What's the best tip on how to improve my public speaking skills?

Question

I would like to improve my public speaking skills. What's the #1 tip to help me improve?

Answer 1

I would suggest working with an excellent outline that you know solidly. Then you can add details as needed.

Pretend you are sharing this topic that you know well with a person you trust or care for with about the same knowledge level as your audience. If it is a professional audience, that person might be a close colleague. If it is a general audience, that might be a friend. This tactic will ensure you are speaking directly to the audience.

Remember that your love and interest in the topic will communicate. If you aren't interested, no one else will be either!

And then basic stuff: speak slowly, clearly and loudly enough. Make eye contact. Don't read completely from a script. ( You may find it helpful to use some prepared phrases, but not the entire presentation.) Remember that most people read faster than you can speak, so if you are using a powerpoint with details, don't read all of them. Generally powerpoints should only have key ideas anyway to help the audience grasp the big picture for each point.

Answer 2

In my opinion, the best tip for improving public speaking skills is using an extemporaneous style. Extemporaneous means performed with advance preparation, while at the same time allowing for improvisation/spontaneity. Try to find a balance between the one extreme of memorizing a speech word for word, and the other extreme of being completely impromptu in your delivery.

The next time you have a speaking engagement, after you prepare your notes for it, practice your speech at least a few times and observe how your speech changes spontaneously in the moment with each delivery. If you are happy with the changes, include those in the next time you practice until you find that you are satisfied overall. But don't worry about memorizing your speech down to every last word as that may take away from being present with your audience in the moment.

Answer 3

My #1 tip on how to improve your public speaking skills is to record a video of yourself (or better yet ask someone else to record you) give a 3-5 minute speech.

If you do this every week, you'll definitely improve.

After you record your speech, review it to see how you did in these areas:

1. Did you use a lot of "Umms, Ughs" or other filler words?
2. Was the volume of your voice OK, or what it too low? Did you speak clearly?
3. Did you make eye contact with the audience?
4. How was your body language? In particular, did you fiddle with your hands, moves around in a nervous manner, etc?
5. How was the content of your talk structured? Was it clear to the audience?

For each of these areas, jot down what you observed (and you should also ask your live audience, if you had one) on how you did, and the areas that you can improve.

Then, come up with a few bullet points on how you can try to make those improvements the next time you record a practice session.

Good luck on improving your public speaking skills!