How to use your EQ to improve public speaking
How to improve public speaking
Team leaders need to be able to connect well with individuals as well as with large groups, which is why being able to communicate effectively in public is crucial.
Unfortunately, many people find it stressful talking to a large group of people, and the stress they experience leads to ineffective message delivery.
What makes it difficult to give a well-delivered talk?
Behavioural researchers Tony Buchanan, Jacqueline Laures-Gore and Melissa C. Duff investigated how speech is affected by stress. They recruited more than 90 participants to join a social stress test, who were then divided into two groups (stressful vs non-stressful) and asked to prepare a speech in five minutes and deliver it.
In the stressful condition, participants had to solve a difficult mental arithmetic task and prepare a defence to a store manager when they were accused of shoplifting.
Participants in the non-stressful condition, however, only had to solve a simple arithmetic task, summarise a travel article and read it in front of a video camera.
Buchanan and his colleagues measured the stress levels of the participants before the test, and 10 minutes and 30 minutes afterwards. They also measured the participants’ heart rate, the reading speed, the number of pauses and the number of nonfluencies (e.g., umm, err, hmmm) during the speech.
According to the data gathered, the stressful condition showed increased stress levels among the participants. There were more pauses during the speech, although the speed remained constant and the number of nonfluencies was lower than those in the other group.
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This research does have some limitations. Due to the methodology, the research can not conclude whether it’s the high stress levels causing the greater number of pauses during the speech, or the other way around.
However, the main takeaway of the study is that the more stressful you find a situation, the more you need to pause to gather your thoughts to enable you to deliver the message well.
For team leaders who struggle with public speaking, the way to address this handicap is to develop your Emotional Intelligence. Understanding how your emotions impact on your behaviour is essential to manage your impression and communicate effectively. Plus, using your Emotional Intelligence will help you to connect with your audience as it enhances your ability to read the emotions of the people in front of you and respond to it appropriately.
This is a crucial element in public speaking. After all, when you are in front of an audience, you need to know whether your message is being received and how your audience is reacting to it so that you can adjust as needed.
While training in Emotional Intelligence that focuses on communication will improve your public speaking skills, you can also start practising on your own. Here are some tips you can start with:
The key to good public speaking is practice, practice. To control your speech pauses and the stress levels and improve your delivery, make sure you practice what you are going say again and again and again. Importantly, do not let your stress levels and worries about public speaking stop you from practising.
Prior to the event itself, find out who your audience is and personalise your speech. What do they need to know? How can your talk help them? Thinking about your audiences' needs rather than your own will not only help you deliver a better speech, but should help reduce your stress.
Share from your own experiences. People love listening to anecdotes that are related to what they need. Also, if you talk about your own experience, you have more confidence to share it with your audience since you know the material very well.
Use a conversational tone and use your own style of public speaking. Do not be tempted to imitate others since this may make you appear insincere to your audience.
When speaking, regardless of how nervous you feel, make eye contact with your audience and walk around the room or the stage to engage your audience better.
Public speaking skills are much needed by team leaders/managers. However, becoming a good speaker is not the only reason you should develop your Emotional Intelligence. You will benefit so much more in life if you have a high Emotional Intelligence as you will find that it will improve not only your work relationships, but your personal ones as well.
Buchanan, T., Laures-Gore, J., & Duff, M. (2014). Acute stress reduces speech fluency. Biological Psychology, 97, 60-66. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2014.02.005
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