7 Ways to Speak Confidently In Public
Confidence in public speaking immediately makes you the shining star of the gathering.
Public speaking, also called oratory, is the act of speaking eloquently and fluently in front of a live audience. It is the art of effectively exchanging your thoughts, viewpoints, and knowledge with others.
Roger Love beautifully defined public speaking as:
All speaking is public speaking, whether it’s to one person or a thousand.
Public speaking is an important requirement of many professions, like politics, teaching, law, business, industry, etc.
Many leaders become popular among the masses only because they speak in a magniloquent manner. The audience became impressed by the rhetoric they used in their speeches. Several talented students are often beaten by mediocre ones because they can’t confront a live audience.
But…!
Public speaking can never be effective without confidence. Confidence in public speaking immediately makes you the shining star of the gathering.
It also transforms you into a charismatic personality, which helps with audience retention. Additionally, confidence enables you to overcome fear, develop self-control, and instantly deliver an impromptu speech without any hesitation.
It is a common observation that those people who confidently talk in front of a live audience emerge as leaders, thinkers, and researchers. Confidence in public speaking enables them to win arguments, market their business, motivate or pursue others, and achieve career advancement.
Many people in the world have the gifted talent of public speaking, but they can’t utilize it because of their internal fear. It is confidence that gives you the power to boldly interact with the audience.
The following strategies will prove helpful in developing confidence and overcoming the fear of public speaking.
1. Develop an appropriate plan:
While addressing the public or giving presentations in front of an audience, it is essential to appropriately plan your speech and make a solid strategy.
Analyze the intensity of the topic and its importance for the audience. From beginning to end, make a list of important pointers and develop a strategy to grab the audience’s attention.
2. Practice to speak in front of others:
We have often heard that practice makes a man perfect. Practice develops the ability to speak more vibrantly, and logically in front of a live audience.
Without practice, you can’t become a self-reliant and captivating speaker.
You can practice your speech or presentation alone, but try to speak in front of other people. This will help a lot in developing self-confidence. Moreover, practicing speaking in front of others will prove your first step toward success.
This speaking practice also changes your attitude and develops a success-oriented mindset in you that will give you huge benefits in the long run.
3. Engage with your audience.
To speak confidently among the masses, it is essential to create audience engagement. Successful audience engagement makes people feel less isolated and results in active participation and an elevated level of satisfaction.
You can create audience engagement in the following ways:
- Ask a question
- Tell a story.
- Highlight the importance of the topic for listeners.
- Add some humor or offer a humorous anecdote.
- Share a personal experience or observation.
Use appropriate and vivid language in gatherings and public discussions that do not limit your authority or conviction.
Similarly, pay attention to your speaking style. Don’t mean language or talk quickly, as it increases the chances of tripping over your words. This also creates a sensation that the speaker lacks knowledge.
Talk normally and take pauses in the conversation. Never attempt to speak word by word from notes. Instead, write the main points on cue cards and speak verbally, referring to cue cards as needed.
4. Pay heed to your body language:
Body language is communication through physical behaviors that include facial expressions, eye contact, body postures, and the use of space.
It includes our all conscious and unconscious moves and gestures, through which our thoughts and feelings are communicated.
Body language is an unspoken part of communication and has more power than words because it voicelessly communicates important information.
In this regard, John Neffinger once said
It doesn’t matter how elegant the argument or inspiring the prose, a presentation won’t move anyone if the presenter isn’t visibly feeling what they are saying.
Many people use podiums for giving presentations or public speeches as they become crutches and provide a hideaway from many eyes that are on them.
Instead of hiding behind a podium, use space and gestures to engage your audience. This energy will also appear in your voice and make you a more active and passionate public speaker.
5. Develop a habit of positive thinking:
Positive thinking makes you confident and has a huge impact on your communication skills. Fear propels negative and self-sabotaging thoughts.
It leads you to fall into the cycle of negative thoughts right before you speak, such as “I can’t do this,” etc. It will make you insecure and hamper your ability to achieve something you are truly capable of.
Positivity boosts your confidence right before your speech and presentations. Use your visualization and imagine the feeling of successfully addressing the gathering. Always try to use positive affirmations, such as “I’m going to effectively give my speech and help the audience.”
6. Learn to effectively cope with nerves:
The ability to effectively cope with nerves is vital for public speaking. Before public speaking, many people mentally envision terrible things like the imagination of forgetting points or giving a horrible speech. It’s all because of nervousness.
Many people consider public speaking their biggest fear, that sometimes becomes the root cause of their failure. At times, our body will initiate a fight or flight response due to symptoms of sweating, palpitation, fast breathing, etc.
So before public speaking, win the battle of nerves. Just relax, and take a deep breath. Don’t be a coward and prepare yourself to courageously face the audience.
7. Regularly review your speeches:
It is necessary to consistently review your speeches after public speaking. In this regard, always accept feedback with an open heart and give value to public remarks and opinions. Always accentuate fully to analyze your strengths and weaknesses and work hard to improve them.
Additionally, during speeches, pay heed to nonverbal clues like the audience’s gestures and facial expressions and speak accordingly.
Conclusions:
Public speaking is an art, but without overcoming the fear of public speaking, this skill can never be polished. It is the confidence that sparks the talent for public speaking. Confidence allows you to graciously accept the opportunity of impromptu speeches at different occasions and ceremonies.
Public speaking does not involve just communication but many other factors like audience interests, presentation style, content structure, timing, etc. Public speakers can transform the lives of thousands of people around them through their elocution.
Oratory not only builds credibility in a long run but also enhances leadership and communication skills. Public speaking also embellishes the overall performance and provides chances for career advancement.
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