5 Public Speaking Skills that Make You the Best

If you are ready to improve your public speaking skills and amaze everyone with your knowledge, this article is perfect for you.

How do you react when you find out you have to do public speaking and present in front of someone?

Do you feel excited and ready to flaunt your speaking skills or do you get all anxious with sweaty hands and a racing heart?

If you’re like most people, then you probably hate public speaking.

Don’t worry, anyone can get better at public speaking with a little effort.

Becoming a great public speaker is no secret, and this article will show you how simple it is.

To speak in public, you do not need to be born with the gift of having the talent for it.

I will guide you through these steps and make sure you’re ready to conquer the world and get better at speaking.

Let’s start.

1) Research and Plan More

If you know a little about the topic you want to talk about, you will get nervous.

You might be worried about messing up or not knowing the answer to something.

The best speakers are the ones who really know their topic. With a wealth of knowledge, they feel more confident than others who are average.

Make sure you do your homework and research the topic thoroughly before you plan your speech.

Imagine yourself when you felt completely lost in a conversation because you didn’t know what they were talking about.

Although you may have listened quite a bit, if someone were to ask for your opinion on that topic, you would be lost.

That is the same thing that will happen if you do not research your topic.

But when you are in a conversation and know a lot about the topic, you will speak confidently and answer any question thrown at you.

The more you know about a topic, the easier it is to give an impactful speech without going off track or repeating facts.

Confidence is the key to all public speaking. If you are confident in what you are telling others, you will go far with your skills.

The best way to boost your confidence is to do a lot of research.

So, take your time researching. Knowledge is your power in doing a presentation because it gives you plenty of points to use.

For it is always better to have too much information to share than not enough. And surface level research will not do it for you.

2) Speak Plainly but Effective

One of the first things you need to improve your public speaking skills is to figure out the right way to get your message across.

How you do this might vary depending on the audience and topic, but there are some general rules you can follow no matter what.

It is wrong to think you need to impress your audience by using big words and complex points.

I have discovered this does not work at all. It only makes it hard for your audience to understand you, complicating matters.

Also, when you choose to be impressive than speaking clearly, it gets over your head and you forget your purpose on the podium.

This behaviour will make you nervous and lose control of the situation.

Instead of overthinking with fancy talk and big words, just speak plainly. Say what you mean without trying to sound fancy.

It doesn’t mean you should make your presentation average with no touch of professionalism.

It just means you should use simple words always and technical ones only when appropriate.

Here are ways to help you speak clearly:

• Honor the Idea

Whatever your speech is about, just focus on the main idea and let it speak for itself.

A good idea can stand on its own. Just don’t ruin your speech by trying to make it look fancy.

When you use words like “think”, “feel”, and “believe”, it looks more like your opinion and makes it harder for your audience to share with others.

Research your points and own them during the presentation.

• Be Yourself

When you think you should be smarter, better educated, more professional, cooler, or something else, you will hide behind your real self and act differently.

This is going to appear odd when you deliver your speech and can make the audience focus more on you rather than the message.

• Use Shorter Words

Big words can sound impressive, but sometimes they will hide the genuine message that you are trying to share with others.

Instead of that happening, you need to choose the words that make the most sense for your audience.

Whenever you have the choice between two words, it’s always advisable to select the shorter one.

• Cut Down the Description

Adding a lot of adverbs and adjectives around your idea is going to bury it in details.

The best thing is to skip the small talk and save the descriptions for later. Just focus on the message.

• Add the “You” and “Me”

Another way to improve your public speaking skill is to avoid the use of impersonal and distant tones.

You can get away with this in writing, like journalism, but not so much in public speaking.

Personal tones make your conversation seem more human, which will engage the audience more than before.

Instead of using fancy words to impress, just focus on getting your message across.

Using simple language will not only help you present your idea, but also make it easier to give a brilliant speech without having to remember all those complicated words.

3) Avoid Use of Filler Words

It is best to avoid filler words as much as possible because they distract the listener.

These words take up a lot of space and add nothing to the conversation.

If you add one or two into the speech, it is not such a big deal. But the problem comes when you use a lot of the filler languages.

It will distract and make it hard for the audience to focus on the message that you are trying to share with others.

This can make them mistrust the information that you are trying to share.

While you do not need to be perfect in your speech, you should still strive to decrease the use of filler language as much as possible.

Below is a list of filler words you should avoid.

• Well

• Um / Er / Uh

• Hmm

• Like

• Actually

• Basically

• Seriously

• Literally

• Totally

• Clearly

• You see

• You know

• I mean

• You know what I mean?

• At the end of the day

• Believe me

• I guess / I suppose

• Or something

• Okay / So

• Right / Mhm / Uh huh

By removing some of these meaningless words, you improve your speaking skills.

These steps may seem simple, but they will totally help you slow down and feel better about your speech.

4) Take a Pause at Intervals

In public speaking, many people worry that when they pause, the audience will look bad on them. That’s not true.

Don’t underestimate the power of a pause in your speech. A brief break helps you gather your thoughts.

Sometimes it gives everyone a breath to think about your thoughts. If you use it properly, it helps to emphasize the important parts of your speech.

This silence is not a weakness, but a sense that you are organized.

And two or three seconds is usually long enough to help with this. Anything more than can make it look awkward.

Let me show some type of pauses you need to know.

Types of Pauses

• Vital information pause:

This is a pause you can use after sharing important information. It gives the audience some time to absorb the information and process it.

• Dramatic pause:

This pause creates suspense and is perfect for revolution and political speeches. But to you want to be careful not to overuse this pause.

• Visual pause:

Use this pause to switch seamlessly between visuals or slides. This gives the audience a little extra time to fully engage with the slide.

• Rhetorical question pause:

This is a situation where you ask a rhetorical question and then pause after it. Although the audience remains silent, you can see their minds working as they contemplate the question.

• Punchline pause:

This is the pause the speaker takes before and after they hit you with their punchline. It’s builds up anticipation and lets people have a good laugh.

Pausing is super important in your speech because it lets you slow down and really make your point. It stops you from rushing and lets you take a break.

We usually assume things will go wrong if we take a break in the middle of the speech. But trust me, the pause is way shorter than you imagine.

Try it today and see how pauses can improve your public speaking.

5) Pay Attention to Body Language

The next thing that we need to look at is the body language. There are so many things that you can communicate through your body.

You can show confidence and that you are comfortable through an open body language. It will make you appear more trustworthy and approachable.

Keeping the chest open to your audience is going to show that you are open to approach.

This helps the audience see you are sincere and interested in establishing a conversation with the other person.

The first thing to look at is your posture. This is so important for helping you look and feel more confident.

When you are insecure or even a little nervous, it is normal to want to shrink in on yourself and try to look smaller. You need to avoid this at all costs.

Some open body language techniques are:

• Stand up straight

Slouching looks lazy and makes you appear insecure, which can hinder the delivery of your message.

Push the shoulders back a bit and lift the chin. This will prevent you from hunching over and forces the eyes off the floor.

• Own the stage

Moving around allows you to own the space and prevents you from looking like you want to run off the stage.

Try not to stand still behind the podium. This is going to create a barrier between you and the audience. Your hand movements are important too.

You can use them to put emphasis on some of the important parts of your presentation.

Your hand movements need to show trustworthiness and openness as well. This means avoid the clenched fists and try not to fidget or hold the hands awkwardly.

And finally, we need to look at facial expressions and your eye contact.

These will allow you to show more of your energy and enthusiasm for the audience to be ready for the presentation as well.

Some steps to help with this include:

• Smile:

Smiles are contagious, and it is likely that others will smile back. This is something that you should use, at least at the beginning, to open up the conversation with others.

• Eye contact:

This is a must when you want to present something to others.

It will help to acknowledge the person in front of you, show that you want to build trust with them, and kick out some of the nervousness that you have.

• Feel emotions:

If you feel nervous, you may want to just focus on having a straight face, but this will not help at all.

It is good to show some emotion during the speech, whether it is sadness, excitement, or even happiness.

You just need to practice the best ways to make this stand out.

Some simple changes to your facial expression will make a world of difference for how well you can share your message and the amount of confidence you have.

You can even learn how to fake it until the confidence comes in, giving the appearance of being confident, even when you are nervous.

With some tips and suggestions in this article, you can enhance your public speaking skills, no matter what level you are at starting.

Practice these skills and watch your presentation skills amaze your audience.