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What makes a speaker a great speaker? Great speakers don’t just provide information; they provide insights, they captivate audiences, they evoke emotions, and essentially, they leave lasting impressions. But what do they do differently to achieve such greatness?
“All the great speakers were bad speakers at first.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
Get into the room long before the event. Check the technical arrangements, rehearse, speak to other speakers and double-check the schedule. Be in the room as the audience arrives and connect with them. This will give you a head start; you will feel more confident and relaxed, and the audience will be more engaged, eager to hear what you have to say.
Don’t try to cram your life’s work into one speech. Make fewer points that will be more digestible and far more memorable. Don’t over-complicate things; deliver complex issues in small, bite-sized nuggets.
Tell a powerful story so everyone can see your personal connection to the topic. By sharing emotions, insights and life stories, you will deliver a genuine, more ‘human’ presentation that will resonate with the audience. Of course have data as evidence too, but stories and data go hand in hand if you want to captivate your audience.
Don’t use the same old visuals or stock pictures that we’ve all seen a million times. Take photos yourself or find quirky images that will make your audience laugh, cry or just be impressed. Evoking emotions will make you and your presentation memorable and far more enjoyable. If you’re using slides, keep words to a minimum.
Getting your audience to think for themselves and come up with answers will keep them actively engaged. Nobody wants a passive audience. Ask them to analyse a photo or do a quick quiz. Engage them in a back-and-forth, spontaneous conversation. Or let them figure out the answer to a question in your speech; don’t simply hand them solutions without any investment on their part. The key is to get them thinking.
The human brain can process 500 words per minute, but the average person speaks at a rate of 150 words per minute – time for minds to wander. The best speakers deliver speeches at around 250 to 300 words per minute. The key is to stick to bite-sized chunks to deliver any new concepts and tell stories in between to allow your audience time to process.
Practice and experience are the best ways to grow in confidence, relax and actually enjoy your speech or presentation. Speaking on a topic you know and love will also help. As well as a bit of humour or light-heartedness – but practice on friends and colleagues first. If you have fun, so will your audience; they will be open-minded, relaxed, and will learn much more.
What do you want your audience to learn from you? How do you want your speech or presentation to make a difference? Do you want to move the audience to act on something? Or think differently about something? Make sure you consider this while planning your speech.