Public Speaking is a major soft skill that is needed to create change or to lead people effectively. It is one skill people have a problem with largely because of fear!
Below are a few tips to help you boost your Public Speaking skills.
1. Have a Great Winning Mindset!
It is a well-known fact that every success begins with just a thought in the mind. Without having your mind set to do something, it would be less easy or impossible to do it. Believing you can do it is the first motivation you need.
To achieve mastery in any art, you also need to have a clearly stated reason for doing it and also be open to changes and development that may happen as you follow the path. For you to become a master at anything, you need to have a Growth Mindset and drop any beliefs that implies that you cannot achieve . Practice! Practice!! Practice!!!your goal.
2. Get rid of Fear
The major reason a lot of people never venture into Public Speaking, retreat from continuing their journey towards great oratory or fumble while speaking is because of fear. Being anxious when called on to speak is a normal thing that even the most eloquent and effective speakers experience. A speaker’s success is determined by how much he/she can overcome that fear.
Fear is just a state of mind. It is like a mirage because it doesn’t really exist except in your mind! See it just as False Evidence Appearing Real! There are some activities proven by psychologists to help calm down when anxious. You could do self affirmations or check other exercises that can boost your self confidence.
You can check our post on ‘How to build your confidence for great success’ for more on confidence.
Remember, ‘It is the cave that you fear to enter that holds the treasure you seek’. Joseph Campbell.
3. Learn the Right Skills
For a speaker to become a master at the art, he/she needs to have the right set of skills.
Skills like Vocal variety which is about modulating your tone and voice volume to become audible while also story telling or being dramatic to capture your audience’s engagement, gesticulation including appropriate body gesture and composure are all important to becoming a successful speaker.
4. Practice! Practice!! Practice!!!
Most people have heard the saying ‘Practice makes Perfect’. Well, I would say ‘Practice makes Progress’. For you to become a master at anything, you have to practice.
Research has shown that 10,000 hours of deliberate and appropriate practice can make you an outstanding person in any skill as popularized by Malcolm Gladwell. You will not need to wait till you spend 10,000 practicing before getting out there for a great presentation. However, make sure to practice speech making regularly whether you have a presentation or not. Speaking to your family and friends or even speaking to the mirror if necessary is a good way to go. You can also prepare for topics and present it to your camera for recording and after it watch and review without beating yourself for mistakes. The next thing will be to work on the areas you have identified need adjustment.
5. Voice Dynamics
One key feature of great speakers is voice dynamics. Great speakers do not speak with the same tone all the time. They know to increase, decrease or even change their voices where necessary so as to paint a scenery of what they are saying in the minds of the listener.
There is power in your voice, so use it! You may need to do some voice training on tone and volume if necessary.
6. Be Consistent and Committed
For you to be a master at speaking or any craft at all, it is very crucial to be consistent. Consistency and commitment are the single most important features for success. Consistent small action daily will pay off better than a huge inconsistent action yearly!
Remember that Rome was not built in a day and your success as a speaker cannot be achieved in a day. That means you must be resilient enough to get back to working on yourself any time you make mistakes or you didn’t get some things right.
7. Review and Improve Gradually
Reviewing your progress is very important to knowing how well you speak and also know what areas of your speaking are needed to be improved on. Make sure to ask for a review from your audience after giving a speech so as to know how you can improve. One key tool for improvement is feedback.
While trying to achieve mastery in speaking, you should remember that being able to inspire an audience is a gradual process and you should start speaking to smaller crowds and then increase your audience gradually.
Imagine you being able to achieve mastery in speaking and you could ultimately capture your audience and hypnotize them into paying attention to you, body and mind. It would not be easy, but it is possible.
