Most Important Public Speaking Tip: Find what works for you

Public Speaking , Presentation Tips , The Buckley Experience

"Though tradition is often the best way to do things or identify greatness, that isn't always true."
– Isaac Bailey, successful public speaker who copes with a stutter

Public speaking is the most individual of talents. We're committed to that notion at The Buckley School. We believe it makes public speaking more interesting when each speaker makes the most of their strengths and goes about presenting in their own best way.

A guest editorial in The Charlotte Observer provides a good reminder of why this is so important. The writer is also a speaker—someone who stands up before audiences and presents successfully despite having a stutter.

Isaac Bailey provided some of the techniques he uses to speak and accommodate his stutter. Those included:

Roaming the stage from side to side
Holding a marker in his left hand
Avoiding scripted speeches

In our general advice to speakers, we usually suggest they avoid roaming the stage from side to side. We recommend they only hold a marker when planning to write on a whiteboard or flipchart. We encourage speakers to work from scripted speeches when the stakes are high.

Yet, if he were in one our programs, we'd support Mr. Bailey in these choices—because they work for him. As a speaker, that's the most important thing you can identify.

How do you determine what works for you? For most speakers, the process requires some experimenting. On the one hand, you don't want to rule out possibilities that can make you better just because they feel uncomfortable at first. On the other hand, no technique is valuable when it makes it too difficult for you to succeed.

Be mindful of how you're approaching a speech

We're surprised, for example, when people tell us they want to work from a script but struggle—then show us they use printed notes with a tiny font size. Other speakers tell us they find it hard to start with confidence, yet never plan how they'll open a presentation.

Simple changes can set you up for more ease on stage and greater success in communicating. Making those changes starts by identifying where you might have a struggle, then coming up with a plan to deal with it.

For example, many presenters avoid using a script because they feel they appear stilted. Yet we see time and again, that a speaker can:

Format the script on the page to make it easy to deliver
Practice a script line by line to find ways to make delivery dynamic and natural
Use the script as a starting point for organizing thoughts, then deliver from a few notes

What works best depends on the speaker and their ability to notice what's most helpful for them.

Try a new technique a few times before dismissing it

It may be a tired analogy, but it's also an apt one: If you're a solid presenter, you can feel like Tiger Woods trying to change his golf swing. You have something that's working. Changing up your presentation repertoire can feel awkward.

Yet we also see skilled presenters who are not using their full range—and we know they could be even better. Let's take gestures and body language as an example.

We often ask speakers to consider how their gestures might illustrate a key point: Arms might reach out wide to show an "enormous gain." As simple as that sounds, for some speakers it's not any easy request to fill. They struggle with the timing. Or that particular movement feels awkward for them. The speaker who struggles with a gesture often wants to give up on gestures all together.

What might you do instead?

Try the gesture a few times in practice and see if you can make it work.
Modify the gesture (change the size of it, the timing) to see if it becomes more comfortable.
Decide not to use that particular gesture but find another place to use a gesture that feels better for you.

Let others know about your concerns and what you need

Let's think about Mr. Bailey and the way he holds a marker in his left hand as a way to manage his stutter. If he came to one of our programs, we might at first ask him not to hold a marker in his hand—saying it's a distraction, that speakers often hold a pen as a security blanket.

BUT … if Mr. Bailey let us know the marker helped him manage his stutter, we'd completely support his choice to take one on stage. Likewise, if we work with a speaker who panics when asked to read in front of an audience, then we'd suggest NOT using a scripted text but finding other ways to plan for messages in which every word matters.

When you're mindful of what you need as a speaker, you can make sure others know how to support you. And even if you're not sure, we'd encourage you to let others know about any problem you have—so they can help you think of ways to work better. As we always remind speakers, most audiences (and event and meeting organizers) are cheering for you and want you to succeed.

Let your process change as you gain experience and confidence

Especially for those who are taking on new or more frequent public speaking opportunities, what you need today may differ from what you need a year from now.

After a presentation, take a few minutes to reflect on what worked well to support you and what might have made you more effective. Make some small adjustments before your next presentation and let your tools as a speaker evolve as you learn.