5 Things You Should Improve about your Public Speaking Performance

When it comes to public speaking, no matter how experienced and skilled you are, you will always feel a little fear inside. Yet, you fully understand that being able to deliver your message across and reach an audience will often mean the difference between advancement and seeing no improvement at all.

Public speaking comes with a set of skills that you can work on improving, to reach more people and share your ideas in a better. Needless to say, this is always a good thing, regardless of who you are presenting to. To become better, you should improve in the following aspects:

• The preparation period for the speech — regardless of what you are going to deliver a speech/presentation on, you need to be ready for it. This means you have to do your research and truly invest time in it. After all, people will hardly be interested in anything you have to say if you don’t sound credible enough. Invest the time to learn all there is to learn about the subject, and you will show yourself as a reliable source for that sort of information. Give yourself plenty of time to prepare.
• The way you rehearse — believe it or not, the most essential part of your public speech is not the delivery of the message, but the practice you get for it. Once you have the material down, it is time to practice how you will communicate the message. You need to step up your rehearsal game. Don’t just stand there in front of the mirror, but ask family and friends to listen to you, or make a video of yourself doing the presentation. Get feedback on it and see if there is anything you can improve. That way you will be better able to identify mistakes and overcome your anxiety.
• Mind your body language — sometimes it is not about what you say that matters most, but what you do. In public speaking, you always have to be mindful of your body language and what it conveys. Your facial expression, your gestures and the way you walk around all matter to your audience and can mean the difference between a successfully understood message and people losing interest in your presentation. Be more natural with your movements and expressions, and you will succeed.
• Your beliefs about public speaking — a lot of people view public speaking as a test to their skills, their credibility and position. They think the audience is there to evaluate them and judge them. Others focus more on the communication aspect of public speaking and try not to show themselves in the best light, but to present their ideas in the best way. Obviously, the second belief about public speaking is a lot better, and that is why you should work to adopt it. You will become a much more successful presenter then.
• The way you start your presentation — don’t ever start with a boring sentence like Today I am going to talk to you about… There is plenty of time for the audience to find out what you are going to present. It is much better to start with an interesting question, a shocking statistic or perhaps even a funny story. This is going to set you off to a good start and make things easier from there on.

Taking the time to improve in all of these aspects is going to have a positive impact on the way you deliver presentations and public speeches.

Remember, at Presence Training you can find even more tips on how to become a better public speaker.

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