As a primary school teacher I spend all day, every day presenting and I’d say all of this is useful advice whether your audience is a hall full of adults or a carpet full of six year olds.
I would add to this the importance of two things; tone of voice and body language.
Tone of voice - in particular the speed at which you speak - is so important. One of the great lessons in public speaking is that you’re nearly always speaking too quickly and you can afford to slow down. Especially when you get to your key points. Take them slow and really make them stand out.
Likewise body language can be a really useful way to add emphasis. There was a reason Westlife always got off their stools on the key change after all.
Obviously you need to guard against the infamous Power-Tory stances, but you can communicate a hell of a lot with how you stand. Doing assemblies really teaches you how controlling the way you stand can help control a room.
Finally, I always say to people that the best way to study public speaking is by watching professional wrestling. You can watch the wrestlers go out in front of thousands of people and control the responses of an entire arena. Or watch the ones that are not great speakers die on stage in real time, which can be just as illuminating.
And I realise that pro wrestling seems an unlikely text for public speaking until you consider that Donald Trump has cribbed extensively from that playbook
I did some debating at University and afterwards went on a speaking and debating tour. We spoke in front of some big crowds. One thing I noticed iis that some people can be quite energetic amongst audiences. Laughing, groaning or even non verbal gesticulations. A speaker can't make eye contact or engage with everybody in a crowd of hundreds. But if a speaker finds some 'anchors' in the room, it can help engage with others as a conduit, and push energy towards a different part of the room.
One useful trick I found during my PhD was recording myself giving the talk at home on my phone, then listening back. It's absolutely horrific, but it makes all the points where you aren't as clear or fluent as you'd like to be super obvious. As someone with a stutter, I always found it really useful to have a really good idea of what I needed to say, so bullet point for me were really useful to provide the balance between structuring my talk, but without sounding super scripted.
Yeah, I remember explaining to a masters student I was supervising that you'll hate every second of it, but it will improve the talk so much. Managed to convince them in the end, and they agreed on both points.
Very many years ago, I attended a mesmerising one-hour lecture by Sir Ken Robinson. He showed many slides, but only with images on them, or a maximum of three words, in a large typeface. Detailed information text and charts was made available to the audience as a printout - after the lecture. The audience could focus solely on what he had to say, and the supporting images. And that has been my guide ever since. Use a clicker. Don't look at your slides. Look at the audience. Abandon the lectern. And if you are passionate about your subject, you know what to say. Modulate your voice. Use pauses to allow the audience to think after a key point you made. After only a couple of years, speaking in public will become most enjoyable, a thing to look forward to, not to dread.
I liked Ken personally a lot - lovely man - but I disagreed with his educational philosophy so it was always frustrating to see how brilliant a speaker he was! I think his TED talk is still the most viewed ever?
I saw him once and though I really enjoyed the talk there was nothing new in it. I left wondering how much had the organisers paid him and would I have been better off going to a different session. So, I’d advise someone doing a lot of keynotes to have at least something new in each for those who may have heard their keynotes before or read their published work.
I’d reinforce the advice about accepting lots of opportunities to speak. After you’ve spoken about the same subject several times, your brain recalls the material very easily and you can speak fluently without notes, adapting easily to the nature of the audience. (I think that’s why many politicians, even not very clever ones, speak so fluently.)
Yes. I saw Starmer speak yesterday and he's improved a lot just by effectively learning blocks of content (I wish the content was a little better but that's for another post...)
Thanks for a helpful piece. I'd add a couple of bits of advice. First, if using a microphone, keep speaking at it. So many people just hold it well away from their mouths. Second, speak for at least 10 percent less than the target time!
Agreed about the microphone. I have, sadly, attended several funerals in the last couple of years. Although crematoria usually have microphones and PA systems for speakers, many people don’t know how to use them and their eulogies have failed to reach the audience.
I prefer to print a mind map when I prepare a speech. Then I rehearse with at stopwatch, make notes and print a new version. After a few versions I don’t need to look at the mind map anymore, and I can keep it in my pocket. Then I use my visual memory to remember the items on the mind map.
Large audiences are the most difficult ones. It takes time to turn a large audience, just like turning a large ship.
If you use slides, then let the mind map define the basic outline of the slides. Keep slides simple — never more than seven lines of text on each slide.
Slightly different subject but relevant maybe? The most successful pitch for a job that i was involved in consisted of minimal preparation with 2 colleagues from different practices - no script, we just agreed to wing it. At the start of the interview I just said how the project was an ideal fit to our approach and skills and the other 2 pitched in with their thoughts which just caught the interest of the panel interviewing us.
If you know your subject you extemporise, if you engage the audience or are part of a group you can bounce ideas around and you are able to maintain eye contact and don’t need a script or even notes, see also great musicians.
If you have any capacity to watch yourself back, it is awful awful awful BUT you learn so much. I’m a councillor and all my stuff is webcast. I make myself watch it back that evening when it’s fresh - did it come across as I thought it did, was my pacing right, did I hit the right tone and emphasis, did I do weird things, what ticks do I have. It is excruciating. But I have come on in leaps and bounds by doing this. Noticed I fiddled with my glasses too much - made sure I bought better fitting ones, now no problem. I fiddle with the buttons if I wear a shirt, so now I choose different types of clothes etc. I say um a lot when I am less well prepared and/or less keyed up so I allocate more time to my speech prep than I did and I make sure to get the adrenalin flowing beforehand.
I do write my speeches out in full though but more as my way of preparing and making sure I’m comfortable with what I want to say. I have to hit a precise timing (we are timed then cut off when time is up) rather than being a more flexible keynote speaker so I need to know I can get all my points in and spend the right time on each and be able to still have time to conclude. Too many colleagues get caught out by the time limit and I think I’ve got better at formulating a speech by doing this. I don’t read them verbatim now I’m more confident and I adjust based on circs - what others have said, how angry vs friendly the tone is etc. but it means I can be confident I can hit my time and make a coherent argument.
I’d shorten the advice on not putting words on a slide and then reading the words. We’ve all been to too many presentations where the speaker says “I’m not going to read the words on my slides” and then does exactly that. Just don’t put any of your script on the slides.
I'd agree with all of Sam's very useful suggestions. My experience is uni lecturing & academic presentations rather than being on a panel or giving a more general presentation, but probably my top tips would be:
1) Find a "style" that you're comfortable with rather than the one that excellent speaker X adopted - you can't do a good job if you aren't comfortable, and different styles work for different people.
2) If you're doing a fairly short talk then practice it out loud lots of times beforehand (with a timer) - even speaking it to yourself gives a good idea of what bits work and what bits don't, and if you're very familiar with the contents then that gives you the confidence to go off piste (and follow the audience) in the actual presentation.
3) Be enthusiastic (or at least sound enthusiastic) when you're speaking - if you sound bored with what you're saying, then the audience isn't going to listen to you.
4) Don't be too hard on yourself while you're speaking - it will generally always sound better to the audience than you think it does, and noone there will know that you missed out a bit or got the planned order slightly wrong.
5) Never, ever go over your allotted time (unless you're at a fairly relaxed event where this is OK).
6) Don't ever be tempted to bullshit if you get asked something you don't know - it probably won't go well.
I used to be very nervous when teaching (especially large lecture classes), and always trying to work out what I'd do if X or Y or Z happened. At some point I just started to feel more in control, and then it all got easier - but I agree that it is very hard to give this as advice. One thing I really learned from was watching the US philosophy prof Michael Sandel (I think BBC showed some of his lectures) - he was in front of a vast auditorium of students but just seemed totally in control the whole time.
Great piece, Sam. Since you have invited suggestions from readers, may I offer you my THREE Ns, ENGAGE, INFORM, ENCAPSULATE which I have written about on my own site (open to all):
[I scrolled through the earlier comments and found one from someone else who shares my name. His description of winging it in a presentation is not one I would dare to recommend, but it clearly worked for him, so many congrats.]
This is excellent. A practical point I’d mention is breathing - in my early days I used to speak too quickly, run out of breath and have to take a break before I could finish my sentence. But embarrassing! Speak slowly and breath consciously.
And if you have to say “this is a busy slide” don’t use that slide
As a primary school teacher I spend all day, every day presenting and I’d say all of this is useful advice whether your audience is a hall full of adults or a carpet full of six year olds.
I would add to this the importance of two things; tone of voice and body language.
Tone of voice - in particular the speed at which you speak - is so important. One of the great lessons in public speaking is that you’re nearly always speaking too quickly and you can afford to slow down. Especially when you get to your key points. Take them slow and really make them stand out.
Likewise body language can be a really useful way to add emphasis. There was a reason Westlife always got off their stools on the key change after all.
Obviously you need to guard against the infamous Power-Tory stances, but you can communicate a hell of a lot with how you stand. Doing assemblies really teaches you how controlling the way you stand can help control a room.
Finally, I always say to people that the best way to study public speaking is by watching professional wrestling. You can watch the wrestlers go out in front of thousands of people and control the responses of an entire arena. Or watch the ones that are not great speakers die on stage in real time, which can be just as illuminating.
And I realise that pro wrestling seems an unlikely text for public speaking until you consider that Donald Trump has cribbed extensively from that playbook
I did some debating at University and afterwards went on a speaking and debating tour. We spoke in front of some big crowds. One thing I noticed iis that some people can be quite energetic amongst audiences. Laughing, groaning or even non verbal gesticulations. A speaker can't make eye contact or engage with everybody in a crowd of hundreds. But if a speaker finds some 'anchors' in the room, it can help engage with others as a conduit, and push energy towards a different part of the room.
One useful trick I found during my PhD was recording myself giving the talk at home on my phone, then listening back. It's absolutely horrific, but it makes all the points where you aren't as clear or fluent as you'd like to be super obvious. As someone with a stutter, I always found it really useful to have a really good idea of what I needed to say, so bullet point for me were really useful to provide the balance between structuring my talk, but without sounding super scripted.
I just described watching myself back as excruciating but I agree that it is also horrific :) But it is so useful! Best thing I ever started doing.
Yeah, I remember explaining to a masters student I was supervising that you'll hate every second of it, but it will improve the talk so much. Managed to convince them in the end, and they agreed on both points.
Very many years ago, I attended a mesmerising one-hour lecture by Sir Ken Robinson. He showed many slides, but only with images on them, or a maximum of three words, in a large typeface. Detailed information text and charts was made available to the audience as a printout - after the lecture. The audience could focus solely on what he had to say, and the supporting images. And that has been my guide ever since. Use a clicker. Don't look at your slides. Look at the audience. Abandon the lectern. And if you are passionate about your subject, you know what to say. Modulate your voice. Use pauses to allow the audience to think after a key point you made. After only a couple of years, speaking in public will become most enjoyable, a thing to look forward to, not to dread.
I liked Ken personally a lot - lovely man - but I disagreed with his educational philosophy so it was always frustrating to see how brilliant a speaker he was! I think his TED talk is still the most viewed ever?
I saw him once and though I really enjoyed the talk there was nothing new in it. I left wondering how much had the organisers paid him and would I have been better off going to a different session. So, I’d advise someone doing a lot of keynotes to have at least something new in each for those who may have heard their keynotes before or read their published work.
No idea; the talk he gave at the London O2 arena was no TED talk. I am no fan of the TED talk concept, to be honest, and I don't attend or watch them.
Me neither - but his was perfectly pitched.
I agree with everything you say about panels, and would like to add my tips for chairing a panel:
- ask panel members what their 3 key points are (so they have to focus on this, if they haven’t already done so!)
- ask them for one question they would be happy to be asked (so you have something to start the Q&A, if needed)
- share these among the panel so everyone has a common understanding of what is likely to be covered.
Good points. Really key if chairing to have questions lined up. I always ask one before going to the audience to give them time to think some up.
I’d reinforce the advice about accepting lots of opportunities to speak. After you’ve spoken about the same subject several times, your brain recalls the material very easily and you can speak fluently without notes, adapting easily to the nature of the audience. (I think that’s why many politicians, even not very clever ones, speak so fluently.)
Yes. I saw Starmer speak yesterday and he's improved a lot just by effectively learning blocks of content (I wish the content was a little better but that's for another post...)
Thanks for a helpful piece. I'd add a couple of bits of advice. First, if using a microphone, keep speaking at it. So many people just hold it well away from their mouths. Second, speak for at least 10 percent less than the target time!
Agreed about the microphone. I have, sadly, attended several funerals in the last couple of years. Although crematoria usually have microphones and PA systems for speakers, many people don’t know how to use them and their eulogies have failed to reach the audience.
I prefer to print a mind map when I prepare a speech. Then I rehearse with at stopwatch, make notes and print a new version. After a few versions I don’t need to look at the mind map anymore, and I can keep it in my pocket. Then I use my visual memory to remember the items on the mind map.
Large audiences are the most difficult ones. It takes time to turn a large audience, just like turning a large ship.
If you use slides, then let the mind map define the basic outline of the slides. Keep slides simple — never more than seven lines of text on each slide.
Slightly different subject but relevant maybe? The most successful pitch for a job that i was involved in consisted of minimal preparation with 2 colleagues from different practices - no script, we just agreed to wing it. At the start of the interview I just said how the project was an ideal fit to our approach and skills and the other 2 pitched in with their thoughts which just caught the interest of the panel interviewing us.
If you know your subject you extemporise, if you engage the audience or are part of a group you can bounce ideas around and you are able to maintain eye contact and don’t need a script or even notes, see also great musicians.
If you have any capacity to watch yourself back, it is awful awful awful BUT you learn so much. I’m a councillor and all my stuff is webcast. I make myself watch it back that evening when it’s fresh - did it come across as I thought it did, was my pacing right, did I hit the right tone and emphasis, did I do weird things, what ticks do I have. It is excruciating. But I have come on in leaps and bounds by doing this. Noticed I fiddled with my glasses too much - made sure I bought better fitting ones, now no problem. I fiddle with the buttons if I wear a shirt, so now I choose different types of clothes etc. I say um a lot when I am less well prepared and/or less keyed up so I allocate more time to my speech prep than I did and I make sure to get the adrenalin flowing beforehand.
I do write my speeches out in full though but more as my way of preparing and making sure I’m comfortable with what I want to say. I have to hit a precise timing (we are timed then cut off when time is up) rather than being a more flexible keynote speaker so I need to know I can get all my points in and spend the right time on each and be able to still have time to conclude. Too many colleagues get caught out by the time limit and I think I’ve got better at formulating a speech by doing this. I don’t read them verbatim now I’m more confident and I adjust based on circs - what others have said, how angry vs friendly the tone is etc. but it means I can be confident I can hit my time and make a coherent argument.
I’d shorten the advice on not putting words on a slide and then reading the words. We’ve all been to too many presentations where the speaker says “I’m not going to read the words on my slides” and then does exactly that. Just don’t put any of your script on the slides.
I'd agree with all of Sam's very useful suggestions. My experience is uni lecturing & academic presentations rather than being on a panel or giving a more general presentation, but probably my top tips would be:
1) Find a "style" that you're comfortable with rather than the one that excellent speaker X adopted - you can't do a good job if you aren't comfortable, and different styles work for different people.
2) If you're doing a fairly short talk then practice it out loud lots of times beforehand (with a timer) - even speaking it to yourself gives a good idea of what bits work and what bits don't, and if you're very familiar with the contents then that gives you the confidence to go off piste (and follow the audience) in the actual presentation.
3) Be enthusiastic (or at least sound enthusiastic) when you're speaking - if you sound bored with what you're saying, then the audience isn't going to listen to you.
4) Don't be too hard on yourself while you're speaking - it will generally always sound better to the audience than you think it does, and noone there will know that you missed out a bit or got the planned order slightly wrong.
5) Never, ever go over your allotted time (unless you're at a fairly relaxed event where this is OK).
6) Don't ever be tempted to bullshit if you get asked something you don't know - it probably won't go well.
I used to be very nervous when teaching (especially large lecture classes), and always trying to work out what I'd do if X or Y or Z happened. At some point I just started to feel more in control, and then it all got easier - but I agree that it is very hard to give this as advice. One thing I really learned from was watching the US philosophy prof Michael Sandel (I think BBC showed some of his lectures) - he was in front of a vast auditorium of students but just seemed totally in control the whole time.
This email is a keeper for future reference. All of it is correct and really useful. Thanks.
Great piece, Sam. Since you have invited suggestions from readers, may I offer you my THREE Ns, ENGAGE, INFORM, ENCAPSULATE which I have written about on my own site (open to all):
* Have a plan to ENGAGE with the audience: see https://ilearnedtowrite.com/public-speaking-1/
* Have a theme that ensures your speech will INFORM: see https://ilearnedtowrite.com/public-speaking-2/
* Use your final words to ENCAPSULATE your message: see https://ilearnedtowrite.com/public-speaking-3/.
[I scrolled through the earlier comments and found one from someone else who shares my name. His description of winging it in a presentation is not one I would dare to recommend, but it clearly worked for him, so many congrats.]
This is excellent. A practical point I’d mention is breathing - in my early days I used to speak too quickly, run out of breath and have to take a break before I could finish my sentence. But embarrassing! Speak slowly and breath consciously.