Three things you can do right now to be a better speaker

Not only have I been a speaker myself for a long time, and worked with many professional and business speakers, I have had the opportunity to see many business owners, executives, authors, academics, and celebrities speak. There are a lot of good speakers out there, but sadly there are just as many bad ones. And whilst there are a lot of good ones out there, there’s a lot less great ones. Like, really great speakers. Speakers that make you feel, think, and leave a tangible impact on you long after you’ve heard them speak. Now this might sound intimidating, but one of the many things I love about speaking is it is absolutely something you can (and should) get better at. So here are the three most commonly made mistakes I see speakers make, and the three things you can do right now to up your speaking game.

Preparation is key (but not for the reason you think)

So if you’re in the small percentage of people that actually really enjoy public speaking, chances are you may also be one of those people that feels so comfortable you don’t prepare much. Maybe you don’t prepare at all. And look, I get it. I’m one of those people. However – preparation is absolutely critical to not only making sure you can put on a polished performance, it’s essential for avoiding one of the biggest dangers for public speakers: waffling. Preparation should make sure you make your point clearly, succinctly and powerfully. Preparation will also enable you to utilise the performance and storytelling aspect of speaking far more effectively and deliberately. You don’t always get a chance to prepare – but if you do? Take it, and use it wisely.

Less words, more impact

We’ve just covered off on the common pitfall of the speaker that loves speaking… a little too much. Now let’s apply that all important less is more philosophy to the most misused (and abused) speaker tool of all. The humble slide. The number one mistake I see speakers make (and business speakers particularly) is having too much text on a slide. Use text as sparingly as possible on a slide – better yet? No text at all. The reason for this is so very simple (but again, so often overlooked) – you want your audience’s attention (and eyes) to be on you. It’s human nature that our eyes will travel to a slide on a screen and read the text first, before going back to the speaker. Slides are meant to be used as speaking aids, not as a tool of distraction, but unfortunately all too often this is the case. If you must use text, keep it to a bare minimum, and if you can, use it to provoke a question or reaction in your audience to direct the attention back to you as quickly as possible.

Make movement deliberate

We’ve all seen that speaker that roams ferociously around a stage, like a caged lion. Or maybe that speaker that gesticulates so wildly you find it almost impossible to concentrate on what they are saying. Our bodies are very powerful communication tools – once again, we should be using them wisely. Movement should ideally be planned and purposeful, whilst of course maintaining your own natural style. Nerves often play a big role here – as our nervous energy increases, so too can our movement, with detrimental effects to the message we are trying to convey, and to our connection with the audience. One of my favourite things to do is to consider movement across a stage in the context of storytelling – did you know that typically moving from centre stage to stage left (the audience’s left) is a classic technique to take your audience back in time? And similarly, moving from stage left to stage right is often used to illustrate travelling through time to the current day. Whilst it can feel a little unnatural, an orator that can stand and deliver conveys power and presence in a way that audiences remember. And that’s ultimately what we want – to make a memorable impact on the audiences – and people – around us.

Lanna Hill is the founder of Leverage.