7 Strategies to Become a Better Public Speaker

"I'm never going to speak in public..." — you've probably said it more than once. And if you're one of the 8% of people who always work entirely alone, you might be right. For the other 92%, knowing how to become a good speaker can make a huge difference to your success. It simply pays to know how to talk to people. Here's how to become a better speaker, so every team meeting or presentation to an audience works in your favor.

We all speak in public sometimes

Yes, you too! You can do it well, or you can do it badly. How you speak to others strongly shapes what people think of you — and the pressure only grows if it has to happen in your second language. Luckily, I have two pieces of good news: speaking to people is a skill you can learn, just like riding a bike, and while you're learning to speak, you won't scrape your knees or elbows.

Public speaking in the pandemic era

The pandemic, and the shift to remote work, showed us it's worth learning to communicate differently than before. Hours of video calls demand strong communication skills, and hiding behind a screen doesn't exactly build your confidence with people. Whether you're sitting in front of a flickering monitor or meeting people face to face, presenting yourself and your company well still matters.

How to become a good speaker — strategies

“ If you don't know what you want to achieve with your presentation, your audience never will. “

Harvey Diamond

The most important thing in any public appearance is the goal you want to achieve through it. That overarching goal usually falls into one of three categories: educational (your audience should learn a new skill), persuasive (your audience should do something after the presentation), or relational (your goal is to present yourself, for example as the new face on the leadership team). The simplest way to define your presentation's goal is the SMART method.

1. Think positive

“ Start thinking positively. Positive thinking produces positive results, and every problem has a solution. “

Ryszard Kusek

Positive thinking is the key to everything you do — it gives you the motivation to change and makes it easier to accept stressful situations. Fear makes it far too easy to spiral into negative thoughts. Don't let it.

2. Plan your presentations

Think about how important a book's opening paragraph is — if the text doesn't grab you, you'll probably put it back on the shelf. The same rule applies to your presentation: you need to intrigue your listeners right from the start. As Winston Churchill put it: "A speech should exhaust the topic, not the audience."

• •Use tools like the rhetorical triangle (speaker credibility, emotion, logic) or the 7 Cs of communication (clear, concise, concrete, correct, coherent, complete, courteous) to structure your talk.
• •Open with an interesting statistic, headline, or fact that resonates with your audience.
• •Use a story to open your presentation and draw your audience in.
• •Look for opportunities to speak in front of others — practice makes perfect.
• •Rehearse every talk using the same resources you'll rely on during the actual presentation.

Keep in mind: not every talk you give will be prepared in advance, but over time you'll build good habits. Knowing your field well and anticipating awkward questions will also give you more confidence speaking to people.

3. Practice to become a master

"Practice makes perfect" isn't entirely true. When it comes to public speaking, only good practice makes perfect. As Ralph Waldo Emerson argued, "All the great speakers were bad speakers at first." If your goal is public speaking in your second language, you're probably feeling even more pressure and fear of being judged — which is exactly why both your determination and the right coaching matter here.

• •Look for opportunities to speak in front of others — deliberately put yourself in situations that require interpersonal communication, like speaking up during a training session at work.
• •Don't leave your outline for the last minute — planning ahead reduces stage fright and lets you make adjustments before the real thing.

4. Engage your audience

When speaking in public, avoid turning into a lecturer — people don't warm to talking heads. Engage your audience by asking questions or inviting reactions to specific points. People who help create something with you will listen more closely, and they won't punish you unfairly if you trip over your words.

• •Choose your words carefully — build shorter, precise sentences and avoid filler like "actually," "I think," or "just," which chip away at your authority.
• •Pay attention to your pace — slow down while keeping it natural, and breathe calmly to give yourself time to gather your thoughts.
• •Avoid reading your speech off a page — make a list of key points and make sure you can expand on them without reading.

5. Master your body language

“ 90% of how a talk goes is determined by what the speaker did before walking on stage. “

Somers White

Even without saying a word, you communicate a great deal through body language — facial expressions, movement and posture, gestures, eye contact, your voice and its tone. All of it shapes how others perceive you and whether they trust what you're saying.

• •Start your presentation with a smile — your audience will be more receptive to you and to what you have to say.
• •Keep an open posture — don't cross your arms, take your hands out of your pockets, and use them to make your point.
• •Stand up straight, don't lean on one leg — you can also walk around and use gestures to engage the audience.
• •Don't overdo the movement — excessive gesturing signals to your audience that you're uncomfortable.

6. Master your nerves

Fear has big eyes — the moment you step in front of a group, your imagination starts inventing wild stories and worst-case scenarios that rarely come true. Many people name public speaking as their biggest fear, and at its core, that's usually a fear of failure.

• •Try to stop dwelling on your fear.
• •Focus on your audience — what you're saying is about their needs, not about you.
• •Before you go on, use deep-breathing exercises to slow your heart rate.
• •Think of your talk as a conversation with one friendly face in the crowd.

7. Get expert help, and record your talks

To make every public appearance better than the last, you need real feedback. Learning to speak in public is a process you can go through alone or with the help of an expert, a language coach. If you can, record your presentations — watching yourself back, you'll spot the things worth fixing: dead air, pauses that run too long, body language, how clearly you're getting your point across.

Not sure you can learn public speaking entirely on your own? If your job requires you to feel comfortable speaking to people, get some help. I'll teach you techniques to become a confident speaker and help you master the interpersonal communication skills that make public speaking feel natural.

Sources

• •Katherine Docimo and Kristy Littlehale, The Rhetorical Triangle: Ethos, Pathos, Logos. StoryboardThat.
• •Nonverbal Communication and Body Language. HelpGuide.org, Nov 15, 2022.
• •Tayyab Babar, 8 Fatal Body Language Mistakes To Avoid During Presentations. Lifehack, Mar 16, 2022.
• •Raja Farhan, Anxiety Level in Students of Public Speaking: Causes and Remedies. Journal of Education and Educational Development, Vol. 4 No. 1, June 2017.