Public Speaking - Advice, Tips & Help

Why is it that as soon as the term public speaking is mentioned many people start to feel a dread creeping up inside them? Having a conversation with a few people is something that most people do quite naturally, but if they are suddenly asked to stand up in front of everyone and carry on speaking to them, this can feel very unnatural and it brings a totally different perspective to the situation. Immediately a fear sets in and the person can longer speak with the same ease that they had before.

So what is it that stops us from maintaining a relaxed style when we go from speaking in an informal conversation to speaking in public?

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Presentations or speeches, whether to a large or small group of people are essentially about three things.

• Energy
• clarity and
• humanity.

Energy, in that we all need lightly more energy than we think we do need.

Clarity, that’s clarity of thought, clarity of message, clarity of delivery. So that the listener will understand and remember what you’ve said.

And thirdly, humanity. In a world where electronic communication has almost entirely taken over, the fact that you are one human being who has been bothered to turn up and reach out to another human being gives you an immediate head start. People respond to people. We all want to feel engaged and valued. Humanity is vital. Read more »

What can our own politicians learn from the soaring public speaking skills of the new President of the United States of America? Marina Hyde (A bad week for the cause of banality and witless snidery, Guardian, Saturday 8 November) talks of politicians both past and present listening to Obama’s victory speech in Chicago in the early hours of Wednesday morning experiencing a ‘sobering, gut – sinking sense of their own inadequacy.’ How right she is. Read more »

When we stand up in front of a group of people and start to speak nerves kick in. This is an animal response to nerves that sends our equilibrium reeling.

But there are many factors that increase our feelings of nervousness when public speaking. Read more »

Why the body responds as it does to public speaking.

When early man was attacked by wild animals, the body sent panic alarms to the neural pathways in the oldest part of the brain, the amygdala. When you are nervous, the amygdala, still assumes you are in physical danger and sends an electro-chemical alarm to ‘fight or flee’. This response is, of course, out of proportion to the ‘threat’ of public speaking but the body is only trying to protect you. Read more »

Many people absolutely dread the thought of public speaking or having to do a presentation as it fills them with complete fear. As soon as they think about it, their minds become full of negative thoughts and reasons to avoid it.  Has this ever happened to you?  And have you ever thought…

• I’ll forget what I want to say
• The audience will be bored and fall asleep
• I’ll look like a quivering wreck Read more »

Public Speaking is one of the most common fears and something that lots of people try to avoid at all costs.  But if you really want to be successful in your career, the ability to overcome your fear and deliver a speech to an audience in a confident and persuasive manner is one of the key skills you might just need and this article will help you start to achieve that. 

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Being able to deliver a speech to a large audience in a confident and persuasive manner is one of the key skills needed by many company executives.  But isn’t this public speaking just the same as delivering a business presentation to your team back in the office?  Or do several other factors come into play when you are faced with a sea of faces who dont know you and who aren’t simply there to listen to the boss present! 

The reality for many executives is that speaking in public to a large outside audience can still be a somewhat daunting afair no matter how experienced you are in normal business presentations.  Read more »