Even the smartest among us get nervous when it comes to speaking something before an organized audience. If you think deeply, you will find that the cause of fear does not relate to the lack of your skills, but to lack of your confidence. Just make a list of the qualities in your possession that can make you a remarkable public speaker.
Most of you will be amazed to find the range of advantages that you naturally have to emerge as a winning public speaker. Only you were not aware of these before.
Some of you might have a superb command over language, some of you might have the perfect baritone and thus the list can be endless and requires only some exploration on the part of you.
Now that you are well aware of your virtues, this is the time for working on them. To put it rightly we can borrow the words of Cicero, a celebrated orator himself that, ‘The skill to do comes with the doing to put it more simply, practice makes you perfect and this cannot truer of any other field than public speaking.
In the words of those who experienced success in the field of public speaking, it is an ability that needs practice to attain perfection.
Just like anything else in life, you cannot excel as public speaker if you do not prepare you in the adequate manner. Public speaking is completely different from simple conversation as public speaking has a definite orientation.
In public speaking you are taking the audience to a certain direction and for that you have to hold their attention for a considerable stretch of time.
This is difficult and there are the tricks that you have to master to keep your audience enthralled by your talking. And for this you need lots of rehearsals.
If you are an aspiring public speaker, one thing you can do for practice and that is developing a habit of talking on some topic in informal gatherings either in office or in your personal circle.
This will polish up your skills of speaking, make you aware of the choice of words, help to improve on your body language and most importantly it will help to reduce your fear in speaking in public and add to your confidence.
I had a friend who had a habit of brushing up with his speeches by practicing it over and over again in his friend circle or in the presence of family members just before the day of seminar. It really worked and that friend of mine today is an eminent speaker.
In the absence of a supportive friends group or family, you have to do it yourself. Just delivering the speech loudly in front of the mirror becomes extremely helpful. You are the best critic of yourself and observing yourself in your reflection you can make the necessary corrections with regard to the overall mode of presentation.
Take notice of the aspects like facial expressions, gestures and posture. It will act to your advantage by pointing out the areas where you need corrections. Try to adopt the best bearing that suits the subject of your speech.
Sometimes we unconsciously bear the facial expression that is contrary to what we are actually talking. So be careful your tone and your expressions support perfectly what you are talking.
If you are not confident about your movements or holding a microphone in your hands, make a practice of walking up and down the room holding a mouthpiece.
Another important point to consider is whenever you are making a practice be sure to rehearse it in the way you are going to deliver in reality. Use all the props like pictures or use the laptop if you are going to deliver a power point presentation. Also prepare yourself properly for the question and answer session.
Remember that if you come unprepared you are going to make the costliest mistake of your public speaking career. Then an audience is sparing their time to hear something from you that is worth their time.
So you cannot let down your audience by coming unprepared and stumbling in every step of your speech. When you are practicing before a group of a people, be open to their opinions, accept their criticisms; it will only help you develop as an excellent public speaker.
