A person who is naturally good at public speaking has a talent and will find it easier to get up in front of an audience and talk. But anybody can develop public speaking skill, even if they are not particularly talented. And even really talented public speakers sometimes need to improve public speaking skill to be really successful in the field.

So what sort of skills do you need to develop to be good at public speaking?

Overcome the fear of public speaking

While this might come naturally to some, most people fear public speaking more than anything else in the world. This is not simply a psychological fear; it has physical symptoms as well. The heart starts to beat rapidly, mouth goes dry, hands start to sweat, and the shakes set in. It can be really hard to handle. But the good news is that it really is not difficult for anyone to overcome the fear of public speaking. You just need to know how to go about it.

At this point note that it does not necessarily mean you won’t feel scared or self-conscious, but the skill is training yourself to hide this fear from your audience. Learning this skill will give you the courage and confidence to speak.

Learn how to prepare a good speech

A good speech has content. So you’re thinking “of course it does”. But the thing is that many people think of a topic or a theme, but they don’t have sufficient content to make a speech work. They also don’t work out a structure before they start talking, and so everything falls apart.

Preparing a good speech does take skill. But this is another skill that really isn’t difficult to learn. And once you have mastered the skill of preparing speeches, you will find that they are also easier to deliver. This is because if you prepare properly – and thoroughly – you will feel completely at home with your topic.

Preparing a good speech does not mean writing an essay and learning it off by heart. That is not what public speaking is all about. Instead it is working out what you are going to say and how you are going to say it. It also involves identifying a good way to introduce the topic you have chosen and a good way to end the talk. If you know your topic well, it could be as simple as drawing a flow chart with key words that will remind you what you want to talk about.

Master delivery of speeches

There is something to be said for basic speech training because it teaches you how to breathe and how to project your voice. If you understand the basic physiology of the body and how our vocal cords work, you will understand how breath control affects the sounds that emanate from our mouths. If you sit reading a book your breathing will be gentle and composed.  When you talk, you need to use your whole chest to breathe. This is particularly important when you are speaking in public because it directly affects voice tone.

You also need to be able to gather your thoughts. If you think clearly, you will speak clearly. This doesn’t imply dragging out the speech, but it is important not to gabble otherwise people won’t hear what you say.

Other public speaking skills that relate to successful delivery your speech include making eye contact with people in the audience and using body language in a way that it reinforces your message in a positive way.

Enter the public speaking coach. Here is someone who can help you, usually quite quickly, come to terms with what public speaking involves. Of course there are good coaches and some who are mediocre, but if you look at testimonials and talk to people who have had some public speaking coaching, you will soon sort the good from the bad.

But what can you expect to get from someone who coaches public speaking?

A good public speaking coach will assess your existing skills and help you to improve. A good coach will help you develop ways to feel at ease and show you how to approach a speaking presentation. He or she will explain why you feel fearful perhaps to the point of losing sleep days before you have to do a presentation or make a speech. More importantly this person will be able to show you a way to overcome this fear. They will also be able to show you how to make contact with your audience — and how to maintain their interest.

Anxiety and fear are what put most people off public speaking. Company directors who have established their own businesses and made billions, sometimes find they simply don’t have the self confidence and courage to talk in public about what they have lived and breathed for scores of years. They know the subject inside-out but can’t communicate with an audience. This is not something rare, in fact it is one of the most common reactions that people have to public speaking. It really can be terrifying to the extent that you become physically ill — nauseous, sweaty, trembling. It certainly isn’t abnormal.

Happily there are some simple techniques that an experienced coach will share with you that will enable you to overcome any level of fear. And it really is about mastering the fear. Here’s an example that applies as much to speaking to an audience as it does to giving someone bad news. Your tummy flutters and your mouth goes dry. Or you may have the symptoms mentioned above.

When we are nervous, hormones that our body secretes cause our muscles to contract. This makes our heart beat more rapidly and it makes our breathing shallow. It also makes us shaky. What you need to do is sip some tap water (not too cold) and take a deep breath. Keep breathing, allowing your chest cavity to expand fully. Sit quietly and focus. Concentrate on good thoughts. Breathe. Just before you speak take a deep breath and smile.

Athletes often feel the same way as speakers — unbelievably nervous. They also breathe deeply and focus. They just don’t always have the opportunity to smile!

The first thing you need to be clear about is what you hope to get out of any seminar. For example are you hoping to improve your leadership and people skills, or do you want to focus on improving your communication skills. Improved communication skills will help to:

• reduce public speaking nervousness,
• make you think more clearly and be more concise when you speak,
• be more persuasive and influential when you speak,
• think and speak better when you stand in front of an audience, and
• command the attention of audiences more easily,

Ultimately these communication skills will also help you to communicate better on all levels, not just as a speaker talking to an audience. They will also help you to share and market thoughts and ideas more effectively.

Improved leadership and people skills will help you to:

• remember names and positions (because your general memory skills will improve),
• build relationships of trust,
• reduce tension and resolve conflict,
• make other people enthusiastic and co-operative,
• motivate and inspire people (that why great speakers make such good motivational speakers), and
• build your leadership skills and share them with others.

Public speaking seminars, like all seminars, will have a specific focus and will be organized in a specific fashion. For example, they may have key speakers and then workshops where delegates get to discuss what they have learned. Most give people attending the seminar the opportunity to ask questions, often directly after a key speaker has spoken. Some allow delegates the opportunity to practice their newfound public speaking skills as well.

So the second thing to establish is how the seminar will be run. If there are going to be key speakers, find out who they are and then do some research to find out more about their speaking skills and success. After all, you want to learn from winners.

Do you know anyone who is able to recommend specific seminars to you? Personal recommendation is great.

Talk to business associates and friends who have attended previous seminars and find out as much as you can about:

a) key speakers, and
b) seminar organizers.

If your business associates and friends have attended seminars organized by the same people, or with the same key speaker or speakers, you should get their opinion. Did they benefit or were they bored? If you’re going to bother to attend any sort of public speaking seminar you want to be inspired and motivated, certainly not bored.

Of course you will also want to assess the cost factor. Unless you have an unlimited budget, compare the costs of seminars offered by different organizations and individuals.

Lastly you will need to decide whether you attend the seminar you choose on your own or with a friend or colleague. The great thing about going with someone else is that you can continue to share the experiences you had and skills you learned, long after the seminar is over.

Just watch actors and actresses speaking at the Oscars and see how some of them start to stammer and stutter. If you suffer from excessive public speaking nervousness, you should immediately feel a whole lot better. After all, these are people who are being awarded for their acting skills, and here they are falling apart at the seams. The thing is though, that the Oscars are awarded to movie stars and not to people who are trained to act on stage, in front of a live audience. While both stage and screens stars may be able to act with great confidence and credibility, the two disciplines are quite different to one another when it comes to nerves.

Stage fright is generally what leads to nervous public speaking. Movie stars don’t have to stand on a stage and perform. They don’t have to face an audience. Their audience will judge them later on. So when movie stars are placed in a situation that forces them to ad-lib or improvise a speech without lots of preparation and rehearsing, sometimes they just can’t get it right.

Feel better? You should. But now you are going to want to get to grips with how to overcome your nerves when you have to speak in public.

First off, be prepared. Unless you are called on to speak spontaneously, make sure you have an outline that you can follow. You don’t have to learn a speech off by heart — in fact it’s better not to do this. But you do need to have a very good idea of what you are going to say. Oscar winners have usually prepared their speeches. Even though they didn’t know they were going to win, they do know they are nominees. But maybe not all of them practice enough.

A proven approach is to make key words that you can refer to during your talk. Write these on small envelope-sized card so that you don’t have to hold sheets of paper that flap, or a notebook that you have to page through. One of the most common symptoms of stage fright is trembling. Your hands start to shake and your legs feel all wobbly. And if your hands are trembling, you aren’t going to find it easy to hold anything to refer to. So keep it small.

If you know your subject well, and you really have planned your speech, then the key words will help to keep you on track. You may always feel nervous when you speak in front of a crowd of people, but the more practice and experience you get, the easier it will become. Practice in front of the mirror, in front of friends and family. Join a Toastmaster’s group.

Something else that helps to minimize stage fright is to do some deep breathing just before you go on stage. Also consciously relax your body so that you increase the flow of oxygen to your brain. Breathe so that your entire chest cavity expands. You will find that this helps your speech as well, because you will be more in control and your voice tone will improve.

Last of all, try to feel confident. Even if you aren’t, act as if you are!

Presentation relates to various factors including:

•    The way you structure and organize your speech. A well structured speech will be easier for you to remember and therefore easier for the audience to follow. It will also be more credible and your audience is likely to enjoy it more.
•    The introduction and conclusion of your speech, both of which are related to structure. While the guts of any speech, is obviously important, it is generally the introduction and conclusion that will make or break it for the audience.
•    The aim of your speech. If you are speaking to entertain then you need a presentation that will make your audience laugh. If you are giving a serious speech on economic and financial matters, you want your audience to leave feeling they have learnt something or benefited in some way, although you can still introduce some humor.
•    The type of speech you are going to give, for example whether it is informative, persuasive or ceremonial.  For each of these to be successful, your focus, and therefore your presentation, will be rather different. For example, an informative speech will benefit most from using various visual aids to share knowledge.
•    Delivery and speaking style. You can choose to read a speech, memorize it, present it spontaneously, or you can prepare a speech and adapt it as you go along, depending on audience response. The last option is by far the best in terms of keeping audience interest alive, as well as your own credibility. But sometimes circumstances require reading, memorizing and speaking off-the-cuff — so bear this in mind.
•    Any additional aids you are going to use — for example a flip chart or a screen. Visual aids can be used both as a means of reminding you (the speaker) what comes next, as well as a way to reinforce what you are saying.
•    The need to demonstrate tasks or methods, for example cooking demonstrations or the way machines work. Here the food or machine, or whatever else is being demonstrated and described becomes, in a way, a visual aid.

If you decide to use visual aids in your presentation, there is one very important factor to consider. That is how much to include in your presentation. Unlike a book that can be packed with pretty well every possible form of support material, a speech has a lifespan, and the audience will only be able to absorb so much.

Just as speakers are advised to compile and then cut down on speech material, so too is it advisable to see what support material is available, and then be selective. Choose graphs, pictures, tables and small chunks of text that will support and back up what you have to say, without confusing your audience. Discard what is not essential.

Over the years there have been a myriad of books written about public speaking and how important it is for younger people to learn effective speaking and to be able to speak before an audience. Public speaking is taught in schools and colleges all over the world. And in addition to what happens in the schools, there are also many clubs and organizations that have been set up to further the teaching process — for young and old alike.

But why is public speaking so important?

First and foremost it’s got to do with effective communication. A person who mutters and murmurs and is unsure of what he or she is trying to say, is not going to attract positive attention or get very far in life. On the other hand, a person who can express themselves clearly and articulately will make a good impression and is likely to succeed both socially and in business. This is because a good speaker can be persuasive and reassuring. Furthermore, the very ability of being able to speak well in public instills a certain confidence and self assurance within one’s self, which is an invaluable tool in life.

Being able to “influence” people with intelligent speeches (or talk) has become a primary reason why school kids learn public speaking. Furthermore, by learning the required skills at an early age, most kids are able to speak effortlessly, and painlessly, later in life. They may still feel nervous getting up in front of a large crowd, but experience and practice will always make it a lot easier.  That is a proven fact.

But there is much more than this, because as anyone who has developed public speaking skills will know, the ability to speak in public, before a sea of strange faces, is a learned skill. It teaches you how to think calmly and clearly when talking to a group of people, however big this audience is.

If kids are taught by good teachers, and not people who tell them to simply memorize and recite speeches, they will also learn how to develop their own thoughts and opinions. A good teacher can use public speaking training to encourage kids to research different subjects and scrutinize what they have learned. This is an ideal way to learn about new things in an objective and meaningful manner. The same training can be used to help pupils develop memory skills. A good teacher should also be able to show kids that strong speaking skills will give them opportunities that others don’t have.

In addition to overcoming public speaking fears and being able to present intelligent thoughts, learning how to speak in public should also teach children language skills. This means not just finding the right words, but knowing how to pronounce them and how to structure sentences correctly.

So you will see that teaching public speaking to young people has the potential to help them grow in every possible way.

Rightly or wrongly, many people associate voice quality with general health conditions and personality traits. A strong, resonant voice seems to indicate a healthy body and a well adjusted personality, whilst a weak, ineffective, or squeaky voice seems to show a lack of physical vigor and suggest general inadequacies. If you’ve ever had to make a speech while you were feeling sick or had a cold, and couldn’t stop coughing or sneezing, you will appreciate this idea even more.

Happily, it is reasonably easy to train our voices, at very least by understanding how to breathe correctly when we speak. We all breathe constantly, day and night, but when we talk, we interrupt that breathing process, and sometimes end up gulping for breath. The way to overcome this is to make sure there is always enough air in our lungs to be able to speak. A good tip is to take a deep breath at the beginning of each new idea. Don’t gulp, but rather take a little time and allow your whole chest cavity to fill with air. If you practice this, it will become completely natural when you speak.

Standing up straight also helps, as does learning how to relax.

Try standing and breathing incorrectly to see how different your voice sounds. If you stand with your chest out, shoulders back, chin in and push your weight forward on your toes, only the upper part of your lungs will fill with air. Chances are that your voice will sound harsh and you won’t be able to project it. This is because your chest and throat are stiff and strained. Now poke your chin out, push your shoulders forward so that your back is rounded, and put your weight on your heels. Only the lower part of your chest will fill with air and your voice will be breathy and also not project.

To be able to control your breathing fully, and project your voice – and therefore make yourself heard – stand with your shoulders square, your back straight, and relax your chin. You should feel well balanced and be able to fill your entire chest with air, so that your diaphragm flattens slightly. When you breathe with your upper chest only, your diaphragm scarcely moves, and when you breathe with your lower chest, it is pushed down too much.

Before you make any sort of speech, breathe deeply and try to relax not just your body, but your mind and spirit as well.

When it comes to delivering the speech, it is not only what you say that is important, but also how you say it. Here are some more factors to practice and remember:

• Pronunciation. This is the correct way in which words are pronounced (or spoken) in a particular language. If you pronounce words incorrectly this might reduce your credibility.
• Diction. This relates to the way words are pronounced as well as to the choice and use of words and phrases chosen to express the meaning of words. Good diction increases credibility and is the sign of an intelligent speaker.
• Pitch. This relates to how high or low our voices are. When we speak, we need to change the pitch from time to time to avoid sounding monotonous and therefore boring.
• Pace. This is the rate at which we speak, and like pitch, we can use it to enliven speeches and make them more interesting. For ordinary conversation we normally use a medium pace. You may quicken the pace during a speech to help show strong emotion. But don’t speak quickly for too long or your words may become garbled. Slowing down the pace of a speech generally adds dignity and/or adds emphasis to words or phrases.

One of the best known and best established organizations is Toastmasters International. Formed in California in 1924, Toastmasters offers presentation skill training in towns and cities all over the world. How it works is that interested people form clubs, and meet regularly to practice their public speaking in front of other people who also want to improve their public speaking skills. There are no instructors as such, instead other members of the club, who are people skilled in public speaking, give feedback and suggest ways that each speaker can improve.

Since most people who have mastered the art of public speaker agree that only practice makes perfect, this learn-by-doing option is a really good one.

Toastmasters clubs help members learn some of the many skills that make a good public speaker. These include:

• Advice on how to use humor successfully.
• How to present yourself and how to move and gesticulate.
• How to make eye contact with an audience and why this is so important.
• Ways to organize and prepare speeches.
• How to deliver speeches successfully.

Once members have completed these basic exercises and delivered 10 speeches at a club, they are able to choose from 15 much more advanced courses that teach additional important skills.

Toastmasters clubs also have a Competent Leadership Manual and they encourage members to join their High Performance Leadership Program. This involves members becoming officers at other clubs or associations. And just as they learn to speak by speaking, they learn leadership skills by taking on leadership roles.

Another international organization that offers opportunities to develop public speaking skills is Meetup (www.meetup.com), a network that makes it easy for people to organize group meetings within specific areas of interest. Even if public speaking is not the main focus of a group, many of these groups will give you the opportunity to speak before an audience and increase your confidence.

Of course there are also many smaller organizations that do specialize in public speaking coaching, some that operate in one city or area only. You can find these by doing searches on the Internet or by searching your local Yellow Pages.

If you are confident enough, another way to get hands-on public speaking training is to volunteer to talk at meetings or social occasions. Or you can set up your own group, starting with friends who also have an interest in improving their talk skills. Take turns to record each performance on video, and then play back the videos and make constructive comments – critical or otherwise.

While doing-it really is the best way to improve the way you speak in public, it is useful to have a good understanding of all the basic tricks. So read as much as you can and try to absorb the tips that other people offer. Then, when you stand up and give a speech, practice what you have learned.

Don’t ever forget that you never stop learning, and that practice makes perfect.

If you can show young or novice students how public speaking has helped turn the lives of certain people around, then you will find that half your job is done. As soon as a student really wants to learn, you have somebody who is able to learn.

One of the challenges for those who teach public speaking is to convince their new students that public speaking is a skill that they can learn. That might sound a bit odd, but lots of people believe that good speakers are born and not bred or trained. Nothing could be further from the truth. Some of the very best speakers in the world began with no obvious skills at all. Many were forced by circumstance to learn these skills, to better themselves or simply to cope with jobs that demanded that they talk to groups of people. On the other hand, many people who were taught how to speak in public simply went on to succeed in life – because of that very skill.

Some of the things that you are going to have to instill in new students include the fact that public speaking is multi-faceted. You need to have something to say. Then you have to find a good way to say it. Having decided how best to present the speech, you have to find a way to deliver it successfully. The most charismatic person in the world will not succeed in public speaking without some substance in terms of speech content. And a highly literate person, with incredible ideas and thoughts, will not succeed either, without the ability to present and deliver these ideas and thoughts.

In addition to all of this, there is also the puzzle of what to talk about. Finding a topic is something that young people often find difficult. But many find it even more difficult to tackle a speech when the topic is given. Here you will need to do some good, solid research training. A good teacher will be able to help students find information and also help them to analyze what they have found. The best public speakers make what they say their own. This does not just happen. Instead they have to question and make judgments, and give opinions. Few young people are able to do this without prompting. They need to learn these skills along with other skills that will make them feel relaxed and confident when they are faced by a sea of eyes in front of them. They need to learn how to present their words, and how to present themselves.

As a teacher you will have to take all these factors onto another level and show how each one can be successfully achieved. For the student there will be a division between the theory and the practical work. A successful teacher will have the ability to blend the two, enabling the student to succeed.

The funny thing is that it really doesn’t matter what sort of job you are after. If you learn to speak well, you’ll find you are able to communicate better and you will instill confidence in yourself and in other people. People who undertake this type of training aren’t necessarily looking for formal public speaking jobs. In fact if you join Toastmasters anywhere in the world, you will find that remarkably few Toastmasters do public speaking for a living. But they reap the benefits nevertheless.

Toastmasters and other similar organizations aren’t just about making speeches. Instead these organizations help you to improve your self-confidence and use public speaking to go further in life. This doesn’t mean you necessarily have to talk to large audiences either.

Many (if not most) real-life public speaking exercises involve small numbers of people, like groups of colleagues or potential clients. What this means is that you have to be able to share information with the people you work with — not just talk to them. You have to instill confidence and make them realize that they need to pay attention to what you are saying. If you don’t have the confidence to say what you need to say, you simply won’t succeed. They won’t pay attention, and they won’t act accordingly.

There is no doubt that public speaking training is a good idea for anyone who finds responding in a group situation difficult. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to be able to take the floor. You just have to be able to respond appropriately. Put yourself in a group situation and you will know immediately how you feel. If your stomach knots, your hands shake, your throat goes dry or you simply feel that you need to keep quiet, you need help coping with speaking in public.

Public speaking training is also a good idea for people who don’t communicate well, or who find it difficult to network with other people. These people may be able to talk, but they often get it wrong, antagonizing people, rather than gaining their confidence.

One of the earliest protagonists of learning the art of public speaking was Dale Carnegie, author of numerous books published in the mid-20th century, including How to Win Friends and Influence People. The Dale Carnegie schools that were set up to follow his teachings, continue to instill personal confidence, improve communication and networking skills, and show students how to develop poise and polish their skills. These schools are legendary.

The fact is that if you can speak well, you will make a good impression and communicate better.  You’ll become a more believable personality and people will be quick to trust you.  A person who has a solid command of their language, and is able to make people listen and be interested, has a definite lead.  Have you?