Public speaking how to improve your skills

							Public speaking: how to improve your skills

Roger Hurn, an experienced public speaker, offers you some practical advice that will
help you to get your message across next time you have to stand up and speak to a
large group of people.

Most people find speaking in public a stressful experience and even battle-hardened
professionals can suffer from stage fright. However, if you have a management role,
public speaking is something you will have to do. The question is, will you do it well
or badly? Will you inspire your audience or send them to sleep? After all, we’ve all
attended meetings where the speaker has droned on and lost our attention after a few
minutes or where the message has been confused, inaudible or lost in a blizzard of
technology. In every case the result is the same – you leave the meeting feeling bored,
disappointed or even angry but certainly not enlightened or enthused. The good news
is that it doesn’t have to be this way. You already use many of these skills
automatically when dealing with children: you plan a good lesson, you make it
interesting, you pitch it at the right level and you engage with the children; all skills
which are highly relevant to public speaking. To add to these skills, this article aims
to share with you some simple principles that you can follow to help you become an
effective public speaker.

Know your audience
Before you can even begin to prepare your talk you have to know who you’re talking
to and plan accordingly. Ask yourself three questions:
1       Who are they?
2       What are they expecting to hear from me?
3       How will I best get what I have to say across to them?

Each audience is different so make sure you do your homework on the likely make-up
of your listeners. For example, are they going to have a specialist knowledge of your
subject matter or are they new to the topic? Whichever is the case you’ll need to make
sure that you pitch your talk at the appropriate level. If you make it too easy for the
specialists you’ll bore them to tears, if you make it too complex for the beginners it
will pass over their heads. Either way you’ll lose your listeners. So, don’t write your
presentation until you’ve a clear idea of the composition of your audience.

Some opening techniques that you might want to consider
–        Open with a joke if you can find one that’s appropriate to your topic and
audience. Getting people to chuckle will break the ice and make your listeners more
receptive to what you have to say. But, before you use it in public, do try it out on
someone who can be guaranteed to give you an honest opinion of whether or not it’s
actually funny.
–        Start with a story. All the great teachers and communicators throughout
history have used stories to get their points across. There is a reason for this; people
like listening to stories and have done so since humans first learned to talk. But make
sure your story is relevant and short (think parables). The point of the story is to lead
the audience into your presentation and is not an end in itself.
–        Begin by asking a question even if you’re going to answer it in the course of
your talk. Just by asking the audience for their views you will have made them feel
involved and more ready to engage with your answer.
– Launch your talk with a shocking statistic that will make everyone take notice.

www.mwls.co.uk is a website on which you’ll find areas dedicated to anecdotes,
fables, quotations, thoughts and so on that you can use to add interest if you need help
at this point. But remember, others will have used this source and they may be in your
audience. Take the ideas but embellish or personalise them in some way.
Any of these opening gambits should ensure that, at the very least, you’ll catch your
audience’s attention. Now the trick is to keep them listening…

Getting going
Then, when you know your audience you can decide how you’ll grab their attention
from the very beginning. Some speakers prepare a cartoon, a joke, a shocking statistic
or an outrageous comment on an OHT and have it on view as the participants arrive.
You can refer to it at some time or completely ignore it. It can simply be there as an
ice-breaker and gives people something to talk about with the stranger sitting beside
them!

Communication not technology
The thing to remember here is that people have come to listen to you and what you
have to say. You are the source of the message, not the technology or the visual aids
you’ve spent hours preparing. They are just there to support you in communicating
your ideas; they are not the ideas themselves. However, this is not to say you should
avoid them for, if used appropriately, visual aids can be powerful tools for helping
you put your message across. This is because:
–        Many people are visual learners. They like to see information as well as to
hear it and a good visual aid can reinforce the point you’re making.
–        Information that is presented visually is received and processed faster than a
verbal message.
–        Visuals aids can help keep the audience focused on your message.
–        They can help control any stress you’re feeling by giving you a purposeful
physical activity that channels your nervous energy.

Whatever sort of visuals you use, don’t fall into the trap of reading them out,
verbatim, to the audience. The information on them is there to support what you have
to say, it is not there as your autocue.

What sort of visual aids should you use?
The secret is to be comfortable with whatever visual aids you’re using. You may think
your audience will be impressed by an all-singing, all-dancing multimedia display but
if you’re unsure of the technology then this will increase your stress levels and
distract you from the purpose of your talk. This is self-defeating so your choice of
visual aids for a particular speech should depend on the following factors:
–       the information you want to convey
–       the size of the audience
–       the physical environment of the room
–       the equipment available to you
–       your ability to use the equipment
–       the time available to prepare visuals.
Tips for using visual aids effectively
Once you’ve thought carefully about these constraints you can prepare the type of
visual aids that will enhance your ability to deliver your message to your target
audience. However, these aids will be more of a hindrance than a help if you don’t
follow these simple rules:
–       make sure everyone in your audience can see them clearly
–       once you’ve put them in the correct position don’t stand in front of them
–       only use a single visual to illustrate a point
–       make diagrams and wording simple and accurate
–       don’t use more than seven lines and seven words per line on an OHT.

Yet, even if you are competent at using a wide range of visual aids, it pays never to
take anything on trust as far as technology is concerned. More than one public speaker
has turned up at a venue to give a presentation only to find that the equipment they
were promised is either missing, broken or incompatible with their software. It’s a
sensible precaution to arrive early and check out everything for yourself, thus giving
you time to rectify the situation. Alternatively, have a presentation that doesn’t rely on
anything more complicated than a hand-held visual aid.

Value
We’ve established that people have come to hear something worthwhile from you, not
to be amazed at your technical wizardry. Now the thought that people are there to
hang on your every word may make your stomach knot in terror and start you shaking
like a jelly in a high wind but this won’t help you. It’s far better to remember that
you’re not Brad Pitt or Uma Thurman and no one is expecting you to deliver an Oscar
winning performance. Therefore, there’s no need to put unnecessary pressure on
yourself by thinking you have to be witty, urbane and brilliant, because you don’t.
(Even so, you don’t have to be dull either so see the handout at the end of this article
for tips on delivery.)

However, you do have to have something worthwhile to say because the essence of
public speaking is to give your audience something of value. If they walk away from
your meeting with a fresh insight into a problem, a new idea or a different way of
thinking about something then they will regard your talk as a success. If your
audience leaves feeling better informed about an issue that’s been concerning them or
more confident about the job they have to do they will feel their time has been well
spent. It is a bonus if they also walk away feeling happy or entertained but this is not
your main purpose.

Content
This leads us on naturally to the content of your talk. As a general rule: don’t let
yourself be talked into speaking on a subject on which you are not truly
knowledgeable. This will affect your confidence from the start. However, with a
degree of knowledge about, and interest in your subject you can research additional
information. Be careful not to make the mistake that many speakers make of thinking
that they must know the answer to everything and who then go to enormous lengths to
cover every aspect of their chosen topic in their presentation. This usually results in
them presenting an address that is overly complex and lacking in focus.
Obviously, you do need to research your topic thoroughly but when you’ve done so
decide on what are the key points you want to put across. A good way of doing this is
to sit down and note them all down on a blank piece of paper as they occur to you.
Then, when you’ve done that, refine your ideas by highlighting those that seem to be
absolutely essential. As a general rule of thumb you should attempt to list them under
no more than three major headings. Remember, your listeners don’t want to be
bombarded with too many new facts and ideas as the human brain just isn’t
programmed to process them effectively in the format of the meeting. Our brains need
time to digest new information, to consolidate and internalise it by actively processing
it. Research has shown that people remember very few of the facts or information
speakers try to put across. So, while you may choose to include lots of details, you
only need to impress two or three main points on the minds of your listeners for your
talk to be successful.

Making sure your message is heard
At this juncture, it’s worth mentioning that no matter how important and relevant your
three key points are no one will know this if they can’t hear what you’re saying. It
doesn’t matter if you’re speaking in a small room or a huge hall – you must project
your voice and speak clearly. Though projecting your voice is not the same thing at
all as shouting. Rather, it is raising the volume of your normal speaking voice while
still keeping control of it. Here’s how to do it:
–        when you’re in the place where you’re giving your talk, aim your speech at the
object that is furthest away from you
–        during the first minute of speaking, check your listeners’ faces, particularly
those towards the back, to see if they look puzzled
–        if you notice that they are not paying attention from the word go, stop and ask
if everyone can hear you. If a resounding silence is your only answer then you’re not
projecting.

Nervous speakers tend to speak very quickly – to get the ordeal over, presumably! So
think about the pace of your presentation and slow down if necessary.

Establishing a rapport
When you’ve decided on your key points and the sequence in which you will use
them, jot that sequence down on an index card. You can use this as your prompt when
speaking. This is far better than writing down everything you want to say in a script as
your talk will go far more smoothly if there are no barriers between yourself and your
listeners. They want to feel that you are talking directly to them and reading from a
script will not achieve this. In fact, it often helps if you think of your audience as a
single person you’re trying to communicate with. Your goal is not to get to the end of
your notes without mishap but to give your listeners something meaningful to think
about so that they feel the time they’ve spent in your company has been time well
spent. You can do this far more effectively if you make eye contact and establish a
rapport with your audience.
Do try to smile occasionally as it makes you look more like someone who is pleased
to be there with them and less like a terrified patient waiting for their dentist to start
root canal treatment.
And think about your body language, in particular your hand gestures, as these can be
most distracting for your audience. You need to find a balance that allows you to use
some hand movements whilst avoiding waving your arms around wildly – the
so-called ‘windmill’ effect.
Audience involvement
When speaking in public it is always good to draw on your own experiences and
anecdotes, as this will give you confidence by personalising what you have to say and
making you less dependent on notes to fill out the content of your talk. Moreover, it
helps people to identify with you by making you far more real and sympathetic to
them. They can see that, metaphorically, you’ve stood in their shoes and have a
practical understanding of the situation they are facing. You can further increase the
engagement of your audience by:
–       asking them thought provoking questions at regular intervals
–       recapping points during the talk and highlighting connections for your
listeners
–       asking them to turn to their neighbours to discuss an issue you’ve raised
–       asking them to raise their hands to check agreement
–       asking them for their own experiences and views.

This sort of audience participation not only keeps your listeners awake but also gives
them a sense of personal involvement in what you’re saying. However, there is a
potential danger here in so far as some members of your audience may want to
challenge you and your message. You can deal with this by using confrontational
behaviour as a stimulus for advancing the discussion but never be dismissive or
humiliate the contributor even if they are wilfully missing the point. Your other
listeners will tend to regard you as a bully if you do and this could cause them to
receive your ideas far less sympathetically. You can counteract negative responses by
drawing on facts, expert opinions, your personal experience and appropriate statistics.
(Just a word here about statistics, they should be used to spread illumination and not,
to paraphrase the poet Andrew Lang, as a drunk uses lampposts, to support a hopeless
case.)

Concluding your presentation
The basic format for any presentation is:
‘tell ‘em what you’re gonna tell ‘em
tell ‘em it
tell ‘em what you’ve told ‘em’
So you have reached the last part. Like all good stories your presentation will have
had a punchy beginning, an interesting and involving middle, now all it needs is a
satisfying conclusion. This is where you sum up your key points and leave your
listeners in no doubt as to the importance and significance of what they’ve heard. But
don’t labour the issues. A succinct conclusion that briefly recaps your three headings
and then suggests the way forward will be far more effective than one that peters out
or rambles on and on until everyone loses interest or leaves.

Finally
Before you actually deliver your talk or presentation, it can pay dividends to practise a
technique called ‘visualisation’. This is used by people from all walks of life to reduce
stress and put themselves into a positive frame of mind. To do this successfully all
you have to do is:
–       sit down in a relaxed position but with your back straight
–       close your eyes and exhale completely
–       let your shoulders fall
–       breathe in slowly through your nose taking the air in deeply through your
lungs and all the way down to your stomach
–       hold the breath for a count of four before exhaling slowly but steadily through
your mouth. This will help relax you
–       then, when you’re breathing slowly and deeply, keep your eyes closed and see
yourself confident and capable in front of your audience
–       tell yourself you are really looking forward to speaking as you have something
really worthwhile to say
–       see yourself speaking in an engaging manner, making your points calmly and
with clarity
–       feel warmth and approval radiating from your audience as you end the
presentation.

Remember, if you can see it in your mind you can make it happen when it matters.


Tips for improving your delivery

–     Practice makes perfect, so try rehearsing what you’re going to say until you
become comfortable with it.

–      Remember, variety catches and holds attention, so:
       – vary the sound and the volume of your voice
       – vary the speed of your delivery, your rhythms and your expression
       – make use of pauses and silences
       – use gestures to emphasise key points (but beware of the windmill effect).

–       Try delivering your speech in front of a mirror or to a video recorder. This lets
you see how well you are using your face, hands and body to bring your message to
life. Check that you:
        – are making eye contact
        – are standing in a confident, alert but relaxed way
        – are not overusing gestures
        – don’t have a nervous facial tic.

–       Use a tape recorder. This will help you learn when and how to vary the tone
and pitch of your voice. When you replay the tape:
        – listen carefully to hear if everything sounds interesting, coherent and logical.

–      Try your presentation out on your friends or family members. Ask them for
constructive criticism, listen to what they have to say and make the appropriate
changes.