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3 Wrong Assumptions Made When Speaking in Public |
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Written by Jane K.Thomas
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Wednesday, 10 September 2008 |
If you find yourself needing to make a speech and you are not a professional speaker you will almost certainly be searching for as many tips as you can discover to help you with your task. And you will hoping to find some kind of 'magic formula' that will ensure that you can make a speech that is delivered confidently, effortlessly and to the point. And, naturally, you will want your speech to be witty and entertaining.
The reality, however, is frequently somewhat different.
No matter how much thought a person might put into their speech preparation, there are three mistaken assumptions that will make their public speaking task all the more difficult.
Assumption No.1:
That all audiences are hostile towards speakers and that in order for your speech to be successful, you will need to win their approval.
In fact, the opposite is true. Your audience actually wants you to make a successful speech. Human nature dictates that our natural empathy with a Fellow Being means that we will feel another person's discomfort when we witness it. If you are experiencing embarrassment, nervousness or unease whilst addressing your audience, then they will be sharing in that experience too.
And nobody would actually want to feel uncomfortable on your behalf, so you can begin to see that, instead of being hostile towards you, your audience are actually willing you to make a speech that will make them feel good, not bad.
Assumption No.2:
That the most important tip on public speaking is that you definitely need to include lots of jokes or anecdotes in every speech in order for it to be entertaining.
Wrong - although you will find this assertion high up on nearly every list of public speaking tips you might come across. A successful speech really does not depend on the inclusion of jokes and anecdotes.
After all, if you were an absolute ace at telling jokes and stories, you'd be a professional comedian, right? But most of us have great difficulty in even remembering a punchline, let alone be able to deliver it with style, so why make delivering your speech even more stressful than it already is by trying to carry off three or four 'funny' stories just for their own sake?
Assumption No.3:
That you need to be an expert on the topic you are speaking about or your audience will boo you off the stage
Again, this is an extremely common assumption and way off the mark. In reality, you aren't required to hold expert status for your topic in order to deliver a confident and informative speech.
What is vital to know, however, is how to research your topic well, so that you are able to discover the best and most relevant material possible for your audience's delight. If you can master this skill - and it is simply a matter of learning the correct research technique - you will soon be able to construct a speech on any topic and for any audience easily, successfully and for time after time.
So, before you begin your search for a list of 'magic' tips on public speaking, make sure you get rid of these three, completely misleading speech-making assumptions.
Keep in mind that your audience isn't automatically hostile towards you - they are willing you to do well and deliver the best and most satisfying speech they have heard in a long while. After all, they want to leave the auditorium feeling good about themselves - not bad.
Secondly, that there is no absolute requirement that you need to include jokes and stories in your speech. Unless you really do feel at ease telling anecdotes and can deliver punchlines faultlessly, don't put yourself under extra stress trying to be a comedian as well as a speech-maker.
And finally, don't become despondent believing that you need to be an expert on the subject you are to speak about. Your sole duty is to make your speech well and confidently. If you do this, your audience will naturally accept that you know your subject well. You can achieve this by thoroughly preparing and executing your research before actually writing your speech - a much more achievable task than attaining true, expert status, wouldn't you agree?
So, when searching for tips on public speaking, look first to rid yourself of these three, common misconceptions and you will have already gone a long way towards your goal of delivering a successful, confident and satisfying speech for your audience.
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