Do's and Don'ts of Public Speaking

Everything in the realm of communication is a skill, not a gift.

Do's

How to show appreciation to others

"Say thank you followed by a reason why you are thankful"

In our everyday lives, we say thank you to people too often without adding any meaning behind them. People receiving the Thank you's don't even appreciate them.

You need to add a "why" to your thank yous. Let the next person know what you are thankful for and your thank you's will become much more impactful.

How to become more expressive

There are actually 20 facial expressions that humans can do. Why a person is not Expressive, Passionate, and Enthusiastic might be because they lack pitch, rate, volume, melody, tonality, and pause. Still, on top of all these, they lack facial expressions. A charismatic person is one who can do a lot of facial expressions. It allows you to drive so much energy into your voice and you can switch at any time.  That's what being authentic is, it is truly being able to express what you are feeling. People look at your face for the context behind what you are saying so facial expressions are the context behind what you are saying. 

Ex. We talk to someone and they don't feel authentic. Why?

The answer is that a mismatch between your words and your body language often creates distrust. The face is a significant part of your body language. To be congruent and trustworthy, ensure your body language and facial expressions match whatever you say.

How to make your words more memorable

The more melody you add to your words, the more memorable they become. If you want to get a message across to your audience. you need to be conscious of the melody that lives underneath your voice. Your words become more memorable when you add more vocal variety. 

Ex. We can repeat a song word for word but never a page of the book even if we have read the book multiple times.

How to use volume to draw people in

Extremities of volume (high volume and low volume) act as highlights to draw people in. These are used to highlight your words. 

Ex. If you say something loudly or silently, it draws the audience in as your changes in the volume highlight whatever you say. 

How to instantly build rapport with others

Rapport: Close and harmonious relationship in which people understand each other feelings or ideas and communicate well.

Match and mirror the body language of people that you meet. 

Dont's

Lack of rehearsal

When you lack rehearsal, the following happens:

• You start to think what if I forget what I am going to say and that makes you come across as if you are not present.
• You are gonna be glued to your notes and not be able to make eye contact.
• It will make you less confident about your presentation

What can be done?

A rule of thumb for keynote speakers is to rehearse 120 times if it is a new presentation and it comes from the theatre. The rule of theatre is that for every minute on stage, you have to rehearse for 2 hours (120 minutes). Thus for every minute on stage, you have to rehearse it 120 times. An example of that is if you have to speak for an hour on stage, you need 120 hours of practice as a keynote speaker as every time you rehearse you find new ways to improve. Rehearsing is not just about remembering everything you say.

We are not keynote speakers but we still need to present. What should be the rule for us? And the answer to that is, for every minute you present rehearse it 10 times or for 10 minutes presentation, rehearse 100 minutes as it makes you confident while delivering.

How to rehearse?

Don't just read your presentation, how you rehearse is how you present. So, rehearse as if you are in front of people, and rehearse as if you are presenting. Low levels of effort in rehearsal results in lower levels of retention whereas high levels of effort in rehearsal results in higher levels of retention.

Use of filler words and non-words

These are the words or sounds that are used to fill the silence.

Use of filler words leads to:

• Decrease the clarity of your content
• Robs your credibility
• Makes you look nervous
• Robs your authenticity
• Distracts your audience

Why do you use filler and non-words?

Not enough rehearsal makes you think about what comes next when you are delivering and then being afraid of the silence, you use filler words.

Rehearsal is the key.

Speaking too softly

Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 about how loud you speak. Let's say for instance that you are on a scale of 7 or above. It makes you come across as:

• More confident
• More vitality
• More energy
• Having more authority
• Believe in what you are saying

Let's say for another instance you are on a scale of 3 or below. It robs you of:

• perceived confidence
• perceived authority
• vitality
• not believing in what you are saying

What can be done?

For people having a softer spoken voice, they need to shift it to a stronger volume but when they do it, it might come off to them as unnatural. In such case, remember you have no natural voice, you lost your natural voice when you were 2 years of age. What you have now is a Habitual voice and you should be enough self ware to use the whole scale of volume ranging from softer to stronger and louder with ease to dive into a conversation.

Speaking too fast

Why do people speak so fast?

Because they neglect to rehearse, and as they neglect to rehearse, they become nervous while presenting and the first consequence of that is speaking too quickly.

Speaking too fast robs you of:

• Confidence
• Composition
• presence
• This shows that you are nervous and rushing into the presentation
• Shows that you want this to be over anyhow ASAP

What can be done?

If you naturally speak fast then you speak even faster when you get nervous. While rehearsing, consciously practice speaking slowly.

Is it actually possible to change the way you speak?

Is it possible for you to change your behaviour? If yes, then the answer to the above question is yes. Speaking is just a series of behaviours you have learned and you can learn new behaviours.

Forgetting to make eye contact with the audience

What people mostly do when they go on stage to present:

• Keep looking at the notes and not even look up once
• look at the audience but look down quickly

Lower self-esteem and lower levels of confidence cause you to avoid the audience.

What audience thinks in such a case

• This person doesn't care
• This person is not really present with us
• This person doesn't want to connect with us
• Shows your lack of confidence
• Shows that you are insecure

What can be done?

Rehearse and know your content, then leave your notes and leave your lectern to engage with the audience.

What not to do with eye contact?

• Don't dart, it makes you look shifty and untrustworthy
• Don't scan the audience
• Don't look sequentially, any default sequence becomes non-functional
• Don't look over heads as it makes you look non-engaging
• Don't look at someone for too long

Overloading slides with too much text and information

When you are on stage, you want to be the centre of attraction. So, don't let your slides compete with you, keep them simple and sober.

What can be done?

Read a book by the name "Presentation Zen", it will help you create beautiful and simple slides.