Speaking in public can be scary. You are standing there, in the lime light, while everyone’s eyes are on you – or alternatively, everyone looks bored, disengaged and ready to go home. Your palms are sweating, your hands are shaking, and your main tool to deliver the words, your voice, seems to have abandoned you completely.
But don’t worry, here are six tips to keep you grounded and confident when speaking in public, be it as a classroom teacher, when facilitating a workshop, or delivering a speech.
1. Ground yourself
Almost literally. Find something to hold on to, be it a podium, the edge of a table, a flipchart, or a stack of cue cards in your hands. A podium is great if you get fidgety or if your hands tend to shake under pressure. Cue cards serve a double purpose: they ground you to something and help you stay focused. In the best case scenario, you will have something to rest your other hand on while the other is free to gesture.
2. Gesture away
While gestures can be distracting if overdone, they help to liven up your presentation and communicate with your audience. Movement also helps you to get rid of nervous energy and calm your body and mind. When you’re practicing your delivery, allow your body to communicate with your words in your own natural way. If you’re unsure how you look or sound while delivering the speech, it’s not a bad idea to film yourself while practicing. You can even move about the stage or the front of the classroom to avoid clamming up. When you have adrenaline coursing through your body, the worst thing you can do is to stay quiet and stay still. Break the paralysis with movement or speech.
3. Time to slow down
Time distortion is one of the most common reactions to stress/fear, and it’s the reason why so many people speak way too fast in front of an audience. Just be mindful of this and remind yourself to speak just a tad more slowly than you naturally would. What can also help is timing your presentation or class at home and when you’re delivering it, know where the clock is. By keeping an eye on the time, you can police your pace and know when to move on to the next subject.
4. Stay out of stress country
Stress is never a good thing. Some pressure here and there helps us to stay sharp, but when the lid of the pressure cooker is ready to blow off, you know you’re in stress country – and that’s your last chance to do something about it. When you have a speech or a teaching session to prepare, start managing your stress levels well before the event. The first thing to do is to prepare, prepare, prepare! In an ideal situation, you wouldn’t have to work on your presentation the night before at all, except for a trial run. Perform it to a family member or to a friend over Skype, to a wall or your cat, as long as you do it. Yet despite all the preparation and practice, the moment you step in front of the crowd can still feel stressful. Here it’s important to not to forget to breathe, as breathe you must. Try this: using your diaphragm, inhale for 4-6 seconds and exhale for 8-12 seconds, then repeat. Do this before diving in and dazzling your audience, but try to also find moments to breathe well during your speech or presentation. Not only does it calm you down and clear your head, but it also does wonders to your voice. Research has also shown that by doing a ‘power pose’ – standing with your legs apart and both arms raised above your head – for just a few seconds before an important performance can boost your level of confidence, so find a quite place before your speech and stretch those limbs!
5. Tend to your voice
Make sure you have a glass or bottle of water, some mints or strong chewing gum like Airwaves at hand. Your mouth and throat dry up quicker in a stressful situation, making it all the more difficult to keep your voice clear. Just remember to spit the gum out before you speak unless you’ve mastered the art of speak-with-gum-in-the-cheek! If you have a full day of speaking ahead without much prior experience or practice, your throat can also get sore after a couple of hours. Hot tea is your savior in this case. Choose something without caffeine, as caffeine can wind up your nerves even tighter. The way you speak can also help protect your vocal chords. Try this: talk like you normally would, but try to pay attention to where your voice comes from; is it your throat or chest? You’ll likely notice a difference when you emphasize talking “out of your chest.” If you only use your throat, it can damage your vocal chords over time.
6. Remember, you’re OK
Don’t be too hard on yourself. You’ll be fine, you’re OK, really. Even if you stumble on your words or your armpits become the Niagara Falls, give yourself a break. Nobody’s perfect. We can strive for perfection in training of our voice, manners and presence while speaking public, but it’s still OK, even recommended, to make mistakes. Continuous improvement stems from your resilience to get back to your feet after you’ve fallen on your face. So before you step in front of your audience, tell yourself, “You’re OK.”
And give yourself a cookie, literally, after you’re done.