Social engineering becomes much more accessible and doable when you’re a public speaker because you will seem more convincing and more enjoyable to talk to, listen to, and interact with. In today’s article, we will be discussing the importance of public speaking as a must-have social skill and how you can acquire it and improve it over time.
What You Should Know About Public Speaking?
Think of any TED Talk you have watched before; that is exactly what public speaking is. It’s the action of doing a live presentation before an audience. The topic of this presentation would vary from one interest to another, and it’s often supplemented with a slideshow or any other sort of visual aid to keep the listeners more interested and engaged in what the speaker is trying to say and present.
The main idea that comes to mind about the difference between public presentations and online presentations is that a public presentation can’t be found online at any given moment. Therefore, it has to provide new ideas and a good way to present them to let the people on the receiving end feel like listening to you is worth the effort.
Now, you might be wondering, “What is the importance of such a skill? What good would it do for me to bother working on it in the first place?” Well, acquiring this skill will make your life better in a number of ways, such as:
1. It Gives You an Instant Boost of Confidence:
Overcoming the fear and anxiety of talking to people will remove the barrier between you and them and make you the ultimate icebreaker.
2. It Enhances Your Career:
Public speaking skills make you stand out from the crowd and allow you to give your insights in an interesting way to people around you, which consequently makes you the better candidate in most cases.
3. It Enhances Your Communication Skills:
Speaking to a large number of people requires you to turn on all of your communication skills and use them all at once. This makes it the perfect way to put all of your experience to use, improve it, and unlock new skills you didn’t know about.
4. The Perfect Way to Gain More Connections:
Public speaking teaches you how to effectively talk to people, as it’s the ultimate form of communication. Therefore, talking to a smaller crowd would be much easier for you. This would expand your professional horizon because you would be meeting new people and gaining more connections all the time.
With that being said, let’s find out how to improve your public speaking skills.
How to Improve Public Speaking?
You can improve your public speaking skills and become more comfortable giving presentations and speeches by incorporating several public speaking methods and tips into your daily life. A few of these best practices include paying attention to your body language, watching how professional and talented public speakers do their thing, practicing breath control, and preparing very well ahead of time. Listed below is a small list of tips and tricks that you can try to improve your public speaking.
1. Learn From The Best:
If you want to become like the greats, you have to study the greats. By watching experienced and professional public speakers give presentations, you can start noticing and taking notes of what they are doing, their methods and techniques, their body language, all the way down to the small details like when to take a pause or a breath, when to use your visual aids, and when to interact with people at the right time to keep them engaged.
2. Use Humor Effectively and Wisely:
Humor is one of the main things a public speaker should focus on. A healthy and well-balanced portion of it will make your presentation much more fun and memorable. It’s exactly like what your favorite teacher in school used to do to get your attention and keep it.
3. Mind Your Body Language:
It is important to maintain good body language during your performance so that your audience can take in and remember what you are saying. Crossing your arms or putting your hands in your pockets is not a good idea. When you make your points, keep your arms at your sides and use purposeful hand gestures. View the audience from the front. Keep your eyes on your notes or the ground rather than staring at them for too long. The more confident you become, the more likely you are to make eye contact with the people who are watching you. A relaxed body language makes the audience feel more included and less alienated or excluded from your presentation.
4. Control Your Breath:
The experience of public speaking can affect people's sense of time, causing them to speak faster than normal. When presenting, keep a steady pace and be aware of this phenomenon. The audience will be able to better understand what you say if you can calm your nerves. You can accomplish this by controlling your breath. Breathe air into your lungs by pushing air with your stomach. Take ten slow, deep breaths before you begin speaking in public.
5. Be Very Well Prepared for Your Presentation:
When you go to your presentation not fully prepared, your audience will notice, and it will affect your reputation if you do this many times. This is not the impression you want to give to your audience. If you’re not even interested in the topic enough to come prepared, what would your audience be like? Ensure your audience knows, feels, and understands the main points of your speech before you begin delivering it. Prepare a series of talking points before your speech. Identify three to five main points, then outline several supporting points after that. Make sure your talking points are organized in chronological order, starting with the most important message. A presentation outline will keep you on track and ensure you don't forget anything during your presentation.
Bottom Line:
Being afraid and/or anxious about speaking in front of a lot of people is very understandable. But growth can’t begin if you spend your life in your comfort zone. You have to step out of it every now and then to expand it with more new experiences and more new skills.
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