A Guide to Better Public Speaking
NobleProg South Africa
Digital Transformation experts, helping organizations implement new technologies and embrace cultural change
We can communicate significant information to our coworkers, team members, and superiors by using our public speaking skills. However, you are not alone if you experience anxiety, sweating, and fear when speaking in front of an audience. This article will assist you in overcoming your fear of public speaking and enhancing these abilities so that you may speak in front of an audience with confidence and competence without having to envision them in their underwear. You'll discover:
What Do Public Speaking Techniques Entail?
Every time you speak in front of a group, you put your public speaking skills to use. It's a kind of verbal communication where you speak in front of listeners, whether it's in a classroom or a Zoom conference with several teams. Because a great public speaker engages their audience and frequently incorporates them in their presentation, it is also an interpersonal skill.
Speaking in front of an audience involves both what you say and how you say it. Your public speaking abilities are influenced by your loudness, eye contact, tone of voice, and body language.
Workplace public speaking can take the following forms:
What Justifies the Importance of Public Speaking in the Workplace?
Our work isn't always self-explanatory. Public speaking is a method to show off your accomplishments and teamwork.
Bridget Lancaster, head of HR at Qrypt, says employees often seek to enlighten others or lobby for buy-in from colleagues and management. Knowing your audience and engaging them are key public speaking abilities.
We require public speaking skills to communicate with bosses, teams, and executives. When we talk openly and boldly about our job, others can see our influence.
Public speech affects how people see us. A 2018 study studied how voice pitch affects others' impressions. Lower-pitched voices correlated with election, but not with leadership skill.
How we speak affects how others see us. This doesn't imply we should all speak in low tones, but we should be careful of our tone, diction, and confidence. If we speak confidently, others may regard us as more capable.
What to Do if You're Anxious About Public Speaking
73% of the population suffers public speaking anxiety, or glossophobia. Public speaking nervousness can include dizziness, perspiration, and a quick heartbeat.
To overcome a fear of public speaking:
???Prepare. You get the picture. Record yourself to see how you look and sound.
????Relax!?Presentations can be risky. If you make a mistake, remember that it doesn't diminish you. Everybody falls.
????Know why you're nervous. Perhaps you've had a horrible public speaking experience or suffer from imposter syndrome. Megan Hamilton, speaking, visibility, and confidence coach, has done a lot of work on visibility and shadow work to reveal anxieties. "We're not band-aiding problems, but working through them. As vital as inner work is training.”
????Boost your presentation. Bring notes, a water bottle, cue cards, or anything else you can need during the presentation.
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?????Don't feel alone. Nearly half of your audience has public speaking anxiety, too. Nervousness is typical.
Tips for Developing Your Public Speaking Ability
If effective public speaking is essential to being seen (and heard) on the job, then how can we develop these abilities – even in the absence of prior work experience?
Put Your Audience First
The anxiety of public speaking can cause a person to focus excessively on their own shortcomings. Focus on the listeners and what they're going through instead. Which emotions do you hope your audience will experience while they listen to your presentation? Do they need you to provide a certain setting for the story? Just how much details should you divulge? Having less reason to stress about yourself is a nice perk of this.
Mind Your Body Language
The audience can sense your confidence from the way you carry yourself. Even if you're presenting the presentation online, it's still important to maintain good posture, hand movements, and eye contact.
Don’t Act Like a Robot
“I’m seeing less appetite for the scripted formalized, distanced, and invulnerable speakers we might have encountered in the past,” Adam Brooks, director of public speaking at the University of Alabama, says. “We’re in the era of post-Brene Brown and people expect vulnerability, they expect good storytelling, and they want to be taken somewhere when they listen to someone.”
Interpersonal competence is essential in this situation. Include something in your speech that reflects who you are, whether it's a joke, a personal anecdote, or a rhetorical query to the audience.
Listen to Your Voice
The pitch, tone, and pace of your voice can be analyzed by recording and listening to yourself give a presentation. Of course, you should be careful to pronounce each word correctly and talk slowly, but not as slowly as a turtle.
What’s the Message?
Begin with the end in mind.
As a culture, we have a tendency to misunderstand the actual function of a presentation while focusing on its form. We tell ourselves, "OK, I'm going to get through this," and we do. Instead, before listening to any message, one should question, "When I'm done, what is the one thing I want everyone to take away?"
The clarity of your presentation, the coherence of your themes, and the depth of your audience's takeaway are all directly proportional to how much thought you put into your message.
Practice, Practice, Practice
To become a more confident and effective public speaker, seek out and participate in as many speaking engagements as possible.
Bottom Line for Public Speaking
Although it is highly valued in the job, the ability to speak in front of an audience can be intimidating and challenging to learn. If you can learn to control your anxiety and hone your messaging, body language, and presentation skills, you'll have a powerful tool at your disposal for showcasing your work and establishing your credibility as an asset to any team.
Looking to develop your professional skills? Check out?NobleProg’s Professional Skills Development Program.