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Public Speaking Related Words Hand Chart |
How to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills |
Dialing down your fear of public speaking is important. After all, if you’re completely terrified of speaking, you won’t have much intellectual or emotional room to improve your technique. |
However, once you’ve gotten your speech organized and you’ve practiced enough to know your material inside and out, there are plenty of strategies you can use to transform yourself into a confident, compelling speaker. |
1. Use Silence to Your Advantage |
According to actor Sir Ralph Richardson, “The most precious things in speech are the pauses.” While he was speaking of acting, the same is true for public speaking. |
A well-timed pause gives your audience a few seconds to absorb something you really want them to know. Pauses can also add drama and emotional charge to your words. As you practice, find places to insert pauses to emphasize your most important points. |
2. Practice Your Gestures |
Your body language communicates more to your audience than your words ever will. |
Researchers at the Center for Body Language studied the body language of successful leaders across a range of fields. As researcher Kasia Wezowski wrote on Harvard Business Review, they found that the right gestures can help you build trust with your audience and make you appear relaxed and confident. |
For example, one of the best gestures to build trust is named “the Clinton Box” after former President Bill Clinton. Wezowski explains that early in his political career, Clinton used big, wide gestures in his speeches, which made him look untrustworthy to his audience. To help keep his gestures under control, his coaches asked him to imagine a box in front of his chest and stomach and to keep his hands within that box. When you use “the Clinton Box,” your audience is more likely to feel that you’re telling the truth. |
There are plenty of other body language techniques you can use to communicate important messages to your audience. If you’re sitting down in a meeting, making a pyramid or steeple with your hands while you talk can signal to others that you’re relaxed and confident. If you’re standing, keep your legs shoulder-width apart; a wider stance indicates greater self-confidence. |
One way to get better at your body language and gestures is to watch other great speakers online. TED Talks are a great place to start. You can also check out “The Silent Language of Leaders” by Carol Kinsey Gomen, which goes into detail about how you can use your facial expressions, body language, and vocal tone to be a more effective communicator. |
3. Find a Friendly Face |
You’re due onstage in less than a minute, and your nerves are out of control. What can you do to calm down? |
One way to ground yourself is by closing your eyes and taking several deep, slow breaths. Try not to think; instead, focus solely on the sound of your breath. Feel your feet on the ground. |
Another technique is to find a friendly face or two in the crowd. Tell yourself that these people are interested in what you have to say and that they are nice people. For the first few seconds, or even the first few minutes, focus on talking to them. This can help you calm down while you get into the flow of your speech. Once you’re less nervous, make eye contact with others in the room. |
4. Adopt a Power Pose Before Your Talk |
In her TED Talk “Your Body Language May Shape Who You Are,” Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy states that holding particular body poses for just two minutes can increase the level of testosterone in your body. Whether you’re a man or a woman, this boost of testosterone can lower your stress and increase your confidence. |
Cuddy calls these poses “expressions of power,” and they’re as ancient as the human race itself. Even animals use these poses to express confidence and dominance in different situations. |
An expression of power pose is basically anything that makes you look bigger. So, adopt a wide stance with your legs and hold your arms out or stand on your tiptoes and reach for the sky. Your goal is to take up as much space as possible. Remember to hold these poses for a full two minutes. |
Do this in a quiet corner right before the start of your speech, and you might be surprised by how effective it is at lessening your anxiety and boosting your confidence. |
5. Join a Public Speaking Club |
Toastmasters International is the largest public speaking club in the world. It was started in 1924 to help people improve their public speaking and leadership skills. To date, there are more than 354,000 members in 141 countries. |
Toastmasters International gives you the opportunity to learn by doing. Membership means giving a lot of speeches in front of live audiences. You’ll be paired with a mentor who is an experienced public speaker and will get feedback from your audience immediately after every speech. It’s trial by fire, with plenty of help and coaching along the way. |
6. Learn From the Best |
As you might imagine, there are a copious number of books that can teach you how to become a better public speaker. |
One classic is Dale Carnegie’s “How to Develop Self-Confidence and Influence People by Public Speaking.” Another best-seller is “Talk Like TED: The 9 Public Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds” by Carmine Gallo. If you’re looking for a laugh while you learn, don’t miss Scott Berkun’s “Confessions of a Public Speaker.” |
You can also head to YouTube for videos on how to improve your public speaking skills. A great place to start is “TED’s Secret to Great Public Speaking” by TED Talks curator Chris Anderson. |
Final Word |
Your ability to speak well in public can have an enormous impact on your success in life. Polishing these skills gives you the power to convince people to change their minds or see the value in your ideas. Confidence in your ability to speak in front of a group can keep you visible in a competitive organization, help you land promotions you might have otherwise been passed over for, or motivate new clients and customers to try your business. |
Simply put, being a good public speaker helps you build rock-solid credibility, but it will only come with practice and experience. So get practicing! |
What tips and techniques do you find most useful when you have to speak in public? How have you gotten over any public speaking fears? |
Heather Levin |
Heather Levin is a writer with over 15 years experience covering personal finance, natural health, parenting, and green living. She lives in the mountains of Western North Carolina with her husband and two young sons, where they're often wandering on frequent picnics to find feathers and wildflowers. |
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Are you on watch for bad fruit? |
October 10, 2019 |
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Be Still . . . |
Devotionals for Daily Living |
Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. |
(Matthew 7:15-20 (NIV)) |
Think about this the next time that you hear of something that is just too good to be true, or is just a little off of what God’s Word says that it should be. Most of the time, lies are obvious, but deception is a trick of the enemy. When things sound almost right with respect to God’s word, they are totally wrong. |
It should be easy for believers to realize that the “fruit” does not match the source. We should be able to easily distinguish that the things the enemy tells us are too good to be true, especially when they contradict everything that we should know to be true according to God’s Word. |
Why do people fall for the deceptions of the enemy? |
Are we, as a fallen, sinful race, too far removed from the truth to even recognize it? |
The words in Matthew are amazing and sadly amusing if you stop to actually understand what is being said. We have enough common sense to not look for grapes on an apple tree, yet, we easily fall prey to the small lies of the enemy in hopes that the promises are true. |
Test everything against God’s Word. If something is supposed to bear goodness, but it lies to do so, does it really follow God’s Word? If you are promised that it is only a small digression and no one will know about it, can it be the correct fit? |
We have been told what the things of God will bear. |
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. |
(Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)) |
Think of this passage when validating the truth about something. Does it produce according to the fruit of the Spirit? |
Are you on watch for bad fruit? |
Copyright 1998 – 2019 Dennis J. Smock |
Daily Living Ministries, Inc. |
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Do you possess wisdom and understanding? |
June 4, 2018 |
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Be Still . . . |
Devotionals for Daily Living |
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. |
(Proverbs 9:10 (NIV)) |
The world seems to have knowledge and wisdom confused. The world bases its understanding of these concepts all on the limited understanding that humanity has been able to achieve. In the grand scheme of things, humanity still has very limited knowledge of everything that we encounter. Knowledge is growing rapidly, but we still have much to learn. Sadly, the more knowledge that we acquire, or think that we acquire, the less wisdom we show as a result. |
If you truly stop to look at the root meanings of the two words, things start to make sense. |
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