- There are fundamentals all great public speakers master.
- We spoke with the last four Toastmasters International world champions of public speaking.
- Their advice applies to everything from a TED Talk to a presentation to a few colleagues.
Being a great public speaker requires much more than confidence.
It's about connecting to audience members on a personal level and leaving them with a satisfying message they can act on.
We spoke with some of the most talented speakers around the globe —the last four Toastmasters International world champions of public speaking: Dananjaya Hettiarachchi (2014), Mohammed Qahtani (2015), Darren Tay (2016), and Manoj Vasudevan(2017).
Each winner beat out around 30,000 competitors over a six-month-long competition, the largest of its kind.
They explained how anyone can become a better speaker by practicing several basic skills. These same tactics work whether you're giving a TED Talk to 2,000 people or a presentation to 10 of your colleagues.
Here are seven techniques they all agreed help them win their competitions.
Determine your message and let it define your presentation.
Hettiarachchi said a common mistake beginners make is basing their presentation around a topic rather than a message.
Think of your message as a thesis statement, and make it as clear and concise as possible.
For example, when Tay was crafting his speech last year, he said he initially went into it wanting to tell an amusing story. "That really got my speech message very diluted and disconnected," he said.
His mentor told him he needed to start from the beginning and determine his message before writing another word. He settled on: "We are all our own worst bullies, and the best way to deal with that is by fully acknowledging the presence of negative thoughts in our mind rather than fighting or ignoring them." Tay said that the elements of an engaging speech flowed more naturally after he clarified this.
As Vasudevan told us, when developing a presentation, you should have every line you say pass the test, "Does this further my message?"
Focus on adding value to your audience.
Vasudevan explained that ahead of a presentation, there's an obvious question that easy to overlook: "Why should the audience members even listen to you?"
Whether you're giving a speech or showing PowerPoint slides to your colleagues, you should empathize with your audience. Determine what you can teach them and cut anything that could appear self-indulgent or redundant.
As Vasudevan said, your speech is not about your ego; it's about your message. Make sure that message is worth listening to.
Speak as if you are having a conversation.
Vasudevan said that for nearly the entirety of his winning speech, "I'm looking at someone and talking to them. It's a huge audience, but I keep picking some random person who's interested in listening to me and I look at the person."
He said that when you are in front of a large audience, you may need to add some drama to your gestures and delivery, but you should still speak as if you were talking to a friend across the table from you. It's about establishing a genuine connection with the audience.
As Hettiarachchi told us, "A speech should be conversational, not theatrical."
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