Confident Public Speaking - Do You Do Any Of These?
Some public speakers may always be nervous to a degree even though they have mastered confident public speaking skills. Some feelings of nervousness or anxiety can be positive as it helps a speaker guard against complacency or over-confidence.
All the same, while confident public speaking doesn't necessarily mean a total absence of nerves, it does involve learning to speak and act in a certain way so as not to betray one's nervousness.
You can go through the list below and make a mental note. Then have a friend check your next presentation or even check yourself through a video playback and see if you give any indication of nervousness by watching for the signals in the list.
Mannerisms and Awkward Gestures
As well as destroying your professionalism, they can be very distracting for an audience. Ask a friend for a favor and get them to let you know if you start to do any of the following:
stand with one leg wrapped around the other
stand on the sides of one's shoes
keep touching the nose, mouth, ears, or any part of the face
lean on the speaker's stand using it as a prop
keep putting hands in and out of pockets
fiddling with one's wrist watch
repeatedly swallowing
buttoning and unbuttoning the jacket
standing with hands clasped behind the back
Visual Aid Dangers
If you use a flip chart, whiteboard, or projection screen, avoid constantly fiddling with the marker pen, mouse, or projector control as if they were worry beads. This can betray nerves and also be quite distracting.
Far better to have your hands free, only picking up the marker or control when you intend to use it and then put it back again on the table or speaker's stand.
Using your hands deliberately for descriptive or emphatic gestures will be far more effective than haphazardly waving a marker pen or projector control in the air.
What Do You Do With Your Hands?
Confident public speaking means you know what to do you with your hands.
When you are not using them to gesture, let them hang by your side loosely and naturally. They won't remain there for long if you are giving an animated presentation.
Your hands and arms will frequently be moving, gesturing, but in between times, just let them hang loose, ready and waiting.
Concentrate On Ideas
Confident public speaking involves the ability to concentrate on expressing your IDEAS rather than exact words. Doing this will help you considerably to avoid the traps and mannerisms listed above.
This will allow your delivery to flow which makes it easy on the ears and listenable as opposed to a stop/start style of delivery.
While your first few sentences and last few sentences may require extra thought and specific word choice, generally, with good preparation, you will be able to speak extemporaneously once you are totally involved with your subject so your word choice will just flow without being micro-managed.
The latter can result in a speaker gazing into the air fumbling for the right word which in time will destroy the concentration of the audience.
Even if you don't feel you are confident in public speaking, you don't have to advertise the fact. Use the checklist above to spot and avoid obvious signs of nervousness and you will at least leave the audience relaxed and engrossed rather than distracted.
