SPEAK UP

Speaking is a field not directly related to language or vocabulary. It has more to do with the confidence, tone and conviction the speaker has in his/her voice. Though having a good inventory of fillers, good diction and pronunciation spruces up your act, developing the confidence required to speak in front of a large group is more important.

If you wring your hands every time you have to go on stage; if you swallow too much and drown in your own sweat when you have to address a crowd; if your heart skips a beat when the teacher points at you to present a topic to the class, then you have speaking anxiety and the following exercises are for you.

1. 30 Day Speaking Challenge

Start a 30-day speaking challenge; choose a topic to speak about each day as if addressing a crowd, but in the relative haven of your house. The task is to attend to different areas of speech like fluency, speed and enunciation about various topics. Record yourself every time and listen to the recording after your exercise is done. Build upon the recording and pinpoint problematic areas that sound wrong, or are too rushed, or too muddled. From this assessment, correct your flaws every day for a month.

2. Presenting at Meet-Ups

Meet-ups can consist of any sort among friends or family. Knowing that you are within the company that you are comfortable with will help your stage fear and un-cripple your anxiety. Take baby steps to improve your speaking skills and start sharing concepts or stories with your meet-up groups.

3. Presenting During Team Meetings

The workplace is the best place to exploit your speaking skills. Take up the initiative to give a presentation and hone the skills you’ve learnt from the 30-day speaking challenge and wow them all.

4. Presenting at a School

Try and address a younger social group at a school or sports meet. This will train you to work with people of a different age group then you’re used to. This means no technical language and no adult jokes, just simple engaging language.

5. Presenting at Conferences

Congratulations! This was the ultimate objective. The reason you turned to this article about speaking skills must be because you feel incompetent or unconvincing at work while giving speeches. Now that you’ve had enough experience by doing all of the above, it is guaranteed that you’ve learnt a thing or two. The key to good speaking is to be confident- don’t fumble for words, and just speak up!

As Ralph Waldo Emerson said,

All great speakers were bad speakers at first.

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Article By- Anwesha Roy