Introduction
We are in an era of media sensations, where we hear and get glued to TED Talks, stand-up comedies, and other online public speaking sites at the comfort of our homes. We often switch over from one speaker to the other until we find a good speaker. Yes, we are speaking about public speaking.
A good Public Speaker is a speaker who speaks mindfully. He/She possesses a great amount of good communication skills. I personally have come across different types of Public Speakers.
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The 3 types of Public Speakers
The first type is the one who possesses inherent skills in speaking, he is good at impromptu speaking which means on the spot. He is the one who delivers a speech and then remembers it and he doesn’t need a lot of practice. He can deliver with spontaneity.
The second type of speaker does have spontaneity, but at the same time, he requires practice beforehand.
The third type of speaker comes with a lot of practice. He must practice if not he cannot deliver the information he was meant to.
Public Speaking is commonly used to address the larger gathering of people. It is by one speaker to the rest of the audience. It is generally used to provide information, to entertain, to persuade, and to actuate.
The 10 Mantras for Skillful Public Speaking
Visualize yourself being on the stage I personally set this point more important. Keeping all the below points in mind, a Speaker should visualize how he is going to deliver a talk. Visualizing! Ups your confidence level and also gives you the idea of inclusion and exclusion of the content along with clearer modulation of voice. This also gives more effectiveness to the entire talk.
“Visualization” is the Mantra for the utmost preparedness for Public Speaking”
While you Visualize yourself facing a larger audience, you should keep in mind the mantras that are to be followed:
Know your audience
You just can’t go up on stage and talk over a topic that is not relevant to the Audience. The audience must feel the worth of listening to you. So, you must know what the audience expects from you.
Don’t be nervous on stage
Don’t let the nervousness overrule you. Practice and visualize you being on stage and delivering information. Take a deep breath or smile at your audience at first so that you get rid of nervousness. If you are nervous you will not be able to carry yourself well in front of the audience and you may fail to deliver the main content.
Prepare your Content
Know beforehand what you intend to deliver so that you don’t miss out on the content and repent later on.
Keep it straight and short
Don't beat around the bush. Talk to the point. Don’t unnecessarily elaborate, it might seem boring to the audience.
Be Alert! Have eye-to-eye contact
Be Alert! From the beginning of your talk till the end. Make as many eye contacts as possible. This would consciously or unconsciously grab the attention of the audience towards you and make them ALERT! Too.
Engage the audience by questioning
It doesn’t matter you answer your own question or the audience answer’s it. Ask simple small questions here and there during your talk, this creates an atmosphere for the audience to listen to you carefully.
Set examples
Come up with small life stories, this makes the audience visualize what you are trying to inform them.
Modulate your voice
Speaking should not be too slow or too fast. Speaker must know where to give pauses and where to use the high and low pitch of voice.
Use appropriate body language
Most of the well-known speakers use appropriate body language, the use of appropriate body language can show how confident are you on stage and it makes delivering the talk easy.
Have enough knowledge
Most of us are eager to listen to things that are new. So, the speaker must have enough knowledge about the content that has to be delivered as well as to catch the attention of the audience it is good to have some new information for the audience.
Conclusion
A beginner in Public Speaking has always faced at least a little amount of nervousness. Every audience gives a different experience. Thus, “Public Speaking is an art by itself”. A Speaker who has inherent good speaking skills finds it easy to deliver a talk. Whereas a speaker might fumble for words if he is not good at his communication skills. A good speaker with the necessary speaking skills always has many followers when compared to the rest.
I am quite sure if you use Visualization as the Mantra to Prepare for Public Speaking you will definitely get there!
Author:
Smt. Krithika A M, MSW
The author runs a training center that trains students and professionals in communicating at various levels. She trains students to crack competitive examinations and present themselves better. She trains students to get jobs by training them in interview skills. She fine-tunes the communication skills to present themselves better for good sales and marketing professionals. The training center also teaches corporate ethics.{alertInfo}
