods and techniques your confidence will greatly improve.

The first is of course to be prepared for your speech! There is nothing worse than being lost for words so make sure you jot down your main points of conversation and of course revise them many times. You don’t want to be constantly reading from your cards or paper so you’ll need to have a good idea of what you are going to talk about and in what order.

The second way to minimize nervousness is to make eye contact with the audience whilst you are speaking. You may think that this will make you nervous however it’s the best way to gauge your audience. You will often find yourself becoming more relaxed as you see people in the crowd smiling and nodding. This gives you the momentum you need to kick on confidently with your speech.

Use visual aids such as PowerPoint presentations, slides and projectors to divert attention to what you are saying rather than to you yourself. Depending on the nature of your speech (obviously this won’t apply say in a wedding situation), you can often demonstrate your words more clearly with images or diagrams. People will also enjoy this interaction.

Practice your speech in front of various people before the big day. Family and friends will give honest opinions on your format, presentation and the speech itself. Once you iron out the bad points, you’ll only have good points left and this will leave you feeling confident.

It is very common for people to talk rapidly during their speech when nervous. The audience can pick up on this, so you will want to be conscious of your speed. Make use of pauses throughout the speech so you don’t become out of breath and race through the presentation.

Public speaking skills are far from impossible to master. Practice and confidence is all you need to conquer your fear of public speaking.

Fear of public speaking (official called glossophobia) is a highly common occurrence.

It is actually believed that glossophobia is the most common phobia in the world! Many people are actually more scared of public speaking than they are of dying. If only they knew that conquering this fear is not as hard or frightening as one might think.

Even some famous people have admitted to suffering from social phobia or fear of performance. They include Barbara Streisand, Dusty Springfield and Peter Gabriel. These people still put on performances despite their fear, so how do they do it?

Without a doubt they have gone through some sort of public speaking training. This is mandatory if you know you have to speak publicly on a regular basis but are afraid to do so.

Some symptoms of public speaking fear include sweating, shaking and rapid heart beat in the moments, hours or even days leading up to the speech or event. Difficulty in sleeping and loss of appetite are extreme symptoms of glossophobia. Often all thoughts are focused on the speech and this makes a person even more nervous as they are constantly thinking about failure rather than thinking positively about it.

Fear of public speaking can be brought upon by past events in which a traumatic incident occurred, such as someone laughing at a person as they gave a speech or perhaps a speech not going quiet as planned. This sort of event can result in years of self doubt when it comes to giving more speeches.

To conquer your fear of public speaking you must be prepared to tackle it head on. You need to continue speaking publicly as this will give you practice. If you shy away then your confidence will only wane. Practice speaking in front of groups of friends and family. Often this can actually be harder than speaking in front of strangers so if you feel confident here then you are well on your way to beating the fear of public speaking.

There are also special support groups set up for people who want to improve their speaking skills. You can take classes at night or on weekends. You should be confident in knowing that you will have support from your classmates and that you wont be judged.

Being afraid of performing or speaking is not something to be ashamed about. As long as you have realized your fear and begin taking steps to conquer it then you will without a doubt become a much more competent and confident person.

People who make their living researching what frightens people the most have made a pretty amazing discovery. Consistently when people list the top five things they are afraid of in life, they have are some pretty intimidating terrors. But you would think that death would rank number one on that list. But death doesn’t take number one, it has to settle for number two. Amazingly, the number one thing that terrifies most people is not death, it is public speaking. A popular comedian once said that this means that people would rather be the guy in the casket at a funeral than the guy giving the eulogy.

If you have ever been in a meeting listening to a speaker, you can usually tell if they are terrified. They will get up there and you will see that “deer in the headlights” look. You know that look. It is one of extreme fear, panic, and terror so profound that the person is frozen in place unable to speak of move. And if you have ever been that guy or gal in front of a group giving the “deer in the headlights” look, you know the feeling of terror that happens in front of a group of people can be pretty awful.

So if you know that public speaking is going to be part of your job or something you have to regularly, you have to find a way to neutralize that fear and be able to relax in front of a crowd when you speak. How often have you sat and listened to a speaker who was relaxed, funny, bright and even able to field questions with no difficulty at all? It’s easy to admire that kind of public speaker and think that he or she has some magical powers that you will never get. But they don’t have magic. That speaker has just learned some techniques for neutralizing those fears so he or she can appear relaxed and as though he or she is having fun up there. It’s not an inborn talent. It’s a skill which can be learned.

Of course a lot of the ability to look out at a sea of faces who want to hear what you want to say and not feel sick comes from experience. But experience teaches you things that you can at least understand before you become an old pro at public speaking. One of those things is that the crowd out there doesn’t know what to expect. If you broke down why you feel terrified in front of people, it’s that you think that they think they know what they want and that you are being judged.

But to understand what people really expect when they are looking at you at the podium on stage, just remember the last time you heard someone speak. You had no predefined idea what was about to be said and you probably had no outline or any frame of reference what that speaker was going to say. That means that even if you don’t deliver your speech perfectly, they will never know that! As long as you don’t let on that you are nervous or not sure about your material, they won’t know if you got it wrong. If you forget an entire segment of your speech, as long as what you do say flows nicely and they never know you forgot it, the people listening will think your speech was just fine and will probably applaud.

Also remember that you are not really speaking to a group. The group has no ears. You are speaking to several individuals. When you are listening to a speaker, you are one person listening to one person. That is how each person in that audience is receiving you, as individuals. So if you speak to them as though they are one person, not a crowd, your presentation will be warm and personal and very successful. And the crowd will like you to which helps a lot.

Just remember that their expectations of you are fairly low and for the most part, people hearing you speak want you to succeed. So smile at them, use a bit of humor and use that little insider tip to relax up there. And when you can relax, you can actually have fun at public speaking rather than wishing you were the guy in the casket instead.