During one of Dr John Maxwell's leadership seminars, an attendee asked him, "Are leaders born?" Dr Maxwell smiled at him and answered "I don't know of any other way they came!" Leadership skills can be learnt by anyone who practices the laws of leadership.
The same is true of public speaking skills.
Think of your favorite public speakers for a second.
How easily and effortlessly they express themselves and move their audiences! Of course it comes with years of practice and training.
But it also means that Professional Speakers know what not to do.
I thought I would share with you the 7 pitfalls that Professional Speakers avoid.
1.
Professional Speakers Don't Wing It Professionals take time to prepare their speech, even though they are so capable of winging it.
If their key to success is preparation, so is yours.
Here is a simple formula to keep in mind when preparing your speech.
Invest 6 times as much time preparing as you would speaking.
That means if you are speaking for 30 minutes, you will probably need to invest 180 minutes or 3 hours preparing.
As you become highly experienced you can cut down on preparation time.
2.
Professional Speakers Don't Practice Their Speech In Their Heads If you have ever taken part in drama, you know that actors practice their lines out loud because it helps them relate to the character and get their lines down.
Public speaking is very much like performing.
A speech is verbal and you need to hear it before you give it.
When you practice aloud, you will be able to tell if you have enough vocal variety, the right pauses and correct body language.
Practice gives you confidence.
3.
Content Alone Will Not Win The Audience You need to have good content but how you present it, is even more important.
After all, words account for only 7 percent of communication, the remaining 93 percent is non-verbal.
Professional Speakers understand this very well.
Have you noticed how their body language, voice, gestures, and movement on the platform complement their speech? 4.
Leave The Logistics To Someone Else Whose reputation is at stake if something goes wrong? As obvious as it seems, most people take for granted that the logistics will take care of themselves.
There is nothing more embarrassing than a late start.
Get to the room where you are speaking early so you can familiarize yourself with the environment.
Walk on the stage so it is not your first time.
Test the mike.
Remember you will warm up your audience faster if you seem composed rather than appearing haphazard.
5.
Professional Speakers Don't Forget Their Audience You probably have a standard presentation that you could use on numerous occasions and it is really good, but do not forget to customize it to your audience.
Why? Because what the audience wants to hear is more important than what you have to say.
Find out ahead of time the group's needs.
You are more likely to engage your audience if you talk about things that are part of their lives.
It is also the quickest way to bond with your audience.
6.
Never Run Over Your Allotted Time Timing is everything! There is nothing worse than the audience leaving in the middle of a speech.
It distracts everybody and takes away from your message.
Professional Speakers know that ending on time is the key to being invited again.
7.
Don't Start A Speech With A Bad Joke Have you noticed how Professional Speakers open their speech? It is usually a personal story, statistics, a question or humorous illustration.
There is a reason for that.
It takes even the best speakers a few minutes to get comfortable with their audience.
Avoid taking risks in the first 8 minutes of your speech at the risk of a bad speech.
I hope you never run into these 7 pitfalls in your quest to become a great speaker.
I once read somewhere, "You must learn from the mistakes of others.
You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself.
"