Mastering the Art of Public Speaking: A Habitual Approach
I'm always grimacing when I see the PowerPoint slides. Every presenter has this long list of bullet points for their presentation and it makes me cringe. I imagine myself up there talking to a group of people, covering every point on the list and not really having anything important to say. The audience is sitting there bored out of their mind waiting for me to get off my soapbox so they can get on with their lives again. Not ideal.
The good news is that the way we present information has changed. We no longer have to rely on Powerpoint slides and we don't have to talk for ten minutes before they're interested in what we're saying. To make things clearer, I'm going to use a quote from Tom Peters here: "The best use of your time is not to stand up and talk, it's to sit down and listen."
The topic I'd like to talk about today is public speaking—about what exactly you need to do if you want to be a confident presenter and how you can gain mastery over your nervousness through practice. I'm going to be honest…giving speeches is not something I've enjoyed doing for a long time. This used to frighten me and I'd avoid it whenever possible. Until I had the opportunity to actually sit down and study how this kind of communication works, my approach was all wrong, so let's take a look at that first.
What is public speaking?
We hear the word speech thrown around so much in daily life it's almost lost its meaning. Yet, what do we really know about what actually goes on during a speech? What makes something a great speech? To answer these questions let's take a look at the definition of public speaking…
public speaking : 1. The use of speech to communicate ideas. 2. The art, practice, or ability of giving effective formal speeches…
We can see that public speaking is a combination of art and practice, which makes it a craft in itself. Basically public speaking is communication by verbal means aimed at an audience. It can be delivered in person or using any number of media such as TV, radio or the written word. We are the target audience and there will be others listening as well as the people we are trying to reach through whatever medium we are using. We want them to have an affect on our message so what we say matters to them and they are motivated to act accordingly—to some degree, at least.
When I first started giving speeches I would get nervous and go blank. I'd have a topic in mind but wouldn't know how to begin my speech or how to convey my message properly. This led to some pretty bad speeches! So what are the kinds of things that go through your head when you're at the podium?
You're afraid people will laugh at you. You hope no one heckles you. You are worried that you will look stupid if you make a mistake. You worry about embarrassing yourself (and others) on stage. You are embarrassed by the fact that you're not good enough to give a speech—you just want to run and hide from the audience. You worry about what to wear, whether you'll mess up your hair and if people will be able to hear you. The list is endless—you have all kinds of reasons for being nervous.
Like anything in life, it's important to remember that we're going to make mistakes when we talk but that doesn't mean we should avoid giving speeches altogether. What's really important is learning how to handle those mistakes so as not let them affect our steadiness or self-confidence on stage. The key is to know what we're doing up there and why we're giving a speech in the first place.
There are three reasons why we give speeches:
1. To inform—the main idea behind this is to help people learn something new. It can be information about something that has already happened, it can be a description of an opinion or it can even be instruction on how to do something. The basic idea is that you want the audience to gather information from your speech and that they retain at least some of it after you're done talking.
2. To persuade—again, this is an attempt to get the audience to change their minds about something. Some people try to convince others that things are good and worth pursuing, whereas others want people to change their minds and stop doing things they've been doing. In either case, the goal of persuasion is for the audience to take action based on what they have been told in your speech.
3. To entertain—this is just pure fun! For some people this may be a strong factor during their speeches but for others it's not necessary at all as they make an effort at being entertaining or they leave plenty of room in their speech for laughter and fun.
I hope that so far you can see a pattern emerging here—all three of these reasons fall under the umbrella of communication. We communicate—to ourselves and to others. This is our main purpose. Let's say that someone asked you, "Why did you give that speech?" And your answer was, "Because I wanted to." That doesn't tell us anything about why you gave the speech.
What's the goal of your speeches? What are you trying to get out of it other than just speaking in front of a group of people? You need to have an answer to those questions before we go on because this will affect the actual process of speaking and whether or not you succeed in getting people on board with what you're saying.
So—whatever the reason for giving your speech—try to make it comfortable for you. I'm not saying you should have no fear of what's going to happen on stage, but as long as you can deal with nervousness and keep yourself calm in the face of difficulties, that's a good start. Let me tell you a story about a speaker who didn't do this and what happened as a result…
Once there was this guy named Marc. He had been told he was well-spoken and a good public speaker so he decided to give talks at his company, where he also worked as an editor. He was so nervous when he gave his first speech that he made a big deal out of drinking some beer and having a few drinks with his colleagues at the end. The following day, Marc got more nervous, even though everyone told him to relax.
He did manage to make it through the talk but shortly after, he had a heart attack. Why? Because he drank too much alcohol that night and wasn't prepared for it! The next time Marc gave any public speech he didn't drink anything and that made all the difference!
So—don't get yourself into such serious trouble just because you're nervous.
Conclusion
I hope you've enjoyed reading this article and are inspired to give more speeches. If you do, I recommend using Presentation Zen to make the process a little easier.