Improving Your Public Speaking Skills

To assist you in improving your public speaking skills, no matter what level you're currently at, we've divided our suggestions into 2 categories: ways to better prepare for a speech, and ways to better present it.

Preparation

In order for a speech to be effective it must be understood, and you start that process not once you're up there at the podium in front of your audience, but in the preparation. Certain elements attended to long before the pivotal moment arrives can help ensure that your speech is received and understood by your audience.

For one, you want to be clear in your own mind about the message or purpose of your speech. Why are you giving it? What's the underlying point? The clearer you are with this information, the clearer the speech will be, and the clearer, therefore, the audience will be with your message.
When writing the speech, keep it simple. Stick to one key point, if possible (or no more than several, if not), and tailor your speech accordingly. Make sure the audience walks away from your finished speech with, if anything, your message in mind. To achieve that, design your speech to convey that information in as plainspoken, clear, and concise a manner as possible.
Having said that, you also want your speech to be as vivid and descriptive as possible. That means using anecdotes, humor, examples, quotes, visual aids, and any other methods you can derive to paint a complete picture of your message. Combining this tip with the one above is simply a matter of sticking to one, two, or three main ideas and then coming up with as many diverse means to clearly and concisely convey them.

Presentation

Now that you've crafted a compelling, informative, and comprehensible speech to deliver, it's time to make sure your audience can receive your message. The first and most fundamental element of this is to make sure that you enunciate your words carefully. Remember that you are not speaking to one person directly in front of you, but several-to-many people spread out across a wide area, whether a conference room, an auditorium, or an outdoor arena. Be sure that your words are being understood and you're more than halfway to having your message understood as well.

In addition to enunciation, it's equally imperative to project. Do not rely on a microphone to carry your words for you, or you'll end up sounding like a meek, insecure, and unprepared presenter with amplification. There are several ways to practice and develop the ability to project, namely abdominal breathing, speaking to the back of the room, and speaking confidently.

Breathing and projection can be trained, but confidence must be cultivated from within. Nothing makes a speech more impactful than a confident delivery, and nothing makes a speech bomb more than a lack of confidence in the delivery.

If you've spent all this time preparing, developed a clear, concise, simple, and vivid presentation of your speech, then there's no reason not to be confident. Having confidence in your material can help greatly in overcoming insecurity in your ability to present - and is not to be undervalued or underestimated.

Lastly, relax. Yes, we know - easier said than done. But taking your time, speaking slowly, taking frequent pauses in-between passages, breathing deeply and evenly, and leaving your hands free will all contribute to putting your audience at ease, building rapport between you, and allowing your message to be received and understood.