Struggling to find your unique speaking style for public speaking?

One of the ways to find a unique speaking style in public speaking is to reflect on your engagement with people, your passion, and how you express yourself with your family and friends. All these depict your personality and help to reinforce your authenticity. By knowing fully you will be able to determine your strength and leverage on that to stand out in your public speaking goals.

Your commitment must be to your own authenticity and the natural way you speak. Your personality, energy, physicality, and communication processes will be determined - by others - as a particular style or combination of styles, that you may or may not be familiar with. Do not be convinced to pre-select or copy a speaking style. That decision and the efforts you place in that direction could work against your ability to express yourself with your own unique way with your own timing. Be weary of trends. The fundamental skills of a good and great speaker hold true - build on those. I say let others define what they see and hear you doing. Good Luck!

Self awareness is very key in understanding yourself in regards to capabilities and strengths. Be curious to discover your style, mannerisms and confidence levels. Find out what people say about your talks, presentations and speaking styles. You can also narrow down to a niche that you can leverage on.

Some people are naturally funny and witty, effortlessly flitting from seriousness to sarcasm, drawing in listeners. I am not one of those people, and I'm ok with that because I have my own strengths. I have the ability to translate personal stories and experiences into universal themes and messages that resonate with people from all walks of life. So, I don't try to copy anyone else's speaking style, I lean into my strengths. Remember, audiences want relatability and authenticity, so utilise your unique strengths.

Even though it takes a village to raise a child, the child still has his unique identity. Even if you have taken inspiration from note-worthy speakers/leaders etc. ensure that you do not copy them or mimic them in any sense; explore your own style, your own comfort and ease of speaking and you shall find audience for sure.

Be a keen observer of seasoned speakers and get to check out their presentation styles. How do they deliver their stories and key messages. Take note of their body language and see how you can develop your signature style.

Each one of us is unique, embarking on a journey to discover self is the first step to bringing this uniqueness to the world.

Practice makes perfect. Be consistent on your dry runs and have people who can give you objective feedback and constructive criticism. Record yourself and take note of your speaking styles and body language. Getting feedback from others also helps identify areas of growth and improvement.

A good rule of thumb is: if you don't cringe watching your video, you're natural. But until you get there, you need to force it a little bit. Put more energy and more enthusiasm. It will feel fake at first, but after a while you'll start to feel it, and your performance will be a lot better!

Consider also finding a public speaking mentor. This can be a senior executive who knows specifics about your industry or company, or a professional coach who can raise you to a higher level by providing personalized feedback and advises. We often do not see our own bad habits or area of improvement, which is why every great communicator has one of not several advisors and coach trained in oral communication. Do not forget that even the best of actors and political figures have coaches and directions from the movie director. It has been a constant throughout my career that the best presenters are also the most coachable as they realize the value of external eyes to fine tune their image.

To gauge your evolution try this: record yourself now giving a speech and then compare to a recording from 2-3 years ago. You’ll be astonished by how much your style changed and matured. Now to go further, look for what you did better back in the days to put them back in your current style.

Let me tell you that in my experience, stage presence, as described here, is over rated. Why am I saying that? I'm hemiplegic (paralysed down the left side of my body) and give regular keynotes on resilience and mindset. Being hemiplegic means I can't move about the stage and I usually just stand next to a lectern, making fairly minimal movements with my right hand. As such, it comes down to facial expressions, and yes, I believe those need to be congruent with the words you utter. Stage presence, for me, is feeling confident, enjoying what you're doing and being authentic. Your audience will feel all that and come with you on your journey!