An Art and How to deal with it
We always have to speak to people time to time, whether in a team meeting or presenting something to a group of people. The outcome of this can be good or bad. It only depends on the way you represent your ideas to others. Normally Public Speaking is a face-to-face interaction between individuals and a group of people for the purpose of communication. It can be in front of people you may know or it can be in front of strangers also. So in many cases it creates nervousness and anxiety in a person speaking to others. This is natural in human beings. But good and proper public speaking can enhance the speaker’s reputation and also boost his/her confidence and can also open up a number of opportunities for the speaker.
There can be plenty of situations where you need to interact with a group of people for any reason and you need to have good public speaking skills in yourself to get engaged with the audience and further improve your opportunities.
Speaking well is a skill or an art, it’s not about genes. The speaker needs to engage the audience by focusing, analyzing and connecting them to the topics or things they can relate to. You can complement your words with visual aids and that would add to much more creativity from the speaker and much more interest from the audience. Now, both the speaker and the audience can believe and share their perspective in a right manner. The speaker needs to research and plan for the topics, the audience is interested in and avoid the topics the audience have already heard or read before as this would create boredom in the audience.
The common problem with public speaking is lack of confidence and this is very common and you can only practice more to overcome this problem. Another issue very commonly faced is speaking too fast and this is the sign of nervousness.
The best way to deal a public speaking is to plan the communication appropriately as to what to speak, how to speak and when to speak to the audience. The speaker can start with a story telling as an opener. And yes, you cannot be a confident speaker unless you practice hard. Seek for opportunities that let you speak to others. And off course, the body language of the speaker plays a major role in giving the audience a clue about the speaker’s inner state.
A group of people is more difficult to handle than a single person while communicating. But you should concentrate on one friendly face at a time out of 100 persons sitting right there in front of you and try to talk to that person as if he/she is the only one in that place whom you are talking to. This will boost your confidence and it will also help in overcoming the anxiety and nervousness.
So the basic things to keep in mind while talking to a group or while presenting something to an audience is to plan appropriately, to practice what you are going to speak, engagement with audience and to think positive. If you keep track of these little and basic things, then for sure, you will be able to come out of the fear or phobia of Public Speaking.
References
TE Editor. (2010). Public Speaking Skills. Retrieved April 10, 2010, from https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/public-speaking-skills
Dlugan, Andrew. (2013). 25 Public Speaking Skills Every Speaker Must Have. Retrieved Sept 6, 2013 from http://sixminutes.dlugan.com/25-skills-every-public-speaker-should-have/
Better Public Speaking. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/PublicSpeaking.htm
Public speaking. (n.d). In Wikipedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_speaking
