I love speaking to a crowd. It often gives me my only chance to teach as part of my job, and I get to pretend I’m an graphic designer for a while. But a majority of Westerners list public speaking as their worst fear, beating out death, the dark, financial ruin, and spiders and snakes. For me it’s the dark, followed by David Hasselhof in a speedo.
But though I enjoy it now, I started out with serious fear of public speaking. As I started caring more about my own speaking performance—and getting feedback on my shortcomings—I started noticing how other speakers did things. Most of them, even the really effective speakers, shared some of bad habits.
Some societies believe that the knowing the name of an evil being that’s giving you a hard time will enable you to control and defeat it. Here are 7 names that can give you some power over your own bad speaking habits.
1. The “uh” and the “ummm”
“So, ummm, what I’d, uh, like to, uh, talk about today is, uh, the weekly finance figures and, ummm, and how they, ummm, how they impact the, uh, monthly projections.”
No, really. People do talk this way. If you don’t believe me, read it out loud and it won’t sound quite so outlandish.
It is human nature to sprinkle speech with these fillers when we get nervous. In a public speaking setting though these fillers can seriously detract from your listeners’ ability to care about what you are saying. Break this habit early.
2. The jingle
One of my favorite deadlies is the jingle, and I most often see it manifest with men who jingle what sounds like $80 in nickels stowed in their pants pockets.
If you are a jingler, and you know who you are, empty your pockets. Do not carry keys, change, or RAM chips in your pockets. No chapstick, no lipstick. Nothing. I mean it. Your audience will thank you, and your message will have one less thing to compete with for your audience’s attention.
3. Cup talking, face stroking, and the adjustment
If you aren’t a jingler, then you might fit into this category. Happily, I fit into both categories so I have a long pre-talk checklist.
When I speak in front of larger groups, for whatever reason, my throat goes dry pretty quickly and so I usually have a cup or bottle of something on the podium to drink. Early on, however, I formed a bad habit: cup talking. I would usually take a drink at a pause in the presentation, for example following an audience question. Then, intent upon answering the question and not paying attention to the cup, I’d start talking before the cup was away from my mouth, muffling the first part of the answer.
The same kind of problem happens when you are constantly stroking your chin/check/neck or adjusting your tie/jacket/microphone. Be aware of what your audience hears.
4. Appearing alive, but not too much so
While most of us fall in the middle of the expressiveness range in a public setting, we all need to be aware of the dangers that lie at the two extremes.
On the one end is the speaker who stands rooted to one spot, hands white-knuckle clenched on either side of a lectern, evidently battling each word out of his mouth through an expenditure of self control that would make Saint Francis look like a lush. On the other end is hopped-up-on-speed-guy. He doesn’t stand still for a second and is really Really REALLY excited about every single word he has to say.
Yikes. I’ve seen them both, and once or twice I’ve probably been both. As with most things in life, the key to deciding how animated you need to be is to search for moderation.
5. The block
The block happens when a speaker puts up a slide and then promptly stands in front of it. The block is most commonly spotted in the wild when an overhead projector is being used, but there is no technology that’s completely immune from the block. So your speaking skills are going to have to compensate. Know where your projector is, and where you can stand without blocking the information you are there to share.
6. The rush
You’re really nervous. You’ve rehearsed your talk a million times, and even taped some of the practice sessions. You’ve had good feedback, and worked on crushing a couple habits. Then it’s show time and you turn an hour’s worth of material into a 20-minute stream of information concentrate, thank the audience for their time, and bolt out the door.
You actually rehearsed so much that you memorized a script, and once the time came to recite that script, you went to town. Prepare; just don’t over prepare.
7. Communing with nature
When you are speaking to a group you are supposed to be having a conversation with that group. If you think back on your conversations today I’ll bet that most of them had one thing in common: you were talking to your conversational partner. As in facing him or her. Making eye contact. Not facing the opposite direction, not looking at notes, not staring out the window.
The rules don’t change when you are the only one standing, and everyone else is listening to you. Don’t talk to the screen. Don’t talk to your note cards. Don’t talk to your coffee. Look your audience in the eye and talk directly to them.
Thank you.
Impressive, captivating and arresting are the benchmarks of a seasoned public speaker. While it may look all so flashy and easy to address an audience, believe it or not, being on the stage with the limelight on you can be extremely grueling and for some dreadful as well. Remember, public speaking does not solely depend on your script. There are a number of factors that need to be considered to become a good orator. Right from eye contact to your posture, volume and speed of speech to the tone and infliction, the list of parameters that need attention is endless. For a novice speaker, the best bet would be to indulge in exercises that are truly designed for enhancing public speaking capability. Apart from helping you strengthen your weakness, these exercises would give a boost to your confidence level. In the following lines, we have provided valuable public speaking exercises, just for you.
Easy Public Speaking Exercises
Record Yourself
Undoubtedly, recording yourself is the best way to judge your public speaking skills. It gives you an opportunity to judge yourself the best way possible. You might have prepared an impressive speech and worked upon your vocal skills as well, but chances are that at the time of speaking you can fail to create the kind of impression that you thought of. Recording your performance at practice session is the best way to grow as an orator or public speaker.
The record would act like a mirror reflecting your highs and lows. It would showcase all the negativities wherein you need to work about and the positive that need some refinement. Questions like, do you connect to the audience, do you have a tendency to read, never looking up from your notes to acknowledge listeners or is your cadence too rapid, would all be answered immediately, after watching the tape. This would allow you to focus your attention on certain important aspects and evaluate yourself correctly.
The Magic Of Tongue Twisters
Did you know that practicing tongue twisters is the best way to attain clarity of speech and diction? Most orators or spokesperson indulge in practicing tongue twisters. These not only give you an excellent diction, but also help you attain proper cadence or tempo of speech. Tongue twisters also make you aware of what you are saying and how you are saying it. The best deal would be to practice a few, right before the performance. It would surely give you the 'warm up' you required. Some of the tongue twisters you can practice are 'New York’s unique. Unique New York, You know you love unique New York'; 'Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers' and 'Red leather, yellow leather'.
Instant Speaking Game
A fun exercise to improve public speaking skills would be to indulge in at least 15 minutes of instant speaking game everyday. The game can either be played all alone or with a partner. In case you are playing with a partner, let him/her give you a topic at random. Upon getting the topic, you need to speak on it for about a minute. For those playing all alone, newspaper would be a great option to get the topics. Choose a headline in random and speak on it for about a minute. This way you would not only improve your speaking skills, but also your brainpower. Also interactive sessions held after public speaking would be a cakewalk for you after practicing this exercise, as it helps you answer the most unexpected of questions, with ease.
Voice Projection
What is the point of speaking, when the audience cannot hear you? Just like the speech, voice projection is an important factor to consider. Weak voices (by weak, I do not mean soft) lack confidence and give an impression of fear, nervousness and anxiety. As per the rule of thumb, your voice should come from your lung and not from your mouth or throat alone. A voice coming out from the lungs would be strong, confident and impressive. If you have a voice projection problem, indulge in regular exercise. Deep breath with an attempt to move both hands out as far as possible. This is belly breathing. If you breathe this way and speak simultaneously, your voice would surely be the fullest, strongest and richest. This is because you would be using your lung up to the full capacity. Make sure you make no noise while breathing. Practice these exercise and you would surely be a good orator!
Thank you.
Thank you.