Ameliorate Public Speaking Skills !
I as a loquacious human; whenever asked about my weaknesses, "replying talkative nature as the dominant one", Ironically I realised the dominating weakness of mine was the important strength that I have been blessed with, I felt the necessity that one should definitely know the way to present oneself in front of others. Apart from knowing the way to express yourself it's equally important to have the self-confidence to speak in front of the public in order to address people.
As I mentioned in one of my previous article, how much important is to have a jovial; light-hearted conversation, whereby talking continuously for long hours with a person you are comfortable with don't allow you to step out of your comfort zone which indirectly creates a fear of speaking when asked to speak in front of a huge audience or say public speaking. Thus, this becomes the area to be focused more on!
Let me help you in making your steps easiest!
Answer my one question; you all probably have completed your schooling and if not then must be on a way to be promoted to the next standard. How did you do that ? Most of you will answer through studying hard, however I will always say that you had believed in yourself of getting promoted to the next class while following the teacher's guidelines and learning and practising.
Step 1: This brings you on the very first step of yours that you should remind yourself that you can do whatever you have a firm belief in. You just need to make up your mind and be consistent in implementing your efforts and never stop practising.
Getting ready in front of a mirror is an easy task; Right girls and off course even boys? Also doing acting, while "looking into the mirror and appreciating and scolding yourself" the famous said of a famous personality.
Step 2: This brings us upon a very important aspect of using a mirror; getting ready as of now during days (quarantine)? so you can easily try to speak louder while looking yourself into the mirror on any topic and maintaining high and low pitch wherein necessary expressions and voice modulation and keep a check of how you speak and write down the areas to be focused on. I guarantee you the entertainment you will get nowhere while acting as a speaker and audience to yourself.
Although all of us fight a lot with our siblings and cousins, yet very few discuss something very important and mostly irrelevant subject matter. You must have understood what I'm talking about!
Step 3: Here you go with your third step, pick any topic of their interest and speak and try to get on to the conclusion arising out of the same with your siblings. Moreover, to make it an amusing activity add some twists & turns which will make it light hearted and you will find that when you are relaxed you can speak easily. Thus, relaxing yourself is the very basic thing that you need keen focus on.
In most of the situations of our lives we get nervous which is normal and also on stage while speaking in front of the public. We all feel psychological reactions like pounding hearts and shivering hands and this is what makes you alert and give a good performance only when while facing all these stuff you are not connecting the reactions with your performance of doing well or not.
Step 4: Thus, getting nervous at times without thinking of the performance can help you in getting the just opposite reactions of what your anxieties can cause. Additionally, practising and preparing will assist you in gaining confidence because of the familiarity with the notes that you have been practicing with will help you enunciate your speech pleasantly.
All of us watch a lot of movies and videos for our entertainment and must have made some videos as well.
Step 5: This is just what you have to do while speaking, make a video of yours and send it to a friend for an unbiased review who can tell you the best as well as the part you need improvement on. Practising in this way will not help you in overcoming your nerves completely but to minimise them to a major extent.
We all know how to talk with a person in different situations because we can analyse what the person wants to hear according to the situation he/she is in. This brings us on a very crucial aspect of connecting people via our communication which if felt by the audience more likely the chances of being remembered by them through the image created by our effective speaking.
Step 6: It is of extreme importance to connect with people through our speaking skills in order to make the communication two sided. However, to make it two sided you should understand the purpose of your speaking with the type of audience you are speaking to because it's not about you, it's about them. Your speech should have the main or central and a general or specific idea you wanted to convey to your audience according to the environment in which you have to speak.
Being different from each other and having some similarities in various aspects makes you stand out of the crowd. Let this difference in your personality come through.
Step 7: Here is something which I would say you never need to change is being you and that will make your audience realise that you are a real person and will trust in what you are saying. This will assist in making your communication two-sided while receiving the proper attention from your audience. Being Self-confident about the real you will connect and will draw your audience towards you. So Be yourself!
We all possess the ability to make others laugh even when you think that you are not humourous enough. If you don't believe me ask your friends and they will answer you.
Step 8: To improve your speaking skills you write your content counting in your experiences and incidents to make it authentic and amusing. People like listening to the stories which make them laugh and at the same time give some learnings. Use of gestures through hands and expressions will make it more engaging and attention grabbing because people relate themselves with your incidents that had happened and get more and more interested in hearing them out. This will make your audience imagine things which will automatically make them laugh and relax from inside.
Through our body language we almost reveal our reactions to the things which are of some interest to us or not. Even if due to some reason we are hearing about the things out of our interest box our body indicates every sign of not being interested in that particular subject.
Step 9: This is what makes it necessary to comprehend the signs indicated by one's body which is called body language. Understanding the bodily language of your audience will help you in knowing the response and more likely the chances to understand where you are lagging behind. Also use of hand gestures with voice modulation and expressing your emotions through your face and body movements will help audience grab the essence of your speaking better.
As for now Some of you must be thinking to take a step forward and do something to improve your public speaking skills, but there are many who must be more worried about the outcomes that they will face in the process of implementing the necessary changes and improving their skills. Also, if I'm not wrong you all must be fighting with your anxieties of trying to move out of your comfort zones and probably will skip or procrastinate which means "To ax one's own feet"!
Additionally, if you don't have any idea of what am I talking about? "I would personally suggest to read my previous article"- 'The state to delay things', probably you might understand the whole scenario for your own good!
All these steps will make you articulate the idea or the information in the most significant manner.
One of the crucial facets of speaking is accepting the critiques and responses from the audience in a pragmatic approach in order to ameliorate your further coming deliverances.
Happy Speechifying!
~ By Khushi Gupta for Young Engine