My Failproof Formula For Speaking Confidently
Many people rate public speaking as one of their top fears. A lot of our worst memories of public speaking go back to our first experiences, as impressionable young children in the classroom.
We might associate it with self-consciousness and embarrassment… perhaps we worry about forgetting our lines, or not knowing what to say… or we’re worried about being made to look silly.
Ultimately, this all taps into our fear of not being liked and accepted… and this fear is self-reinforcing. It’s really no different to any other aspect of leadership we seek to avoid.
Many people learn to push through and suck it up, because they know that presenting to an audience is a critical element of leadership life. But a rare few actually manage to get to the point of mastery, transcending their fear to the point where they actually enjoy and look forward to the opportunity to speak in public.
It might surprise you to learn that, in my experience, the primary skill you need to develop is not public speaking – it’s your ability to think on your feet.
If you focus on speaking, you’ll practice the wrong thing… AND, you’ll practice it in the wrong way – in solitude and isolation. You’ll merely practice the art of creating a well-constructed and well-rehearsed monologue.
The problem with this is that it relies too much on memory, not enough on thinking.
It’s a lot harder to memorize a story word for word than it is to recall and tell a story as it comes to you.
My big tip here is, it’s essential to know the content, but don’t try to learn it exactly. I never tell the same story the same way twice. It depends on my mood, and my audience.
When I give a keynote, I’m never afraid of forgetting my lines, because there is actually nothing to forget. For example, all I memorize is, “on this slide, tell the story about the 2011 flood disaster when I was acting CEO at Aurizon”… and then I trust that the words will just come to me – they always have!
But you do have to know your stuff.
Once you’re confident that you do, there’s one key exercise that I give people to get good at delivering a presentation… without memorizing it:
Ask someone close to you to pick a topic that a reasonable person would be expected to know just a little about… sport, credit card debt, home ownership, celebrity influencers.
Once they give you the topic, give yourself limited time to make a verbal presentation to them on that topic. You can set parameters that become increasingly difficult. For example, you might start by allowing yourself 5 minutes to prepare a 1-minute presentation.
Ideally, you’ll get to the point where you only need 30 seconds to prepare a 5-minute presentation
Here’s how you prepare:
- What 2 or 3 key things do I know about this topic
- What experiences do I have in my life that support my knowledge or opinions
- How can I make this fun and interesting for my audience
Then, you simply tell that story… because you only need to remember a handful of things. It’s not about memory: it’s about storytelling and connection. You’ll find this hard, particularly at first… but if you stick with it, you’ll get better quickly.
To be clear this is a development exercise. I’m not suggesting you use this as a way to prepare a keynote, or present an investment proposal to your board. It’s your homework to give you confidence to present in front of people.