How to improve your speaking skills starting right now?

Venkatesh Rao
Jul 20, 2017 · 6 min read
Photo by Jason Rosewell on Unsplash

Speaking succinctly with confidence is an art and we all have our struggles with it. There are times when we belabor and disengage our audience and other times when we say very little leaving the listeners wanting for more. The less prepared we are for a discussion, the more we scramble to say it right. However, this is something that can be dealt with and overcome once you accept your shortcomings and start working on them.

A few years ago, I received feedback that I often take the long and windy road to convey my viewpoint rather than stating it in simple sentences. My listeners had to put in the extra effort to understand what I was trying to put forth. Often times after I spoke, somebody would add, ‘so in summary, what we are saying is ..’. I was hurt, because back in school I was the debate captain, praised for my eloquence. In all these years, I had clearly lost touch!

It was time for some introspection. I came up with a simple rule — to pause and think for a moment before speaking each sentence — and that in itself helped me a lot more than I’d expected. Over time, I’ve thought more about this and decided it would be a nice idea to write down a list of ideas to combat this weakness. Personally, I haven’t tried all that I’m writing down, but that’s because every individual is different! Some ideas turned out to be more effective than others for me.

Not in any priority order, here’s the list of ideas to improve your speaking skills:

1. Avoid verbal fillers and redundancies.

I’m not a native English speaker, but I have been learning English since I was four. But that has not stopped me from starting sentences with ‘uhh’, ‘hmmm’ and the long ‘sooo…’! I frequently catch myself using filler words such as ‘like’, ‘basically’ and ‘actually’. While this came very naturally to me, I can only imagine the frustration as a listener! I realized I was doing this for two reasons — (1) habit and (2) fill up the silence. Habits are hard to break and it takes some effort and patience, but something can be done immediately for the second reason. Every time you are about to start a sentence, or fill a silent moment, catch yourself in the act and pause immediately. Think on what you are about to say and find an alternate beginning or let the silent moment just be. Come up with synonyms for these filler words and see it sounds any better:

  • Like -> ‘similar’, ‘equivalent’, ‘comparable’.
  • Basically -> ‘at the core of’, ‘fundamental principle’.
  • Actually -> ‘in reality’, ‘in fact’.

After you’ve substituted a filler word with another word or a phrase you may just see why this was a ‘filler’ to begin with.

2. Start listening to a podcast.

A podcast is a great example of quality speech. The creators have the onus of presenting an interesting topic in a manner that keeps the listeners engaged throughout the show. Carefully listen to how the topic is introduced, discussed and later summarized. NPR’s Planet Money is a great podcast for this exercise, listen to their talk on Spreadsheets!

3. Pick two great public speakers and listen to them.

What better way than to learn it from the professionals! For me, it was just one — President Obama. I listened to his long speeches and quick short answers. He does not hesitate to pause and ponder, but when he delivers, you can be assured it’s top quality. Check out this video where he takes questions from White House interns.

4. Start writing crisp emails.

What you are trying to do here is improve your thought process. If you can think clearly, you can write it concisely and state it precisely. On a high level, stick to a framework:

  • Why you are writing this email? [introduction]
  • What message do you want to convey? [subject matter]
  • What are the next steps for the reader? [conclusion]

Writing such emails will force you to weed out all the redundant words and sentences. Compare your emails from before with the ones you are trying to write now, when you see the mistakes for yourself, the remedy becomes obvious.

5. Read two articles a week.

After advice on ‘listening’ and ‘writing’, I’m sure you saw this coming! But don’t just read passively, carefully observe the choice of words, construction of sentences and paragraph transitions. Ask yourself, “how would you have said the same thing?” Try to write a 100 words summarizing the article you just read or try describing it in short to your friend without him or her losing interest. Thanks to the internet, there’s no dearth of good articles. As a start, try opinion pieces on cnn, if that’s the sort of thing you care about!

6. Maintain calm.

You need to develop a stamina for healthy debate. Often times we are thrown off the track by someone contradicting us and we either start spewing verbose arguments that do us little good or remain stoically silent losing out the opportunity to explain our viewpoint. So don’t get rattled and tell yourself that it’s perfectly alright to take a moment to reflect on what was just said and plan your next move.

7. Actively utilize your professional interactions.

Treat all professional interactions as your playground. Prepare for your meetings by taking the time to clearly laying out the agenda, practice taking notes during the meeting, try convincing somebody of your ideas, say yes to that presentation you’ve been avoiding, don’t let your meetings run over time, ask for feedback from colleagues and simply do more to maximize your interactions with the people around you.

8. Talk to an 8 year old.

Having to describe a phenomena or event is one of the true tests of your speaking skills. No matter how complicated the subject matter, make an attempt to explain it as if you were talking to an 8 year old kid. That will force you to use short and simple sentences and let your thoughts flow coherently. Start by defining the topic in a single sentence before diving into the details. Look for cues to gauge the audience engagement and repeat certain portions as appropriate. Be polite, keep calm and gear up for a long conversation if you have to. After all, your success is not just in delivering the content, but making sure that the audience gets it.

9. Join a group.

Find a group at school, work, local community or start a new speaking club! Working with people who are on the same journey will force you to be more disciplined and accelerate your learning. In a group, you will get the opportunity to not just be a student, but also be a teacher/mentor to someone. A simple Google or Facebook search should help you find such groups. For instance, check out Toastmasters.

10. Boost your confidence!

It goes without saying that a positive attitude can take you a long way. Help yourself by doing everything possible to keep that morale high. Simple things such as a nice haircut, freshly ironed clothes, good posture and a warm smile can do wonders. If you can see yourself as a great speaker, you will eventually become one.

Now that you’ve unlocked the secrets to improving your speaking skills, go try them out, the world is your oyster! Experiment and find out what helps and what doesn’t. This is a process and the more you iterate and improvise the better you’ll get. Hopefully, I’ve shown you somewhat of a path to speed up the process, Happy Speaking!

Feel free to ask me questions and share your feedback, I’d love to hear your thoughts! And if you liked the article, please do share and recommend!

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Venkatesh Rao

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Spouts of creativity from a Tech MBA in Silicon Valley.

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