Great public speakers are made, not born. However, you can become a great public speaker overnight. It takes more than just reading off cue cards to be good. To improve your public speaking ability, you first need to understand the fundamental characteristics of a professional speaker. That’s why, in this article, we’ll cover some of the essential traits of a great public speaker. By having the drive to improve and practicing these traits every day, you, too, can become a great public speaker. Good luck!
Confidence
Confidence is one of the crucial traits of a great public speaker. If you don’t look like you believe what you’re saying and you lack confidence, you’ll never be able to connect with your audience. While you can’t completely shut off the nervous part of your brain, you need to figure out a way to handle it so it doesn’t show on stage. The easiest way to do it is by practice. If you spend time practicing your speech and are familiar with the subject matter, it will be simpler to deliver it with confidence.
Additionally, your body language might convey your level of confidence. Make sure to look your audience in the eye, walk around the stage, and utilize different hand motions to illustrate your arguments.
Excitement
If you are genuinely passionate about your topic, it will come over in your presentation, overpowering whatever anxiety you may be experiencing. According to studies, people who describe their nervousness as enthusiasm find it easier to communicate.
Moreover, coming off as excited when you’re delivering a speech makes audiences more likely to trust you. They’ll also pick up on your contagious energy and feel more excited about the subject.
Conciseness
Keep your presentation concise and on track whether you’re holding a live speech or doing an online presentation. You have to understand that the attention span of your audience is limited. You must grab and hold their attention by making sure to cover all of your arguments succinctly and clearly. If your presentation is too long, consider cutting it up into smaller chunks or adding variety to how you tell the story.
Varied Delivery
Short attention spans make it unlikely that many audience members would pay attention to you rambling on for 20 minutes while pointing at PowerPoint slides. Therefore, to avoid losing your audience, switch things up often by shifting your posture, altering your tone, changing how you present, interacting with the audience, introducing other speakers, showing a video, etc.
Speak Clearly
Great speakers keep it simple. They speak in brief sentences. Explain complex subjects in simple terms so that everyone may grasp them. And they don’t use specific terminology to flaunt their knowledge. Instead, they employ metaphors and analogies that we can all relate to. So, don’t just keep the speech short. Cut all the unnecessary words out of your sentences. Make sure your audience understands you; that’s what’s most important.
Storytelling
It is more engaging and successful when a presentation doesn’t feel like a presentation. Know how to engage your audience with your tale. Give them the background on anything you are telling them. Share your experiences and the tales that got you where you are, rather than just statistics and official information. Share additional experiences or stories from history or from individuals you know if it isn’t your personal narrative. Stories can help your audience remember things better because they increase audience engagement with your presentation.
Authenticity
On stage, all you have to do is be yourself; there’s no need to pretend to be someone else. If you need to stray somewhat from the well-crafted presentation to add a personal touch, go for it! Don’t be afraid to add a little humor and sincerity.
Of course, you should rehearse your speech as much as possible to be confident, but you don’t want to learn it by heart. When you memorize a speech, if you don’t say a line quite perfectly, you can stumble over it and make a bigger mistake than you would’ve if you hadn’t tried to deliver it perfectly.
Knowledge About the Subject
You can be a confident, charming speaker who speaks in clear sentences, but if you lack knowledge about the subject, everybody will notice it. You can’t fool your audience. If you try pretending to know about a topic without actually knowing anything, everybody will see right through you.
For example, you can tell the entire audience how to move to a new house or about moving in Denver. But if you’ve never done it yourself, there’ll be apparent holes in your experience. However, you can mix the experiences to convey a confident story. In other words, a reliable team can assist you with relocation and do nearly everything, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use that experience as part of your story. So, if you lack specific information about moving and must speak about it, remember the moving crew that helped you. Just don’t oversell your story and make it as if it was an experience you entirely had on your own.
Not Being Afraid to Fail
Much like in real life, public speaking comes down to two things: trial and error. A flawless presentation does not exist. Every endeavor is a new test. If you want to be a successful speaker, you must be prepared to fail along the road. A speaker unwilling to take risks won’t be very good, and they’ll never get out of their comfort zone and fully engage with an audience.
Final Thoughts
Making use of these essential traits of a great public speaker may make or break a presentation. Before you start planning your presentation, consider a few things. First, consider how you would react before creating a presentation. Consider if you are interested in and enthusiastic about your presentation and the data you deliver. To connect, relate to, and engage your audience as a successful speaker, you must be prepared to think not just outside but beyond the box. Ensure that the tale you tell will be one that your audience will be interested in hearing and will remember when the presentation is over. Finally, to truly be a great public speaker, never stop practicing.