EFFECTIVE PUBLIC SPEAKING
He came, He saw, He trembled.
Believe me! No one wants to end up being on a stage in this stage while public speaking yet most of us (even the experienced ones!) go through stage fear and this is natural, very natural for a human being who is a live representative of what he is speaking and how he speaking.
People from every corner of the room are observing him, listening him and some might even start yawning (remember the last time you yawned while listening to someone?) But the good news, is you can excel the art of public speaking if you have these 3 things – time, patience and most importantly, persistence.
The reason why most people think they are not good at public speaking is that they have never tried it! So yes, try it whenever and wherever you get an opportunity and remember to follow these tips (almost daily; if possible) as every art form has its own basics. Let us dive right into this
READING
It is one of the most basic things to get started with public speaking. But why is this so? Answer is pretty simple. Every one of us is unique. We have different tastes, preferences and interests. Thus, different people tend to express same thing in a different manner
The above maxim also applies to public speaking. Some of us are funny, some are bold, some are simple, some are poetic and so on. Also it is no secret that we cherish variety.
Reading is helpful for public speaking as we find a variety of words which may resonate with us and with our audience. It makes us more flexible in terms of vocabulary as more reading means we can express same thing in many ways.
BODY LANGUAGE AND TONE OF VOICE
Alright, so you are almost done reading all of your favorite stuff. Your brain has all weapons (in the form of vocabulary) ready. So what's next? Go out and speak.
But how? Now this point is very crucial as this is our actual starting point where we would be looking out for opportunities to speak. You can speak anywhere from your cousin's weeding to a local speech competition. The key is to start slow by taking small leaps and then slowly improving yourself and this TAKES TIME, so better be patient. Secondly, no matter how you speak you need to be confident on stage. It is very common to become more conscious of yourself in front of bunch of people who have set all eyes on you. For a second your heart will beat like a drum but tell yourself to be confident because at the end of the day those people are just like you and me with 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 hands and legs and they make mistakes too! They are just like you so be comfortable and smile. This is where the confidence comes from .It comes from within you.
Also, confidence comes from comfortable clothes. So make sure that you don't give your speech in the tightest pair of jeans. Just wear something comfortable and nice stuff.
Thirdly, your voice should be clear enough so that people will be able to
understand what you are speaking. This of course, comes from practice.
So moral of the point: The more you practice, more improved will be your body
language and tone of voice will be. So no matter how small the opportunity,
promise me you will be grabbing it anyways! same thing in many ways.
KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE
I don't need to tell you that you speak because you want to be heard. You want all
the ears in the room curiously thinking that what he/she will say next.
They don't want a boring speaker who will make them feel that they have been
sitting in this room from ages and now all they want is to get rid of this speaker!
Thus, it is very important to know who your audience is. Most common points to
analyse your audience are –
- Are they children, teenagers, elderly people, etc?
- What is their profession? (Student/Housewife/CA/Doctor/Engineer/Lawyer/etc.)
- Why are they here? (Free lunch/college authorities will mark them absent if they don't attend this seminar/etc.)
- At what time they would be listening your talk ? (Because if it's after the lunch your audience will be sleepy so you need to be walking of the whole stage asking them some questions or crack a good joke to induce a huge wave of laughter in which their sleep would be washed away) And many more points...
Knowing your audience will help you with proper choice of vocabulary while writing down your speech which in turn would make you more confident as you know what are you doing and why are you doing.
KNOW YOUR STYLE
I previously quoted in point 1 -
Every one of us is unique. We have different tastes, preferences and interests. Thus,
different people tend to express same thing in a different manner
This means that we do have different styles and we should know our style not just
for the sake of knowing it but we can actually use our style to engage people.
Remember we don't want them to yawn while listening to us.
If I were to speak about public speaking how would I speak?
I have read enough books. I am also confident about myself. I have a clear tone of
voice.
I don't know the age group of my audience but I surely know that for many of these
people coming up to the stage and speaking fluently seems like a dream. So, I
need to design my talk in a very simple and understandable manner and of course,
they should be interested in what I am speaking.
On the other hand, I love reading poetry, stories and jokes. I want to grab everyone's attention from the very first word I utter. So inspired from the famous Latin phrase - I came, I saw, I conquered (Veni, Vidi, Vici) I plan to open my speech by saying - He came, He saw, He trembled.
Of course, there is no one correct way to design a speech. It is just like maths where we can solve 1 problem in many ways. Thus, it is now your job to find your style like I found mine! Again, this process of finding your style takes time as you would know it after speaking at least 3-4 times in front of the public.
But I am sure with practice and time you will surely know your style and then(in future) you can try experimenting with your style in front of different audiences by using different words, body language, tone of voice, literary devices, etc.
At last but not the least remember friends that it does not matter if you are a beginner or an expert enjoy the art and it will be yours (maybe forever).
By SAMRUDDHI PRAKASH HUNDIKAR
CA Student
At Skill-Set & Will-Set to be A Chartered Accounant
Students Skills Enrichment Board (ICAI)
No comments:
Post a Comment