Table of Contents
In the first article of this two-part series about public speaking, we covered the following:
- Basics of public speaking, what you should be aware of and how to get started.
- Getting started without stress.
- Tackling the common fear of speaking in public.
- How to keep your audience engaged, attentive, and hanging on your every word.
- What to do if you have a stammer or stutter.
- How to present without the power of PowerPoint.
In this next (and last) section, we’re going to take the skills you just learned to the next level. First, we’re going to dive into how to handle audience questions.
Handling Questions From Your Audience
The deciding factor as to how your presentation is received by the audience is how you handle the questions put up by the audience. It becomes more important if you are pitching for business.
- Always be prepared for the questions. When you are preparing for your speech or presentation, think about the questions that are likely to be put up and then prepare your answers.
- Make it clear in your mind as to when do you want to take up the questions, along with your presentation or at the end of it. Choose whatever suits you, but then don’t change once you have decided.
- Never end your presentation with questions. Always ask for questions at least five to ten minutes before the end, deal with them and end by summarizing because if you don’t get any questions then the end of your presentation becomes a bit flat.
- Whenever a question is popped at you, listen to it carefully and do look like you are listening. You might have faced the same questions innumerable times before, but remember to treat your questioner with respect and don’t play down their question.
- Always thank your questioner. It’s polite and shows respect. It also lends you time to ponder upon your answer.
- Repeat the questions aloud, as many of the people in the audience might not have heard, and thus it may not make any sense to them. It also makes you look in control and clever.
- Answer to everyone in the audience and not just to the questioner. Most of the time what happens is, if the questioner is in the front, the speaker ends up having conversation with him/her and excludes everyone else.
- Always try and keep it simple. By the time you reach the question part of your presentation, most of the audience have become relaxed and thus might drag the session with too many questions.
- Don’t try to bluff your audience. If someone asks you a question to which you don’t know the answer, simply tell them, and assure them that you will get back to them after you have found out the answer.
It might be possible that no one from the audience asks any question, which leaves an awkward silence. People might need some time to get what you have said and then ask. But to avoid that awkward silence, you may ask some questions to yourself and then head for the summary and closing statement.
Avoiding Panic Attacks
Many people dread speaking in public and hence associate it with panic attacks. It is possible that they might have had an anxiety-producing public speaking experience. It has been noticed that people who frequently must speak in public, suffer from panic attacks.
Here is a very interesting story about a girl named Amber. Amber, when she entered high school, had many risk factors for panic attacks. Until her final semester, Amber was somehow successful at avoiding a speech class. But, to graduate, she was supposed to take one. Amber was always dreading the idea of taking a public speaking class, though she had never received any diagnosis of panic attacks or anxiety disorder. Even the idea of standing up facing a class full of her peers was enough to make her feel dizzy and nauseous.
Even the teacher could see how very nervous Amber was, as she walked into her first day of the public speaking class. He approached her after the class and conversed with her about her obvious discomfort. Amber elaborated her physical reaction to her teacher, regarding public speaking. She explained to the teacher how she gets extremely anxious and feel nauseous and dizzy even at the idea of speaking in front of her peers, and becomes short of breath.
The teacher recommended her to visit the school counselor before coming to their next class. This made Amber feel embarrassed, and she became even more anxious at the thought of meeting the counselor.
However, the school counselor was very much familiar with the symptoms of a panic attack and knew that the students felt uncomfortable to discuss it in front of their friends. To make Amber face her next day of speech class, the counselor advised her to stand up in front of her family whenever she wanted to talk.
Amber told her family what she was trying to do to overcome her fear of speaking in the public. That night at dinner, every time Amber wanted to have an item passed to her, she stood up. Speaking in front of her family was a lot different from speaking in front of her peers, but that practice enabled her to get through her next class without any full-blown panic attack.
One night before she had a big speech due, Amber asked a few of her friends to come to her home. She wanted to practice her speech in front of them and her family until she was sure to get through it without anxiety. This technique is called systematic desensitization. It is indeed one of the most widely used techniques to get rid people of panic attacks.
Overcome The Confidence Killers
To become a confident person, all one must do is eradicate the confidence killers. The self-defeating thought patterns are called confidence killers. Many of us believe in these harmful suppositions. Here are a few confidence killers mentioned; see if you have any:
- Do you consider yourself as the “All for Nothing” sniper? If you believe so, then it’s probably the biggest reason why you never seem to enjoy even the smallest victories that you have achieved in life. You think of yourself as someone who is a complete failure if you have failed to achieve perfection. If you stop being so hard on yourself, you’ll become a more confident person.
- Never think that there is always a disaster waiting for you. Don’t let the Dark Cloud of Destruction make you think silly things. Believe in yourself and move ahead.
- The next confidence killer is ‘Warlord of Negative Magnification’. If you pay heed to this one, you won’t ever be able to overcome your lack of confidence. It’s simple and makes you believe that if this is something good, it doesn’t really count. You will build up more and more negative energy, starting from a tiny speck by magnifying it like a mountain. For instance, suppose you have won eight contests, but you failed to achieve success in the ninth one, then don’t think about the one you lost, but instead look at the eight achievements. Doing the other way round makes you kill your confidence.
- Never go by the thought that if you feel it, then it must be so. It blocks the clear thinking parts of your brain. What you feel is not always true. No one can be perfect; we all have some days when we are not able to perform to our fullest potential. Don’t let your emotions control your life. Be confident that maybe the next day you will be better.
- Perfectionists are bound to be good at making ‘should statements’. But what one must remember is that should statements are more about what people expect from you and not what you really want. As an example, if someone makes a statement that everyone should have an education plan. Then the people who don’t have an education plan might fret at this thought and think that there is something wrong with them.
- Don’t label yourself as a loser. Never say that you are a loser or everything went wrong because of you. If you must label yourself, then you should label yourself as a confident person. Throw away this libelous labeler attitude.
- Never be a compliment constrictor, this won’t ever allow you to accept a compliment. It will instead make you feel you are not worth it.
If you can find out your confidence killer(s) from these, then half of the battle is over. The only thing that is now left is to train yourself to abandon these confidence-killing thoughts.
Actionable Secrets To Build Confidence
We need to build up our confidence from time to time. How we feel about ourselves has a lot to do with feeling confident. To feel confident, we should have the feeling that we can achieve the goals we have set for ourselves.
Everyone has been gifted with one or more talents. To think like a winner, we must feel confident that we are good in some skills. Below are a few ways given to train yourself to think like a winner:
Prepare a “to-do” list for yourself. Never complain that you have tried something before and that it did not work. It is this list that can make you feel like a winner. Always make a list that is fun and easy to complete so that it makes you feel like a winner. The list can be utterly easy, too, so that even after doing these small jobs you develop confidence.
It is more of a self-conditioning list. When at the end of the day you see all the check marks on your “to-do” list, it makes you feel that you have had a productive day. You gain confidence as you find out your abilities of having things get done.
You come to think of yourself as a winner after having done the things you have listed on your fun list. In case you have forgotten to make a list at the beginning of the day, make a list of the things you have done in that day and at the end of it, mark them off.
This fun “to-do” list of yours may sound like a silly technique to build up self-confidence, but remember that the subconscious part of our mind doesn’t differentiate between what is real and what is imaginary. All that matters to that part of your mind is that you are accomplishing something every day by making sure you have done everything that you have listed. Gradually, you will notice a change in your confidence level. As it increases, add up some real tasks in your list and do them with the same ‘feel-good’ attitude.
As you are just beginning, don’t add too many tasks. Disguise your real tasks that you want to achieve with the easy ones. Feeling good is an important element in building up of confidence, so even these small accomplishments help boost your confidence immensely. If you know someone who is a very confident person, look up to them. They are always smiling. So have fun in your life and enjoy it. It will make you feel like a winner.
Giving A Successful Public Speech
Many people avoid and dread speaking in public. But like all other fears, we need to overcome this one too. It has been a common observation that many people tend to get nervous before and during their speech or presentation.
It is often recommended to practice meditation or take regular breaths whenever you feel nervous. Since it’s a natural reaction, it is good to take a few deep breaths to help you relax before starting your speech or presentation.
Before starting your speech, make sure you have a focal point in the room which will act to give you inspiration and will keep you motivated. There are times when you get distracted midway, and you lose your focus, at this time the focal point may help you get back.
When you are giving a public speech, try not to look at the eyes of the people in the audience, as it might put you off. Although you must plan what you are about to say in the speech, but never plan it word for word. Make it look natural by making your speech spontaneous, touching the points you have listed and want to discuss.
You can even start your speech with a public joke to break the ice. Sometime back I gave a speech in the company where I worked. People in my office brought some presents for a collection and I had to say a few words to thank them. I knew I must give a speech, many weeks in advance, and that put me in quite a bit of stress.
The speech was to be made in front of around fifty people and was supposed to last for ten minutes. I began my speech by saying thanks to those who had contributed to the collection, and to add humor I added, “and to those who haven’t, I will see you outside.” Though it was quite a pathetic joke, a few people laughed, and it was this that made me relax and gave me extra confidence.
I would also advise that when you are delivering a public speech, always talk a bit slower than normal. I hope, as it had helped me immensely over the years, it will work the same way for you.
Present A Lively Speech, Be Rewarded With A Standing Ovation
To bring a page of written context to spoken life, presentation techniques are essential. To inject interest in the audience and build up a rapport, use your body language to animate your presentation. Here are few techniques which you can follow to keep the audience glued to your speech:
- As you are speaking to the audience, the way you speak is significant and so are the words that you choose.
- Avoid using technical, bureaucratic, and tough language. Instead of long phrases, use short and meaningful sentences.
- Be very specific. Prefer giving a specific day or time rather than saying “soon”.
- Try to use concrete words over abstract ones. For example, use the word “microphone” over “sound amplification facilities”
- Use simple language rather than Latinized words.
- Instead of technical, use conversational English. Speaking the words from the prepared text sounds very robotic, artificial, and stilted. On the other hand, use of conversational English makes the speech sound natural and flowing. It also helps to build up a rapport with the audience. Conversational English differs from the written one very distinctly. In conversational English, grammatical and incorrect use of words can be ignored as long as the message has been clearly delivered. Use colloquial language.
- Everything you say should make sense. There is a major difference in expressing the same sentence by writing and by speaking. A listener is solely dependent on the speaker to make him understand.
- To make it more interesting, use the technique of labeling and signposting in your presentation. It enables to know what is coming up next and make them know what you really want them to understand from it.
- You can signpost the whole talk at the beginning itself by telling the audience what all you are going to discuss.
- You can even signpost the sub-points of the issue to be discussed.
- You can signpost the issue itself.
- Or you can signpost the end of your presentation.
- You can use jokes as an amusing way to build a rapport with the audience. The shared laughter becomes a point of contact. But jokes need to be well-presented, appropriate, and funny, as; if it works it brings you together but if it fails it pushes you apart. Have good comic timing and don’t forget the punch-line.
- Pause to give an extra effect to your speech. But you need to know when it is appropriate to give a pause and let your message sink in.
- You can pause to tease your audience after a provocative question.
- You can pause before you deliver the punch-line of your joke.
- You can add a pause to let your audience re-settle after a general discussion or laughter.
- You can pause to give your audience time to think about any question you might have asked.
- You can also use a slightly longer pause to show that you are in control.
- Don’t just keep on telling the audience; add a touch to your presentation by converting a point into a narrative or a story to entertain your audience and involve them into it.
Mastering such simple techniques can raise your presentation expertise to great heights!
