A Short
Guide to Effective Public Speaking
Delivering
an effective presentation to 20 or to
200 people is difficult. Because listeners have better
access to information since the internet became commonplace,
audiences expect more content from speakers today. In
addition, because of the entertainment slant of most
media today, audiences want a presentation
delivered with animation,
humor, and pizzazz.
If you would rather spend your time preparing your content
than reading a book on public speaking, this is an article
especially for you! From my experiences in delivering
over l500 speeches during the past 20 years,
here is a quick guide to giving an effective
and interesting presentation your
very first time.
Begin with something to get the attention
of the audience. This might be a startling statement,
statistic, or your own story. Listeners pay close attention
when a person begins with, “Two weeks ago as I
was driving to work a car pulled out in front of me….”
You could begin with a current event: “You might
have read in the paper this morning about the flood
that….” A question is another way to make
people listen. “How many of you feel our society
spends too much on medical care?” might be a way
to begin
a presentation about curbing costs.
Whatever technique you use, when you grab the attention
of the audience you are on your way to a
successful speech.
Second, be energetic in delivery. Speak with variety
in your voice. Slow down for a dramatic point and speed
up to show excitement. Pause occasionally for effect.
Don’t just stand behind the lectern, but move
a step away to make a point. When you are encouraging
your audience, take a step toward them. Gesture
to show how big or wide or tall or small an object is
that you are describing. Demonstrate how something works
or looks or moves as you tell about it. Show facial
expression as you speak. Smile when talking about something
pleasant and let your face show other emotions as you
tell about an event or activity. Whatever your movements,
they should have purpose.
Structure
your speech. Don’t have more than two
or three main points, and preview in the beginning what
those points will be. With each point, have two or three
pieces of support, such as examples, definitions, testimony,
or statistics. Visual aids are important when you want
your audience
to understand a process or concept or understand a financial
goal. Line graphs are best for trends. Bar graphs are
best for comparisons and pie graphs are best for showing
distribution of percentages.
Tie your points together with transitions. These could
be signposts such as “First,” “Second,”
or "Finally." Use an internal summary by simply
including the point you just made and telling what you
plan to talk about next. “Now that we have talked
about structure, let’s move on to the use of stories,”
would be an example. When you have an introduction,
two or three main points with support for each, appropriate
transitions, and a conclusion, you will have
your speech organized in a way that the audience
can follow you easily.
Tell
your own story somewhere in the presentation--especially
in a technical presentation. Include a
personal experience that connects to your speech
content, and the audience will connect with you. You
want to help the audience link emotionally with what
you are talking about, and the personal experience does
that. With almost any topic you might choose, you have
at least one “war story” to relate to the
topic. When you tell the story, simply start at the
beginning and move chronologically through the narrative,
including answers to the “W” questions:
“Who,” What, “When,” "Why,"
and “Where.”
To
add interest and understanding to your speech,
include a visual aid. A visual aid could be an object,
a flip chart, a PowerPoint presentation,
overhead projector slides, or a dry erase board. Whatever
visual you are using, make sure everyone can see it.
The best way to insure this is to put the visual where
you will be speaking, and then find the seat farthest
from it and determine if you can read the visual from
that seat. Introduce the visual properly rather than
simply throwing it at your audience; explain what the
visual will do before you unveil it. Don’t allow
the visual to become a silent demonstration. Keep talking
as you show the visual. You are still the main event
and your visual is an aid. Look at your audience, not
your visual. When the visual is not in use, hide it
from the audience. Humans are a curious lot, tending
to keep looking at the object and losing track of the
speaker—you!
If you are delivering a persuasive
speech, in addition to your own stories include
testimony of experts whom the audience respects and
whose views reinforce your points. Add a key statistic
when possible to show the seriousness of what you are
discussing. For example, if I were discussing the need
for improved listening to better serve your customers,
I might add that although we spend half of our communication
time in listening, our listening efficiency is only
about 25%. By using stories, testimony, and statistics
in your persuasive talk, you add depth to your evidence.
Look
at the audience as you speak. If it is a small audience,
you can look at each person in a short period of time.
If it is a large audience, look at the audience in small
“clumps” and move from one clump to another.
One way to insure good eye contact is to look at your
audience before you start to speak. Go to the lectern
and pause, smile, look at the audience, and then speak.
This will help you maintain good eye
contact throughout your presentation
as well as commanding immediate attention.
One
of the ways to have consistently good eye contact is
not to read your speech. Use note cards that
have key words on them. The word or phrase should trigger
the thought in your mind and then you can speak it.
If you are including a quotation or complex statistics,
reading from your note card actually lends credibility.
If you write out your speech you will tend to
read it and lose eye contact with the audience, as well
as not being as enthusiastic in delivery as when you
speak from note cards.
Include
a “wow” factor in your speech. Something
in your speech should make your audience think,
“Wow!” It could be a story, a dramatic point,
an unusual statistic, or an effective visual that helps
the audience understand immediately. With a “wow”
factor, you then have something to look forward to in
the speech that you know will have an impact
on your audience. You’ll become a more enthusiastic
speaker because the “wow” factor will get
you as well as your audience pumped for the speech.
Consider
using a touch of humor in your speech. Don’t panic
at this suggestion; you are not becoming a comedian
but rather lightening up a serious speech so that people
will be more accepting and interested in your ideas.
Humor will help you to be perceived as an amiable person,
and it is hard for people to disagree or be bored if
they are smiling at you. Until you have lots of experience,
keep your humor short. Perhaps inject a one-liner or
a quotation. Yogi Berra said a lot of funny things.
“You can observe a lot just by watching”
for example. Tell a short embarrassing moment in your
life that you might have thought not funny at the time.
Now that you can laugh at the experience, you understand
the old adage, “Humor is simply tragedy separated
by time and space.” Don’t poke fun at your
audience; you should be the object of any shortcoming,
showing that you can laugh at yourself. Avoid long stories
or jokes. Even seasoned speakers know that funny stories
soon become unfunny if they go on too long. Probably
the least risky use of humor is a cartoon. The cartoon
is separate from you and if people don’t laugh,
you don’t feel responsible. (Be sure to secure
permission to use it.)
Finally,
leave the audience with something to think about. People
remember best what you say last. You might summarize
your main points, or you might complete the statement,
“What I want you to do as a result of this presentation
is....” But beyond that, make your last words
a thought to ponder. For example, I might end a speech
on becoming a better speaker with “As Cicero said
centuries ago, 'The skill to do comes with the
doing.'”
A
more modern guide to effective public speaking was penned
by some unknown sage: "Know your stuff. Know whom
you are stuffing. Know when they are stuffed."
One
never becomes a “perfect” speaker; developing
public speaking skills is a life-long experience.
But the points discussed here will get you started in
becoming the speaker you want to be and the speaker
your audience wants to hear.
by
Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP
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