Public Speaking: Must-Have Skills for Project Manager

“Communication is the sister of leadership.” —John Adair

Public Speaking is a process of speaking to a group of people or an individual in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listener. For some people, conversing with people can be a cakewalk while for others it is very scary and discomforting. Public speaking is one of the top ten fears of humankind. Glossophobia or speech anxiety is the fear of public speaking. The word glossophobia derives from the Greek glōssa, meaning tongue, and Phobos, fear or dread.

?No matter how scary it may seem there is always a structured approach to overcoming this fear of public speaking. There are many ways and strategies that I am going to discuss here that will help you to not only overcome your fear of public speaking but also improve your oration skills immensely. Speaking skills are vital in every walk of life but in context to Project Managers it is far more significant as it is needed in:

• Meetings
• Demos
• Project Status meetings with customers and supervisors
• Retrospective sessions
• Pre-Sales Pitch
• Interviews
• Training and webinars

?Where to start?

The first step to preparing for a public speaking session is to address the 3Ws- Why, Who, What. The 3Ws help you create a map of your entire speech- the WHY delivers the purpose of your speech, the WHO directs towards the kind of audience you are addressing and the WHAT provides the message or the essence of your speech. This 3Ws help you create a relevant and clear speech thereby boosting your confidence.

Though your script is well prepared, it’s now time to prepare yourself. When you approach the stage, you must have 4 things clear beforehand:

• Public speaking is a learnable skill. You only learn with experience and hands-on approach.
• When you speak, feel like a king! Nothing is more attractive than confidence and it attracts immediate approval of the audience.
• Only 2% of people will be demotivating, the rest 98% are going to applaud you.
• Energy attracts appreciation. If your audience seems sleepy or uninterested, you must instil enthusiasm and wake them.

?While the above-mentioned tips cover the ground tactics of public speaking, there are a lot of other factors to work on during the oration. These factors range from biological to body language and best practices. You should monitor your language and voice pitch while speaking as there is a tone for addressing different emotions while speaking. Practise,

• Breath control, to not seem in haste or breathless during your speech.
• Limit Pronoun Usage, as it can lead to ambiguity and confusion for the listeners.
• Neutral accent, nothing puts off an audience more than a fake or hard to understand accent.

?How to deliver?

There are different ways of delivering that work for different people and I have tried my best to divide the tips stepwise to be practised during the speech delivery. Implementing these steps can help you improve your speaking skills from every prospect:

?Step 1

• ?Unexpected beginning. Do something different than the conventional way of beginning a speech. The element of surprise will make people like you even before you start.
• Stand in the middle of the stage.
• Don’t be in a hurry to start speaking. Pause for 3-4 seconds before you start.
• Smile is the certificate of confidence that also keeps you calm, composed and relaxed.

?Step 2

• ?Drag the audiences’ attention. You can do that in different ways- begin with light activity or start with a joke.
• Interaction intimidates audience but helps gain attention. You will notice that people when required to speak to a crowd often get scared. But it grabs their attention and enables them to listen to you more attentively.
• Exercise “WITFM - What’s In It for Me?” for the audience. An audience-centric speaker focuses on listeners’ benefits. If you want the audience to listen to you, make sure what you speak is relevant and beneficial for them.
• Show your best image in front of the public. Appearance plays a key role in grabbing attention and creates an impression on listeners.

?Step – 3

• ?Effective content delivery. Make sure your speech is delivered effectively and reached to every listener.
• Body language. The way you stand or use your hands plays a major role in conveying a message. Don’t shift your body weight on one leg. When you shift your body weight, the attention of listeners gets shifted. Use the 'steepled hand method' as it portrays confidence.??
• Maintain eye contact - change the person change the sentence. This way you get to interact with a large number of people and acquire their attention. While speaking in a webinar, look in the camera lens. This will seem to be like eye contact with people attending your webinar.
• Practise Vocal variety. Voice modulation plays an important role in imparting the emotions behind a spoken statement. Different tones, pitch and sounds convey the emotions in a better way.
• Maintain a vocal speed. 160-180 words per minute is an ideal speed while speaking. Less can seem too slow and more can come across as too fast or gibberish.??
• Passive integration of a story - setup, struggle, success. Slipping your purpose in the form of a passive story is probably the best way to make your listeners not only pay attention to what you are saying but also associate with it and leave with a memory of your speech.

?Step – 4

?“All is well that ends well!” Keeping this saying in mind, we must make sure that the ending of your speech creates a lasting impact on the listeners.

• The ending of your speech should not be abrupt or sudden. The listeners should not feel a longing for a proper ending or wait for something more to come up.
• Loopback to the introduction. The ending must resonate with the beginning because it shows the objective of your speech.

?Fight your nervousness

Apart from preparing for the speech, there are other steps to avoid nervousness in Public Speaking:

1. ?Detailed Preparation- Right from the start to the ending, you should be thorough with your speech and delivery techniques. Do not leave anything for circumstances. Prepare your modules before you begin. Know your material and pick a subject you are interested in.
2. Acquire Speaking experience - Rehearse and practice often. Practise makes the man perfect. The more you rehearse the better you get. Practice with the equipment you will be using to be more confident.
3. Positive Thinking- Do not have a negative approach to your performance. Do not keep doubting your calibre and believe in yourself.
4. Power of Visualization- You should try to assemble an image in the minds of the listeners through your speech.
5. Accept nervousness as a natural feeling- It is okay to feel nervous before your performance. A little bit of nervousness gives the rush you need to perform better.
6. No speech is a perfect speech- There is no such thing as a perfect speech. It is human to have some flaws or loopholes in the speech until it doesn’t seem nonsense. If you make a common mistake, do not apologize as you will draw attention to an insignificant error.
7. Follow the 4Es to create a good speech:

• Easy to Understand-Speak in simple language; avoid jargons. Make short statements and avoid long logical explanations.
• Educational- Know the audience and make important points only.
• Effective- Concentrate on the message and make eye contact.
• Exciting- Use rhetorical questions to involve the audience. Plan a short mind game or activity.

8. Have enough sleep- A well-rested body and mind is the key to deliver a good performance. Arrive early to be well prepared and overcome any last-minute rush.

?Technical parameters of speaking

The above-mentioned pointers can help you overcome the fear of speaking and deliver a speech effectively. It will support you to upgrade your oration skills and delivery techniques. For a more professional approach, you need to work on the grammatical and linguistic aspect of your preparations:

?Practise fluency and coherence

·??????Speak in a flow with least repetitions or self-corrections

·??????Speak only relevant content with completely apt cohesive features.

·??????Create topics completely and correctly

?Improve your lexical resources

·??????Learn a good range of vocabulary relevant to your topics and use them.

·??????Use accurate idioms to make your speech more relatable.

·??????Use paraphrasing technique effectually.

?Develop grammatical range and accuracy

·??????Create a range of structures appropriate and significant to your content.

·??????Form precise structures consistently

Pronunciation

·??????Do not exhibit an accent or fake pronounce words during your speech. The speech must be effortless to understand.

·??????Use a precise and subtle range of pronunciation features

?Public speaking is an added skill that demonstrates your confidence. This acquired skill increases your reputation amongst the corporate circle as public speaking continues to be one of the scariest activities for a lot of individuals. People struggle in speaking openly during meetings, webinars, group discussions and deliveries. To keep yourself continually trained you can practice Toastmasters or read books for improvement. Although only reading books will not help you acquire the needed skills as it is no less than reading a book to learn swimming- without practical experience, you cannot learn it! Make sure you practice regularly besides attending training and sessions frequently. Roger Love, the Vocal Coach in America said, “All speaking is public speaking whether it’s to one person or a thousand.”

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