23 Public Speaking

Dr.Priti Hingorani

1.  Module 23: Public Speaking

2.  Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this module, students will be able to

·    Understand what Public Speaking is and why it is important

·     Learn the effective delivery style and significance of feedback

·    Know the various steps involved in public speaking

3.  Introduction:

“Great speakers are not born, they‟re trained”

–      Dale Carnegie

Public Speaking is the art of communicating live to a large audience. It is generally a formal face-to face interaction of an individual to a group of people. It can be as simple as providing information, story-telling or a motivational speech.

Public speaking has several components such as leadership development, business, motivating speech, mass communication, persuading, etc.It is generally done in a structured and deliberate manner with the intention to inform, influence or entertain the listener.

There are 5 elements in public speaking:

–  Who is saying?

– What?

– To Whom?

– Using what medium

– With what Effects?

4. Importance of Public Speaking

  Martin Luther King gave his “I have a dream speech” which inspired a nation and broke down racial barriers. Without his leadership and his inspirational speech it may have taken an extra 10 years to bring equality to all races.

Public speaking is so important that it could be the factor to settle on many things such as career development, business growth and even in the relationships with friends, colleagues and family. Public speaking is a skill worth learning. It is the skill of effectively communicating the message to the audiences.

Though public speaking is not an easy task but by developing these skills people accomplish some significant rewards like:

4.1 Increases in Self Confidence

We generally notice that public speakers are very confident. They have a comfort level to speak in front of a large audience. It not only creates an impression, but also a reality is established.Since public speaking improves our communication skills, it makes us more confident and automatically improves our skill of perceiving people‟s reaction to your message. It helps to gain a lot of self worth and self esteem.

4.2 Gaining Personal Satisfaction

It gives a sense of achievement and feeling of satisfaction when you are able to influence people with your emotions. When you can relate to public and they can relate to you, gives a very proud feeling.

4.3 Competitive spirit

Public speaking can be a rewarding skill for people as it helps expression of ideas in crisp and clear way. It gives a huge competition in professional life and people with public speaking skills are preferred for promotions and higher job responsibilities.

4.4.Enhanced Communication

Public speaking leads to an increased ability to communicate in general. It helps in improving interpersonal communication which can be a huge benefit in all areas of life.Public speaking skills can make a difference professionally when presentations are to be given.Public speaking teaches to communicate ideas clearly and also helps to understand how to assess the reaction of listeners.

It helps in fine-tuning the everyday communication skills by regular use of new words and expressions used while public speaking.It helps in building a comfort zone around other people as well and speak effectively even to strangers.

4.5Improve Performance

Public speaking involves various other skills such as leadership skills, orator ship.There are various other skills one can learn with public speaking that can actually boost your performance and fulfilment in other areas of life.

4.6Progressin Knowledge

Standing up and speaking to a crowd, it positions you expert in your field and there lies a great opportunity to share your knowledge, ideas, etc. Demonstration and improvement go well together here.The preparation that goes into a speech and the fact that you have to work out how to communicate to others effectively makes you understand your content that much better.

4.7Makes a different identity at Workplace

By having the confidence and ability to speak in public you can differentiate yourself in the workforce and get added advantage. It also helps in securing a better job depends on how you present yourself at a job interview.

Every speaking opportunity is an opportunity to grow in leadership, influence, community and perhaps even in the world. It helps in sharing the information with others which can impact hopes, desires and goals for yourself and everyone around the world.

One can also use public speaking skills to make a real difference. The confidence that one gets from public speaking can be used to take stand for one self as well as for others.

4.8Aids in Learning the Art of Persuasion

If you are able to impress people by your speaking skills, they will start following you and become your supporters. It can help in better persuading people by coming close to them via emotional attachment and sharing, desires and thoughts.

Public  speaking  helps  managers  to  be  „assertive communicators‟ in  their  workplace,  market environment, negotiations and other business functions. Everyone has to face public speaking at least once in a lifetime either in business place, office or social community; it has to come your way. By becoming a confident speaker you are taking an advantage over those others who refuse to stand up.

5. Steps involved in Public Speaking

5.1 Know your audience:

The kind of audience also determines the public speaking level, as every person to whom we are speaking is unique. Audiences can be different people:

• Within the organization
• External clients
• Labour work force
• Religious group
• Students and many more.

Once the audience identification is completed, public speaking comes in action. While communicating with these different groups, the speaker will use different set of words, different tone and different level of energy. The knowledge shared will be different and expected reaction will be different. Once the speaker identifies the audience, he/she can prepare the speech accordingly. As it is said “Successful speakers learn the composition of their audience before the presentation begins, then prepare accordingly.” It helps in better presentation of ideas.

5.2 Mastery over Your Audience

Knowing your audience in advance and mastering over them is very important. Public speaking has positive and negative forces and it is important to demonstrate your skills in such a way that audience accepts it easily. Say what you believe in, which makes it more impactful. If you hesitate, you will not be able to impress the audience. Be calm and confident. Try to remain connected with the audience, face the audience, pause and look them over. Try to build a connection.

5.3 Content or Substance

It relates to the ideas and emotions which need to be communicated. A good content is half work done. It includes careful use of words; it should be inspiring, motivating and organized.

Here is a checklist for effective content in the speech:

• Various examples can be used related to the topic/theme.
• Speech should be short and crisp
• Connect the dots- story telling
• Include a new piece of information
• Use statistics and data to substantiate your point
• Should always have a summary
• Exit line – leave the audience with something to think about.

There is no formula for a great speech as you cannot always predict the audience and circumstances which will be present. However, starting with impressive style, including stories, examples, new information, and facts with data can be a great effort in the speech. Be creative and summarize in a way that people should remember it.

5.3.1 Reframe your thoughts

Choice of words and thoughts is very important during public speaking. No one, either speaker or the audience should feel awkward or offensive. It is the words that reflect your personality. Reframe your thoughts before speaking to avoid any kind of miscommunication. It definitely helps in improving the confidence.

5.4 Acquiring confidence

People judge the competence of a speaker by the confidence that he displays. Confidence has powerful role to play in making the speech impactful.

Our calibre for what we do or what we say is judged by our confidence levelwhen we communicate with people. Speaking with composure and confidence, gives a sense that we are competent at what we do until we prove ourselves otherwise. On the other hand, when we are nervous and fearful while speaking, the audience will automatically assume that we are incapable of doing what we are doing.Confident public speaking does not only depends on the ability to not only overcome fears, self-consciousness and nervousness, but also on how good you are at when it come to connect with your audience.

Source: IBS (2015) “Techniques to reduce public speaking anxiety”, available online at http://www.infinitebusinesssolutions.com/2015/08/3-techniques-to-reduce-public-speaking-anxiety/

Some people are naturally good speakers while some have to work on improving the skills. Confident public speaking requires groundwork and patience.

Following are some techniques that help in improving the self-confidence:

• Practice
• Know your subject well
• Prepare for success and expect it
• Manage your fear

5.4.1 Practice

Source: Miller, F.E. (2015) “No sweat Public Speaking” available online at

http://www.nosweatpublicspeaking.com/tag/fred-miller-speaker/page/7/

As is said, “Practice makes man perfect”. Practice removes all the fear and helps to get rid of shyness, nervousness and to develop the approach to connect with the audience. Regular practice of speaking also gives a comfort level with the use of words, language and facilitates better thought process. This ultimately helps in improving the confidence.

5.4.2 Know your subject well

The better you know the subject, more comfortable you will be delivering the speech on the same. It may include some research for better understanding and to assure yourself that you know it best. This helps to ensure that a sudden arrival of nervousness will not impact your speech. It also requires concentration, which means distraction from less important matters.

5.4.3 Prepare for success and expect it

When you speak to large audience, show modest confident and be modestly confident from within. Overconfidence can be sometimes harmful. Therefore, prepare well for success and expect it. Believe

in yourself, it‟s very important to trust yourself and to remind yourself that you’ve worked hard to reach at this level and achieve your confident public speaking.

5.4.4 Manage your fear

Source: Smale, L. (2015)Public Speaking Melbourne,available online at

http://www.panicfreepublicspeaking.com.au/page/public-speaking-melbourne

“It‟s all right to have butterflies in your stomach just get them to fly in formation”

–      Rob Gilbert

Fear of speaking in public is something that only you can manage. Don‟t be nervous as it send negative signal to the audience. It cannot be eliminated easily but can definitely be managed. And, successful public speakers learn to manage their fear which automatically increases confidence.

   5.5 Wear comfortable clothes

Professional looking and comfortable looking clothing should be chosen. D.C. Barnlund (1968) says, “Personal apparel is a major source of information about the identity and character of others.” He continues, “It seems plausible that clothing may affect self-attitudes as much or more than observer attitudes.” One must feel good about how he /she is looking, as when other people come across, the confidence level should not decrease.

5.6 Relieve tension

Source: Justin (2012) “How I deal with my fear of public speaking”, available online at http://www.justinholman.com/2012/03/26/how-i-deal-with-my-fear-of-public-speaking-10-steps-that-help-me-stay-cool-during-presentations/

To relax it is vital to reach early at the venue and find a quiet place to gather your thoughts and relax. In this way it becomes easier to focus on the message. If the quite place is not available, try and manage to collect your ideas in the mind by concentrating and focusing on the topic. While you wait to give your speech, do these simple exercises.

·      Tighten your fists and hold for 3-5 seconds, then release.

·     Breathedeeply as it helps in boosting the energy.

·      Be confident, and believe in yourself.

It is important for the speaker not to exaggerate the weakness, no matter how nervous he/she is feeling, never over show it to audience. It may happen that people may not observe or become aware of it and, even if they do, they may be the good listeners who can empathize and listen more closely.

5.7 Delivery

It is the most important aspect of effective speaking. Good words chosen but not delivered properly can create a bad impression. Therefore, the speaker should be cautious of the words, tone, articulation and body language while delivering the speech.

The aesthetics of speech or the qualities that make the delivery of our speech appealing are discussed below:

• Breath Control: While we speak we cannot breathe in, we exhale. How long we can speak without pausing for breath or how loud we can speak, our symptoms of control over our breath.
• Breathing right is important: plan where to pause, how loudly or softly we can speak. Beginners in speaking experience sweaty palms and shaking knees, the best way to overcome is control your breath.
• Posture: Stand or sit relaxed. Relax breathe, but do not stand lazily, stand comfortably on both feet. Posture should be erect and not slumped.
• Voice control: Pitch, Volume and Rate play an important role here. Control pitch to covey feeling, surprise, anger, sorrow and so on. How loudly we speak depends on where we are and to whom we are speaking. Whenever we speak, we should not run and at the same time we should not be too slow. Rate of speaking should be 3 words per second i.e. 180 words per minute, which is balanced rate of speaking.

For example, the announcement of train arrival at Railway Station is like: Three THREE One ZERO has just arrived on platform number ONE.

•  Articulatory clarity: For clarity in articulation it is important to avoid following:
• Speaking through clenched teeth;
•  Speaking with the hand or palm in front of mouth; o Failing to open mouth enough, example father;
•  Failing to round the lips to make long U sound, example fool, youth; and o Failing to spread lips, example feel, and zeal.

To improve the articulation one needs to listen carefully to good speakers on TV, Radio and start imitating them.

Speaking is one of the most important things to communicate your ideas to others. Effective delivery is one of the leadership traits that a person has. It is a step ahead of the normal speaking. It is a simple conversation with a motive to persuade people and is adapted to fit the occasion. Better persuasive skills lead to better and effective speech.

To speak effectively in public forums is very important.

Step to Effective Delivery are:

5.7.1 Speak clearly, audibly and with authority:

Assume that you own the stage, be confident and authoritative while speaking. You should be clearly audible till the last row of audience.

5.7.2 Claim high:

To attract people from the very beginning, use words that claim high or signal the great outcome of the session. For example “99% of you don’t know and 100% of you will want to know”.

5.7.3 Inspire instead of preaching:

Don‟t preach. Instead inspire and motivate people by giving positive examples from life. This helps the audience to feel good and respond positively to your speech.

5.7.4 Chose a subject close to you:

This can be a subject that is personal but has a universal application or any other subject which you can relate to. Even a random topic can be personalized to engage audience attention.

5.7.5 Be focused:

Stick to one message or very few important messages that you want to give rather than many things at one time. This helps audience to remember it. They will not be interested and able to remember too many things at one time.

5.7.6 Relate:

Relating the theme or topic with the everyday situations faced by everyone and giving your own examples helps to keep them interested till the end. This also helps in increasing the motivation.

5.7.7 Organize:

Follow a logical path while delivering a speech. A proper flow of ideas is must as it helps to make speech more interesting and audience will understand it better. It should have a great beginning, middle and end.

5.7.8 Rehearse:

Rehearsal is very important and takes time to hear your own words and think if they are making sense. Remove unnecessary words or jargons that will confuse audience. You will also feel more confident at the time of actual presentation.

5.7.9 Visual aids:

If you are using a presentation, use pictures and make it more attractive. It increases the message retention rate in the audience‟s mind.

5.7.10 End:

An impactful end has greater chances of the speech being successful. This may include the summarization of the entire speech delivering the key message. This can be combined with any success story or other inspirational quotes or messages.

The saying „All well that ends well‟, is true for public speaking also. It is not simply the ability to deliver the message; it is also about creating a message that lasts long the mind of the listener.

5.8 Seek constructive feedback for future speeches

Source: Maja(2015) How to ask for feedback on your public speaking, available online at http://allinwithprofmaja.com/2015/08/01/how-to-ask-for-feedback-on-your-public-speaking/

Seeking feedback from friends with an open mind may help in improving the speaking skills in future. Recall and jot down the points about what is liked by others and what you could improve on. If feasible, record the speech, audio or video recording will help a lot as one may listen to it and can find out her/himself that where to improve and where it was all perfect.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Speech is power, speech is to persuade, to convert, to compel.” The ability to speak well in public is something to be learnt. Just as people learn to ride a bike –which needs practice and efforts to ride perfectly, in the same way public speaking can also be learnt and the feedback of audience plays a crucial role in this.

Therefore, feedback is important as:

·         This will help to make the future speeches better and more impactful.

·         Feedback is very important for self-development

·         It also helps to understand the audience‟s opinion.

6.Summary

Public speaking is an important skill, which can be honed at any point of time in life. Initially facing a large number of audiences makes people uncomfortable. Feeling some nervousness before delivering a speech is natural and even favourable, but too much tenseness can lead to certain problems. Thus for improving the art of public speaking it‟s vital to follow the following steps:

• Know the subject or the topic very well, that you are going to include in the speech. Pick a topic you are interested in. Use phrases, idioms and include examples to make it more interesting.

• Practice- Practice- Practice! Rehearse in front of a mirror, in front of your friends, with a timer. Try and control fillers.
• Know the audience, their interest, their previous knowledge, educational background etc.
• Know the place, Arrive early, walk around and be familiar with the equipments etc.
• Relax: Take a deep breath and transform the nervousness into enthusiasm.
• Voice clarity, loud and clear voice with the balanced volume, pitch and tone helps in boosting the self confidence. This may turn your speech appealing which interest the audience. Concentrate on the message and try to avoid the distractions if any.

Public speaking is about not only sharing but also learning. The speech will provide the speaker the good experience and learning and even it will boost the confidence for future speeches. Hence this is how the tactics for effective speeches can be learnt.

1.  References

•  Andaaz inc. (2012) “The Importance of Public Speaking”, available online at http://andaaztv.com/2012/?p=4939
• IBS (2015) “Techniques to reduce public speaking anxiety”, available online at http://www.infinitebusinesssolutions.com/2015/08/3-techniques-to-reduce-public-speaking-anxiety/
• Justin (2012) “How I deal with my fear of public speaking”, available online at http://www.justinholman.com/2012/03/26/how-i-deal-with-my-fear-of-public-speaking-10-steps-that-help-me-stay-cool-during-presentations/
• Kellingley, N. (2002) “UX Research Communication – Know Your Audience”, available online at https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/ux-research-communication-know-your-audience
• Maja (2015) How to ask for feedback on your public speaking, available online at http://allinwithprofmaja.com/2015/08/01/how-to-ask-for-feedback-on-your-public-speaking/
• Mandal, S.K. (2006) Effective Communication & Public Speaking, Jaico Publishing House
• Miller, F.E. (2015) “No sweat Public Speaking” available online at http://www.nosweatpublicspeaking.com/tag/fred-miller-speaker/page/7/
• Smale,L.(2015)PublicSpeakingMelbourne,availableonline at http://www.panicfreepublicspeaking.com.au/page/public-speaking-melbourne

2.  Points to ponder

•   Public Speaking is the skill of effectively communicating the message to the audiences.
•    Public speaking can be a rewarding skill for people as it helps expression of ideas in crisp and clear way.

• Public speaking helps managers to be „assertive communicators‟ in their workplace, market environment, negotiations and other business functions.
• The confidence that one gets from public speaking can be used to take stand for one self as well as for others.
• Reframe your thoughts before speaking to avoid any kind of miscommunication.
• Practice removes all the fear and helps to get rid of shyness, nervousness and to develop the approach to connect with the audience.
• The speaker should be cautious of the words, tone, articulation and body language while delivering the speech.
• Beginners in speaking experience sweaty palms and shaking knees, the best way to overcome is control your breath.
• Feedback aids in making the future speeches better and more impactful.