Public speaking can be a daunting task, especially when addressing a large audience. Whether you’re giving a presentation in the boardroom or delivering a keynote speech at a conference, holding your audience’s attention and maintaining command of the room is paramount. The ability to captivate your audience and leave a lasting impression not only enhances your message’s impact but also builds your reputation as a confident and effective speaker.
Here, Forbes Coaches Council members share invaluable tips and strategies to help you conquer your fear of public speaking and ensure that your next presentation or speech is a resounding success.
1. Be Confident
Be grounded and confident to be yourself and then tell great stories. Use your voice and the stage to bring the stories alive. Your audience will connect to the emotion of the story but make sure that it is relevant for your audience and related to the topic. – Cath Daley, Cath Daley Ltd
2. Find A Way To Actively Engage The Audience
Be prepared with ways to get your audience engaged and keep their focus. Whether that’s relating to your audience, telling a joke or asking questions, actively driving engagement will make for a more effective presentation or speech. – Luke Feldmeier, Online Leadership Training – Career and Leadership Accelerator for Engineers
3. Create An Emotional Connection
Creating an emotional connection with the audience and involving them in your session fosters active participation, and ensures your audience stays engaged throughout. This also serves to enhance your presence and to create memories that stay with them long after your presentation ends. – Kristin Andree, Andree Group
4. Put Your Unique Take Front And Center
Do you have something unexpected to say about your topic? Something that goes against the mainstream opinion in your industry or is maybe even slightly provocative? If so, putting your unique take front and center in the title and the beginning of your talk and explaining or resolving it later keeps your audience engaged and interested. – Micha Goebig, Go Big Coaching & Communications, LLC
5. Remember That The Audience Doesn’t Know Your Planned Speech
No one wants to see you fail as a speaker. Remember that the focus shouldn’t be on whether or not you can recall verbatim every word of your planned speech. The focus should be on how to connect to your audience with a few key points using a combination of storytelling and facts. – Sheri Nasim, Center for Executive Excellence
6. Adapt Your Language To The Audience
Talk about something they are interested in or include elements that will keep them interested. Start by asking why your topic matters to each and every one of them. Use language adapted to the audience. Keep the key messages to two or three maximum. Show them what you think and why you care about the topic. – Isabelle Claus Teixeira, Business and Human Development Consulting Pte Ltd
7. Try To Incorporate An Element Of Surprise
Engagement is the key to keeping the audience’s attention. Invite participation, tell stories, walk around, have visuals, include humor, raise your voice and ask questions. Think of a comedian who points at someone in the audience: “Hey, you with the red shirt?” Everyone pays attention. What element of surprise can you present? – Susan Jordan, MBA, MSODL, PCC, Sphereshift Coaching and Consulting
8. Know Your Audience
Doing research ahead of time to ensure you’re providing the subject matter in a personalized manner will keep their attention. The topic will dictate the necessary vibe. Based on that, providing opportunities for the group to engage, such as shouting out a word, raising a hand, etc., will also help maintain their interest. – Lindsay Miller, Reverie Organizational Development Specialists
9. Use The Problem-Agitation-Solution Approach
Don’t just give a presentation — share a story. It must be a story-audience fit though. Use the P.A.S. — problem-agitation-solution — approach. Start with introducing a problem, follow by agitating the problem via telling a relevant anecdote and conclude by offering a solution by giving an audience a clear, direct way to avoid the pain and learn the lesson. – Alla Adam, Alla Adam Coaching
10. Tell The Audience What They Need To Hear
Instead of trying to figure out what to say, figure out what the audience wants and needs to hear. This shift in perspective allows you to tailor your speech in a way that keeps audiences actively engaged because it’s good content that they want to hear. – Robin Pou, The Confident Leader
11. Go All In
To command your audience’s attention you have to get into the spirit of what you’re teaching and go all in without second-guessing yourself. People want to be led, but they’ll be unwilling to follow someone who isn’t confident in what they are communicating. – Arash Vossoughi, Voss Coaching Co.
12. Use A Compelling Opening
Start your speech/presentation with a compelling opening that grabs the audience’s attention. This could be a surprising fact, a relevant story or a thought-provoking question. This initial engagement can help you establish a strong connection with the audience and set the stage for a captivating presentation. – Moza-Bella Tram, Moza-Bella LLC
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13. Be Authentic
Connect deeply with your essence and purpose. Radiate authenticity. When you’re centered in genuine passion and truth others feel it, creating an unspoken bond. It’s not about performing; it’s about being present and real and offering value from the heart. That’s magnetic. – Anna Yusim, MD, Yusim Psychiatry, Consulting & Executive Coaching
14. Let Your Audience Talk
There is nothing worse than stealing everyone’s craving for autonomy and speaking the whole time. The person who does the talking does the learning. So, give some autonomy to the audience. Let them talk. Even if it’s thinking time and talking to themselves, or to their neighbor or table group. This gains trust and they will lean into what you have to say even more. – Alex Draper, DX Learning Solutions
15. Leverage Non-Verbal Cues
My top tip is to engage your audience through storytelling. A compelling narrative captures attention, evokes emotion and makes complex ideas more relatable. Additionally, use body language and eye contact effectively. These non-verbal cues can significantly enhance your connection with the audience. – Peter Boolkah, The Transition Guy
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