6 Ways to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills

For thousands of years, the concept of leadership has been linked to the skill of public speaking. This was just as true for Marcus Aurelius as it was for Steve Jobs. In many fields, in fact, public speaking is a skill that can still determine the trajectory of a person’s career path; it’s a leadership skill that is perennially useful and is one of the foremost qualities of a truly well-rounded person.

The good news is that public speaking is a skill that can be learned by anyone with enough practice; here are just a few good ways to make sure that your public speaking goals are achievable, manageable, and suited to your particular career or personal needs.

1. Use Positive Reinforcement

If you’re really interested in getting better at public speaking, remember that positive reinforcement tends to go a lot farther than negative reinforcement. Rewarding yourself for practicing in the early stages of skill development might feel like jumping the gun. On the other hand, you’ll be subtly reinforcing the notion that practice of a skill leads to good things with each reward given and micro-goal reached.

2. Set Realistic Finish Lines

As with many things in life, the key to undertaking a serious task is to set a realistic expectation of results and realistic timelines for your efforts to succeed. For many people, the use of vague deadlines and overoptimistic expectations can make a personal or professional project seem thoroughly unattainable. This can lead to a disheartening situation in which a steady stream of false starts create an impression that “nothing will ever go right” or that failure is inevitable.

In other words, try to spend time planning out your roadmap to success well before you start. When it comes to setting goals, what is a realistic achievement to expect and a realistic deadline for the achievement? Just as you’ll want to know where the finish line is while you’re running a marathon, you’ll want to keep in mind what the end of this particular journey looks like and feels like to you.

3. Make a Video

One of the biggest barriers to attaining good public speaking skills is a fundamental misunderstanding of how we appear to others when we have their attention. This is a natural problem that any good public speaker will struggle with: From our perspective as speakers, we can see how others are reacting to what we’re saying and how we’re saying it, but we can’t see what they see. To help this, try to record yourself presenting a written or memorized speech on video.

After you’ve done so, pay special attention to what works and what doesn’t in your mannerisms: Perhaps you’re someone who struggles with eye contact when you’re nervous; perhaps you tend to fidget when you’re at a loss for something to say. Remember that all good public speakers regularly practice their craft by recording themselves or by speaking into a mirror. Master this principle of self-analysis or learning to see yourself as others see you and you’ll be halfway towards becoming an excellent public speaker.

4. Find Subjects That Resonate With You

If you’re deeply invested in a personal cause, it follows that your emotional investment in a given subject will permeate your thoughts, actions, and words concerning that subject. Conversely, a distinct lack of interest on your part in a given subject will make even the most well-written speech ring hollow. To become a great public speaker, learn to be yourself and to pursue subjects that genuinely matter to you.

5. Look at the Bigger Picture

In other words, try to find your mission in life and develop an idea of how your public speaking skills will serve that mission. The Gettysburg Address would not be so convincing to us if Abraham Lincoln were not deeply invested in the outcome of the Civil War at the time the speech was written; as the leader of a country, Lincoln knew what was at stake for himself and for others if his nation was torn apart and directed his words accordingly. While your speech may not have as grand of consequences as that, it’s still important to remember why you’re giving the speech you’re giving.

6. Understand Your Passions

Have you ever watched someone give a speech about something that they clearly don’t care about? Perhaps the “right” words were all there, but emotionally their speech failed to land with their audience. You’ll often see this state of affairs happen in politics when someone has to get across a message that they’re not particularly excited about or interested in.

This is not to say that great speeches can’t be written about potentially dull subjects. However, if your audience sees your eyes light up about a particular subject that is close to your heart, your speech will probably be compelling to them regardless of its subject matter. If you seem bored by the subject or even uninvested in the outcome of a particular line of thinking, however, it probably won’t matter how compelling your argument is on paper. To really excel at public speaking, you need to feel the emotions you want to convey to your audience.

By: Katherine Robinson, a writer for Executive Speakers Bureau