How to be an outstanding speaker

No matter how great you look when you stand at the podium, as soon as you open your mouth to address a crowd, their attitude towards you can shift in an instant. In most cases, it boils down to confidence.

Can you confidently express yourself in a manner which the average person can understand you?

Public speaking isn’t about fancy vocabulary and verbal acrobatics, it’s about sharing a powerful personal narrative that your audience can relate to. Believe it or not, when you stand up and speak, people want to like you, so all you need to do is be yourself and the rest will flow.

Here are a couple of pointers to get you winning hearts and minds every time you step up to speak.

HOW YOU SPEAK

Here, we look at your basic tool of delivery: your voice, how you sound, how you piece your words together and how they come out of your mouth.

Diction

This is all about the choice of words and phrases you use in your speech. This is where you really need to be keen on knowing who your audience is.

Some of the world’s best orators who have moved the world with their speeches, such as American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., President Obama and the late American poet and author Maya Angelou, have made numerous speeches with phrases that stuck and still resonate with people, years after they were uttered.

It is simple statements like “I have a dream…,” or “Yes, we can,” or “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

There is nothing complex about what they said, it is the simplicity of these words in the context of their speech that made the whole difference.

Pace

At times our nerves get the best of us and we soon find ourselves tripping over our words. The best thing to do is to learn to breathe – take deep breaths before you speak, and as you breathe, you will also be able to pause and think as you speak.

When you do this, you will spend more time thinking about what you need to say than worrying if the crowd is judging you.

If you listen to most great orators, you will realise that they have a natural pause, which also gives the audience time to digest what they say as they say it. This makes what you say even more powerful.

Articulation

This is where many of us generally struggle: clarity and distinction in speech. Being able to clearly enunciate words. It doesn’t matter which language you speak, what counts is that your audience can hear and understand your message. If I can barely understand what you say, I will tune out as soon as you start speaking. This is where you need to deliberately start teaching yourself how to pronounce words properly.

WHAT YOU SAY

This will guide you on how best to package your speech into a compelling and unforgettable message.

Storytelling

Now this isn’t about creating a fictitious account for the sake of humour or dramatic effect, it is more about driving a point home in a narrative prose. This is becoming more and more common in speeches.

A politician will for instance make a case for one of their policies by sharing the story of a beneficiary of a government programme, for example.

You also see this with celebrities in their acceptance speeches or commencement speeches. They go beyond ‘thank you for this award’. If you watched American media mogul, Oprah Winfrey’s, 2018 Golden Globe acceptance speech, then you know she told a story about herself and also took the opportunity to touch on an important social issue close to her heart.

One of the most watched university commencement speeches is one by the late founder and CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs. His speech to these excited university graduates was the story of his life, which had valuable lessons they could draw from.

Know your Audience

In mind are TED talks on YouTube, 15 to 20-minute speeches by professionals and specialists in diverse fields, held at the annual TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conferences held across the globe. These public speeches have something in common.

Even the most complex scientific information is broken down in a way that a layman can understand, even subjects such as neuroscience or oceanography. That is because the speakers understand who their audience is, and how to engage them in a topic most would normally have no interest in.

Vulnerability and Candour

This goes hand in hand with storytelling. One can choose to embellish their lives as you can see demonstrated on social media, but the true speeches are the ones where the speaker isn’t shy to admit he or she has faults.

Even notable motivational speakers openly admit to fault and failure.

They share this not because they expect you to judge them, but because they know their audience is more likely to relate to, and be inspired by a story of someone who failed like them and succeeded despite the odds.

Speakers who overemphasise their success and depict a sense of invincibility intimidate the audience, but vulnerability is inspiring. Aim to inspire, not chest thump.

Be True to Yourself

Everyone is unique, there is a reason some people will be drawn to certain speakers, but the core puller is your authentic self. Some speakers are a bit goofy and joke a lot during presentations, some are stoic, while others tend to walk through the audience.

Everyone has their personal style, find yours, make sure you understand your audience, know what you are talking about, know what your audience really needs, be vulnerable, tell a good story and mind how you speak. That really is all you need to be the best speaker you can be.