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Author:
Keith Longmire

Most people seem to think that good public speakers are born not made. Nothing could be further from the truth. Most good public speakers have undergone significant training in public speaking.

Even politicians – those great natural orators – have all undergone public speaking training. In the UK Margaret Thatcher was known to use speech coaches. In the US President Bush has consulted actors to help improve his speech delivery.

Whatever your level of public speaking you can improve with a little help from the professionals.

If you do a quick search on the internet for public speaking training you will get thousands of hits from sites promoting everything from self study e-books to 14 day residential courses. It is difficult to decide which is right for you.

Here are six things that you should look for when selecting the training or help that is right for you.

1. Principles of public speaking

Everyone has their own ideas of the basic principles of public speaking. As a minimum look for some mention of defining your goals, researching and deciding on your content, and understanding your audience and their needs.

2. Body language

Body language is at least as important as the actual words you use in your presentation. Some experts claim that the way in which your words are delivered – your posture, stance, gestures and animation – does more to convey your meaning than any words that you actually say.

Body language is a huge subject. A course on public speaking must cover the basic principles.

3. Use of words

Having said that body language is more important than the actual words it is a fact that without the words there is usually no message. Obviously, researching and creating the content of your speech are vitally important. How to create and craft your content are essential in any training.

4. Preparation

If there is one key to success in public speaking it is “preparation, preparation, preparation”. How to prepare is pretty simple. Learning how to do it well and quickly is a key skill. Some topics to look out for include questions such as:

Should you write and use scripts?

When should you use notes and how should you prepare them?

Can you rely on your memory alone?

Should you use audio visual aids?

5. Delivery

Most public speaking training concentrates on telling you how to deliver. And this is probably the right emphasis. Just make sure that the principles of public speaking have been well covered so you know just what your delivery has to achieve.

Most physical courses well video your performance for you to review and critique. It’s a technique that has stood the test of time. If you put your faith in an e-course you should also look for mentor on whom you can practise your public speaking.

6. Conquering nerves

Show me someone who doesn’t feel some degree of nervousness before speaking in public and I will show you someone who doesn’t care about their performance. Nerves are natural and even help to improve our performance.

For many people there is little more stressful in life than the prospect of public speaking. I have known highly confident, articulate people be physically sick before speaking in public. Any course on public speaking is incomplete without some help and guidance on controlling or conquering nerves.

There are literally thousands of topics that could be covered in a course on public speaking. Depending on your own particular circumstances and needs the overall emphasis will change.

Ensure that the training you select covers these 6 fundamental pillars first. You will be surprised how much sub standard training it will help you filter out. You can then select the training that most closely m atches your needs from those that remain.

Keith Longmire specialises in helping small businesses achieve rapid sustainable growth. Public speaking is a pivotal concept. See more at The Public Speaking Blog.

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A Quick Note From The Publisher... If you like the article above, you may be interested in the following article which is also related to Professional Speaker... Writing And Speaking To define this let’s see some advantages and disadvantages of both writing and speaking. Speaking is much older than writing, it had existed thousands of years earlier than writing was innovated. While speaking developed due to society’s primary needs of communication writing needed in more complex society when some records were needed. There are still some societies which are not educated and do not have writing, but they have preserved their own culture, traditions, history and customs. Moreover, speaking can be defined as human natural skill which is not needed to be taught. People can start speaking without any teachers if they grow up within society. Writing is not so natural, one has to be taught how to write. Then speaking offers a wider range of context-bound meanings because it implies verbal communication together with non-verbal tools, such as gestures, mimic, intonations and speed. Comparing with writing where it is very hard to create a context-bound message even if many symbols, metaphors, punctuation and other writing tools are used. While speaking it is easier to fluently change the vocabulary, topic and genre due to your listener’s immediate feedback. Thus, a speaker interacts with his audience much faster and effective than a writer. Thus, speaking is predetermined to be more important than writing. However, writing is thought as an essential activity of society and successful writing can sometimes influence the society much greater than speaking. Although writing requires special knowledge and years of study it is the most effective way to communicate with thousands of people at the same time. If you have something important to tell, something that must be immediately released throughout the world, the only thing you need is to start writing....