Many people have the confidence to go straight to an important meeting, conference or interview without preparing, and unless they are Donald Trump or Bill Gates, they are more likely to fail in giving a refreshingly good speech. Smart professionals know better than being over-confident; that’s why we always prepare.
In this article, we list 3 essential steps to follow before you give any speech:
1. Prepare, prepare, prepare! The first thing to do if you want to give a top notch speech is to prepare. Write down your speech and rehearse as many times as you need to feel comfortable.
2. Record your speech and listen to it.
3. Look for these common weaknesses in your tone:
Uptalk: This is when you sound like you’re better than everyone else in the room. Sounding arrogant is not going to impress your audience.
Jargon: Refrain from using technical language unnecessarily. If you think you must, then at least explain what you mean briefly. The worst thing you could do is to assume people should know what you’re talking about only because they came to the meeting.
Sounding like you just woke up: Do not speak in a voice that is below normal.
Emotional high pitch: You could be excited or nervous, but a high pitch will make people uncomfortable about listening to you.
Speed. Slow down when you speak. Calm your nerves, take a deep breath and speak normally as you would to a friend.
Accent: This can be your natural regional accent or due to difficulty in pronouncing some of the terms. While a regional accent is often understandable, try to improve it. As for difficult words, practice well before you go to your meeting.
It would be an added benefit if you rehearse in front of an audience, even if that was your little niece. Make someone else listen to your recorded speech if you can and ask them for feedback.
By Shaden Abdulraman
