Tip #1

It would be difficult to rank which is the most important principle of all, but if there’s one it’s this: Know Your Audience.

Success in public speaking, on a single occasion or over the long term, depends on matching the speech to the crowd. In theory, you could find a group of twelve-year olds who were fascinated by the economics of tin production in Africa. But the odds are against you.

Both the content and the style should mesh well with the intended group of listeners. Whether you use humor, and what type, will depend on the group. Whether or not you are easy going or ‘all business’ depends on who is in front of you and when. The time and circumstances are part of the event, just as are the people. That determines the audience.
Tip #2

Be prepared. The old Boy Scout motto captures a universal truth and so is still relevant today. You want to appear – no, really be – competent. You want to project assurance and confidence, and the air that you know what you are talking about. That requires that you know your material cold.

A certain amount of nervousness affects almost everyone, especially when they’re first starting out in public speaking. But rehearsing and rehearsing until you know your speech backward and forward is essential. If you go to a play and the actor stumbles over the dialogue, it jars the audience.
Tip #3

Dress and Act the Part. This is related to understanding your material. In this case you are supplementing what’s conveyed to the audience by how you present yourself. Remember, there’s not just a speech being given. There’s a person giving it.

Dressing according to the occasion is important for projecting the right image to the audience. That may mean dressing more formally than the audience or it could involve dressing similar to them. The topic and the occasion will guide you. Your behavior should follow the same principle. Act like an authority – knowledgeable, but not pompous – and you’ll be perceived as one.
Tip #4

Focus On the Audience, Not the Speech. When you know your audience and your material, you can play to them the right way. Every speech is a performance. Except in those instances where the speech is simply recorded for later playback, you get feedback during the talk. Use it.

When you sense they’re getting restless, vary the pace. Pick it up when you need to, but don’t rush. If you know you have them hooked, you can draw out the suspense a little.
Tip #5

Practice, Practice, Practice. Like anything, your public speaking will improve as you gain experience. Don’t be too worried if your first few speeches don’t set the world on fire. Even the greatest actors had to learn their craft.

With experience comes confidence (and more speaking engagements). You’ll be more effective and your audience will be on the edge of the seat waiting to hear what you have to say next.

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It’s possible to go overboard analyzing the meaning behind every gesture. But it’s still true that the way you move, the gestures you use and the way your voice projects says something. You want that something to add to the speech, to keep it engaging for the audience. Fortunately, you don’t have to be a professional actor or take years of lessons to develop the needed skills. A little common sense and a fair amount of practice will take you far.

One of the most important elements to good delivery is to project confidence. That comes more easily to some than to others. But it’s important for all public speakers. A figure of authority is accepted as one and confidence is one of the best ways to convey that.

A certain amount of nervousness is natural, especially for beginners. But even experienced speakers will sometimes have a little bit of stage fright before a speech. For some, the feeling never goes away completely no matter how many speeches they deliver.

Not to worry. Just focus on the speech and the audience and not on your internal state. Keep your concentration on the job at hand and any feelings of fear you do experience will not interfere with your delivery.

Move about the stage if you can. Avoid simply standing behind a podium like a cardboard cutout. You don’t want your movements to distract, but a little motion keeps the audience following you. It also gives you a chance to observe whether they’re paying attention. As you watch the audience you can note whether they’re watching you intently, or drifting off.

Whether you inject humor, personal anecdote or keep the speech light will depend on the occasion. Most speeches will give you the opportunity to inject some meaningful story that helps you make the point. But match your body language and your voice to the style of the story, and the speech overall.

Some subjects don’t lend themselves readily to lighthearted humor. War, child abuse and other topics are most often taken seriously, and appropriately so. Matching your movements and gestures, and especially your tone of voice to the subject will create an integrated delivery. Talking about a subject the audience finds very personal and serious by cracking jokes will jar them. It will tend to alienate them. You want your movements and voice to help you keep them on your side and listening attentively.

Project well, make sure they can hear and see you at all times. Match your tone and movements to the subject. Appear the expert on the subject you are by your voice and body language. You’ll have them in the palm of your hand, hanging on every word.

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The first step is to have something to say that is worth hearing. But what that may be depends on two factors: the material and your audience. Just about any topic is worth exploring, but not necessarily with every audience. A group of mothers may be interested in foreign currency exchange, but the odds are against you. Unless, of course, you can talk about it in a way that engages their personal interests.

That suggests the second important point. The way a topic is treated is as important as the topic itself. Many public speakers will use humor as a method of livening up a talk. That’s a great way to go about it. Everyone enjoys a good joke or an amusing story. But, for truly effective public speaking, the humor is more than just a means for getting a laugh. It’s a way of bringing out an essential aspect of the topic in an engaging way.

But what is it to be engaging?

It means to create an interest for the audience in what you have to say, and you the speaker. That doesn’t mean public speaking is a vanity parade though that may be true of many political figures. But, as with a good novel or movie, the audience members should be on the edge of their chairs waiting to find out where the scene is going. They have to want to hear what’s being said now and how the story will develop. They have to want to get to the end to find out how it all turns out.

That can be a demanding goal. But it is made easier by observing how the pros do it.

It isn’t always feasible to listen to a number of public speakers before launching your first speech (though it would help). But you can and probably have watched a number of movies and TV shows. Pay careful attention to how the actors draw you in. Note a gesture or a look that makes you want to continue to watch the show rather than get up and get a snack. Putting on a performance is an important part of public speaking.

But the actors are not doing it all on their own. They are following the director’s instructions as guided by the script. You’ll usually have to be your own director and screenwriter. But, then, that’s part of the fun of public speaking: writing the speech.

Just as with the ‘performance’, observe how the TV show’s writers draw you in and make you want to know what happens next. Incorporate drama through describing an interesting setting with characters that endure risk and conflict. Resolve the ’story’ in unexpected but satisfying ways.

Tailor your public speaking style and content to your audiences’ interests and you’ll have them listening for as long as you want.

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Because those techniques are learned, you can learn them too.

Fear of looking foolish is one of the most basic, and most common, reasons that public speaking creates shyness or fear. No one wants to look incompetent in front of a group of people. But recognizing that the fear exists and is perfectly natural is the first step to overcoming it.

Start by practicing in the mirror. Note any awkward gestures, look for any portions of the speech where you find the phrases hard to say. Smooth them out by re-working them. Make it as easy on yourself as possible.

Then practice in front of one or two trusted friends or loved ones. Knowing that you have a forgiving audience will give you a little breathing room at the same time as you build confidence. It also gives you a chance to practice your speech until you know it cold. That way, you don’t have to worry about not being prepared. That’s another confidence builder.

In addition to providing practice in front of a forgiving audience, giving your speech to one or two others in advance let’s you spot any sections that are dull. Keep an eye on your audience. If you can’t interest friends in what you have to say, you probably aren’t going to thrill a room of strangers.

But choose that practice audience well. If you’re giving a speech on the politics of Zimbabwe to a busy mom with a two year old, she may be distracted for reasons having nothing to do with your talk. Don’t underestimate your audience, either, though. All kinds of people are interested in all kinds of things, if they’re discussed in an interesting way.

Having a solid speech helps. But practice delivering it in an interesting way as well. People relax when you are relaxed. Sometimes, you just have to fake it, at least at the beginning. Usually, once you get started the fear will disappear.

How does it do that?

Because by continuing on through the fear, you are focusing on the speech, not your nervousness. You can only hold so much in your mind at once. Turning your attention outward – to the audience, to the topic, to the event – keeps it from being turned inward on your uncomfortable feelings. Dwelling on the fear tends to increase it. Speaking through it tends to dissipate shyness.

Experience will help. The first speech you give may not be your best. But over time, by using these techniques, you will develop skill at public speaking. Before long, you’ll be an old pro.

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For those who think quickly on their feet, a skill useful to every public speaker, wit can go a long way toward defusing any heckling. A good line can ease tension and put the focus back where it belongs, on the speaker and the event.

Dr. Robert Sutton, a Professor of Management at Stanford University, tells the story of a lunch at a public restaurant soured by an insulting jerk. The atmosphere was typically fun-filled but his caustic comments ruined everyone’s enjoyment. Someone asked the jerk for his name, explaining that he was a perfect specimen for a book the man was writing on rude jerks. The heckler remained silent the rest of the lunch.

Still, you want to be careful to avoid nastiness whenever possible. It’s very easy for it to be turned around and make the speaker look like a bully. You don’t want to appear smug, since that will raise the tension in the room, not lower it. It adds further distraction and it will take longer to get the speech back on track.

But some people seeking attention simply won’t give up until they dominate the event. You might try ignoring the person for a while. Or, you might suggest that they talk to the organizers about getting their own speaking engagement. In the end, if all else fails, you have the right to have disruptive people removed from the event.

The circumstances will help guide you. But keep the focus on the speech, not the interruption, as much as possible.

Remember, too, that not all interruptions are bad. Some speakers enjoy spontaneous questions. In a more public meeting-style forum it’s appropriate for people to express an opinion out loud, even when one person is the major focus. But crowds can quickly get out of hand. An event can become counter-productive when multiple people are speaking. Listening, for everyone, becomes impossible.

Two more things are important when dealing with interruptions: keeping your cool and remembering your speech.

Holding your temper when faced with (possibly repeated) interruptions helps keep the audience on your side. You don’t sink to the level of the heckler. You remain dignified and he looks like the jerk. He loses. You win.

But it is also important because remaining calm will help you remember your speech and delivery. Every good public speaker will practice a speech, at least to the point where glancing at any written aids is minimal. Getting riled throws you off. It causes you to forget your speech and focus on the interruption. That’s exactly what you don’t want.

Most audience members will be cooperative. Most will naturally resent anyone who interrupts the speech. After all, they came to hear you, not some random audience member. Use that good will and be careful not to lose it. Keep the focus on you and the speech.

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Many of the principles that were effective then are still valid today.

A public speech to which no one listens is not a success by any reasonable measure. You may or may not inform, sway opinion or provide entertainment. But if what you say is ignored you have no chance at any of them. Keeping audience interest for the length of a speech, usually anywhere between twenty minutes and two hours, is a challenge. But there are several common sense ideas that will help you achieve just that.

A good public speaker projects an air that makes people want to listen, regardless of the topic and (to some extent) independent of the content. Body language, use of voice and gesture, and a variety of other techniques that can be learned are key. It’s a cliché that a good speaker can keep an audience spellbound reading from the phone book. An exaggeration, to be sure, but one containing a grain of truth.

Still, content is important. How you write the speech will go a long way toward keeping your audience intrigued. Often, injecting humor or relating an anecdote will work well. But take care to match the style and content of the speech with any humor or tale you tell. Serious subjects require discretion and judgment. Even more lighthearted speeches can go astray if the anecdote is just thrown in for effect.

You can be guided by the event and the expected audience. A gathering of businesspersons who came to hear a talk on international finance may well respond to a story of success won the hard way. Making it personal always helps. But few mothers who came to hear you speak on how to raise a child will be interested in off-color jokes about a politician’s bad behavior.

When you give that speech judge the audience you actually have, not just the one you expected. Watch them as carefully as you hope they are watching you. It isn’t difficult to tell the difference between a rapt audience, hanging on your every word, and one that has drifted off into multiple private conversations.

How you deliver the speech will help you achieve the first and avoid the latter. You may write the speech in full and read it word for word (so long as you don’t appear to be doing so). Or, you may prefer to make a few notes and improvise fleshing them out. That’s a matter of personal taste combined with experience and your skill set. But in every case, be sure you can deliver the content you want in a way that will keep the audience riveted. Appearing knowledgeable and in control of your material and delivery are key whichever method you choose.

Being a good public speaker can be learned by anyone. Practice, attention to detail and having something worth hearing will take you a long way.

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But what does that really mean? You can’t always be personally acquainted with all audience members. In most cases you won’t be. In some cases you may know none of them. The confusion can be largely cleared up by re-writing the rule to say: Judge Your Audience.

In today’s context that wording may be less than ideal. It’s possible to misinterpret it. It does NOT mean forming a moral opinion about the audience members. It means simply targeting your speech – both in content and style – for a particular audience.

Audience members will always vary in terms of age, education, gender, profession, experience and a wide array of other factors. But most audiences are as uniform as they are different. Most audiences for a particular event will have many things in common, determined in part by the fact that they chose to hear that particular speech.

A group composed almost exclusively of men who came to hear a speech on great golf techniques can be expected to have things in common. Though, of course, golf is popular with women and kids of both genders, too. They came to hear you talk about golf. That means they almost certainly have an interest in and have played the game.

Even an audience of diverse ages and backgrounds may still have some key things in common, if only because of their presence in the audience. Individuals who come to hear a talk about the possible effects of human-produced CO2 on global warming will certainly have a range of opinions and expertise on the subject. But they have all demonstrated an interest in the subject great enough to attend the talk.

So, target your content and style toward the audience you expect and adjust it for the audience you actually see and experience during the speech.

Before the speech you’ll need to find out as much as you can about who is likely to be listening. Are they mostly male professionals from Manhattan or are they mothers from a small farming community in Kansas? Don’t assume that one is sophisticated and the other not. Just get as much information about the actual audience as possible.

Then, on the day of the event, try to arrive early. Get a feel for who is arriving. During the speech you’ll get even more information. Pay attention to how they dress and how they act.

If they ask questions during the talk, note the content and style. Use all that to judge whether to speed up or slow down, whether to expand on certain areas and cut out others. Know your speech so well that you can tailor it during the talk. A longish story that was so amusing for one audience might go over better in a shorter version with another.

Judge your audience as carefully as you can before you meet them and when you do. Use that to make the best speech possible. For, one thing is almost guaranteed: not using it will result in a poorer speech than is possible.

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But not every speech has to contain humor. Sometimes it can even work against you.

There are some topics where humor simply isn’t appropriate. War, child abuse and a whole array of serious subjects just don’t lend themselves to amusing tales. Trying to do so will almost always alienate the audience, making them hostile to the speaker. That’s the last thing you want. An angry crowd isn’t geared toward listening carefully or sympathetically to what you have to say.

Selectivity and good taste will carry you far, here. Ask yourself if you would find the story amusing and appropriate. Then ask a couple of close friends or relatives. Widen the circle to include one or two people who don’t know you that well. Ask for objective feedback. Sometimes the occasion won’t be right. People find things funny at some times but not at others. But getting a sampling will help you decide.

Make sure the material is right for you. Not everyone is funny. Even a good joke can be badly told. In fact, at least half of a successful joke is just that – style. The late Johnny Carson often used (perhaps deliberately) so-so material. But he had the skill to put a spin on it that usually made the audience laugh. More contemporary comics like Jon Stewart are similar. They know how to make people laugh.

That skill can be learned (to a degree), but most public speakers are not professional comedians. Public speakers have much to concentrate on. If humor doesn’t come easily it may be better just to avoid it, or at least work up to it.

The humor should be an adjunct, not the main goal. Humor is best used not as a crutch but as a walking stick. It can help you get where you want to go, but the focus should remain on the topic and the content of the speech.

Humor can capture the essence of a point in a captivating way, or it can be a distraction. When it works the former way, it will help you convey as nothing else can just what you are driving at. It will be memorable, people will repeat the story. But when it doesn’t fit the topic, when it’s just thrown in to liven up an otherwise dull speech, it works against you.

If you can incorporate a funny story, one that the audience will actually find amusing, it’s a great tool. But a series of amusing stories is not a public speech, it’s a comedy performance.

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In the first method, the speaker has the advantage of knowing exactly what the speech will be in advance. It can be studied and memorized until the speaker knows it cold. That minimizes uncomfortable pauses and builds confidence. When the speaker talks fluidly with confidence an audience gets the impression that he or she has command of the subject. They’ll listen more intently.

But it can also lead to a dull, predictable speech. There’s the danger that the speaker will simply read words off a piece of paper. Even if the speaker is the author of the words, it will come off as a ‘canned’ performance. The audience will be bored.

Using the second method gives a speaker wide latitude to judge the audience during the talk and adjust as needed. A humorous anecdote can be shortened when the speaker sees the audience drifting off. A point that didn’t occur to the writer during the writing phase can be included in the speech on the spot. The speech appears spontaneous and can be more lively.

But unless the speaker is highly poised and experienced, it’s possible for the speech to suffer using that method.

Running through a series of brief notes and adding nothing will create a live speech that lasts only a few minutes. Trying to improvise when that skill doesn’t come naturally (either through personality or training or both) can be an embarrassing disaster.

It’s also easier to go astray. Filling in or amplifying notes ‘on the fly’ takes skill and, often, practice. The speaker has to be a real expert on the subject and have a gift for fleshing out a basic point. Lacking that, the speech drifts off into a topic that may be more or less related to the subject, but is off the mark.

Using a combination of the two will benefit novice and experienced speakers alike.

Writing out the entire speech helps the speaker get clear in his or her own mind what the topic is about, which points deserve noting and what can be left out. Writing at least two or three drafts in this way is always a good idea.

For those with the personality, the experience and if the circumstances allow, creating notes from that more detailed writing can open up some of the advantages discussed above. However, except when just making an outline before writing, it’s better not to try to do it the other way around. It’s always easier to edit out than to improvise more content on the spot.

Some speakers, and some speeches or events, are by nature more formal than others. For those that are little more than a question and answer session with an expert, the ‘just notes’ approach will work fine. For most speeches, though, it’s best to write out the speech in full, even if you just make notes from it for the actual occasion.

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Sound and images can be used in many, many ways.

A short video can be used to introduce the topic that the speaker intends to discuss. He or she can then go on to analyze it in detail, flesh out the theme or expand on the subject of the clip. That gets your audience involved immediately. Provided, of course, that the clip itself is interesting and well done.

The video can, for example, be a short segment of a news broadcast showing how tin makes its way from the mine to a grocery store shelf. It can portray the construction of an airplane at 100 times normal speed or in a series of quick photos. It can show melting Artic ice for a discussion of environmental issues. In short, it can cover any topic just as your speech can.

Audio and video lend an air of expertise to your talk. You acquire by association some of the prestige attached to the clip. At the very least, you show your ability to choose quality material. That sets up the expectation that your speech will be of similar tone and quality.

Of course, for that to be effective the clip has to be well done or appropriate. Even an audio or video clip containing errors can be a useful jumping off point. You can use it to demonstrate the sorts of mistakes that some people can make, then point out how to avoid being taken in. You can use it to show what the correct story is.

Static photos or images can be a powerful public speaking aid, too. They’re much more common, so the speaker has to take care not to overuse them. Some speakers will rely too much on a Powerpoint presentation to demonstrate graphs of figures. That makes the images the presenter, not you.

But used correctly, a good graph or a telling photo can be a terrific adjunct to a well-made point. Nothing persuades like an accurate set of data showing a trend. And there’s no better way to show that trend than the traditional line graph.

Take care not to attempt to mislead the audience or bamboozle them with alleged facts and figures, though. Don’t draw hasty or questionable conclusions from the slide. There will always be some expert in the audience ready to trip you up. Remember, the audience can see the image as well as you. That’s the whole point of showing it. They will often draw their own conclusion. You want that conclusion to be the one you have drawn.

The list of possible content is endless. Just be sure that any supplemental aids are just that, desserts and not the main course.

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