How to Improve Your Public Speaking Skills

A good political leader needs to be an effective public speaker. It’s the crux of effective communication, connecting with your audience, and winning over your voters. You may think that practicing your speech and making eye contact with your audience is enough, but a lot of other factors come into play, like how you’re delivering your speech and if you’re driving your audience to action. We’ve researched three factors that can make or break your delivery and provided some strategies and exercises that you can use to leave a lasting impact.

Posture

Posture is the way you hold yourself. This includes not just the placement of your arms and legs while sitting or standing but also the movement of your body while you’re speaking and gesturing. Although it might not seem significant, your posture can convey a lot of information to your audience and affect how receptive they are to what you have to say. Crossed arms, for example, can make you seem closed off when really you might just be nervous! But how can you expect others to be open to your ideas when they don’t feel like they can connect with you? Thankfully, there are a few simple strategies you can use first to recognize and then make adjustments: 

• Talk in front of a mirror. It sounds silly, but try running through your speech or just telling a story while looking at yourself. Notice how your arms naturally fall and move as you speak–does that reflect the tone of what you’re saying? Does it reflect the kind of energy you’re trying to create or demonstrate? A lot of the time, we don’t realize how we come off to other people while talking, and practicing your speech in front of a mirror can shine a light on how others will perceive you.
• Watch other people speak. Watch how other politicians, presenters at TED Talks, or even your favorite comedian move their bodies when they’re trying to be particularly persuasive or imbue a certain kind of emotion into their words. Where are their hands when they tell a story about themselves? How do they hold themselves on stage?
• Practice. Practice. Practice. Review your speech and look for places where specific changes in posture make sense. Think about how you might use the addition of a particular gesture to further the audience’s experience and allow them to engage with you and the topic of speech more deeply. Bonus tip: Enlist a friend, family member, or even your dog to listen to your speech! Even if they don’t have feedback for you, you’re at least getting some practice reps in, in front of a real audience. 

Filler Words

Filler words are those natural sounds that we all make, such as: “uh,” “like,” and “er,” and include short phrases like: “basically,” “I mean,” and more. They often crop up when we hesitate in speech or pause between sentences. Although they’re not a problem when used sparingly in conversation, they can become an issue in more formal speaking situations, like when giving a keynote or addressing a room of important people. Excessive use of filler words can become a point of distraction from your message, make you seem unprepared or nervous, and may even detract from people’s perception of you and your credibility. Here are some strategies you can use to adjust your use of filler words: 

• Record yourself speaking. This gives you a chance to hear yourself speak the way your audience might. Record yourself while practicing your speech or while you’re telling a funny story about an interaction you had. Note the times you tend to use filler–do they come when you’re trying to remember what comes next? Do they come mid-sentence? How are you feeling when you find yourself inserting filler? Knowing when and why you use filler is the first step to using them less. 
• Use transition phrases instead. Sometimes, we use filler words or phrases–just as their name indicates–to fill the silence. Dropping them from your speech doesn’t mean that there has to be an awkward silence now when you transition from topic to topic or when you need to give yourself a moment to think. Instead of using “um,” try using “let’s take a look at…” shifting away from short sounds to complete phrases. Instead of using “so,” try using “moving forward…” Instead of using “like,” try using “similarly.” If these replacements don’t work for you, find ones that do and try to use them as much as possible to break the habit. 

Pacing

Pacing is the speed at which you speak. If you talk too fast, you might confuse your audience. When you speak too slowly, your audience might get bored and stop paying attention. The key is to find that steady speaking pace that allows people to understand you and stay engaged. Here are some other tricks you can use to improve your pacing:

• Breathe. We often speak quickly when nervous; a good way to combat that is to take a deep breath if you feel yourself speeding up or practice breathing techniques to calm you down beforehand. 
• Time yourself when you practice. How long are you supposed to speak? Are you consistently meeting that mark or missing it by a mile? Timing yourself every time you run through your speech will encourage consistency and muscle memory to your pace. Speaking of pace…
• Pace is your friend! Play around with your speaking speed to emphasize what you’re trying to say. For example, you might want to think about speaking faster to convey a sense of urgency or speaking slower to draw people’s attention to the gravity of your statement. Try out different paces for different parts of your speech and use them to your advantage.

These three components are just the beginning of improving your public speaking skills, and that’s a good thing! As you work on improving one skill, you’ll likely find yourself noticing other ways to naturally tweak and polish your presentation, mannerisms, and tone. However, the most essential part of public speaking is finding a way to be true to yourself and your messaging because that is the most effective way to connect with your audience and say what you have to say. Get out there, and we’ll see you on the main stage!