(or read: 3 Delivery Tips For Advanced Speakers)

There are dozens of components to a speaker’s Delivery, but they can be collected into three basic groups:

• Vocal cues (volume, pitch, rate, and pauses)
• Visual cues (gestures, movements, and facial expressions)
• Integration of the visuals and vocals with other rhetorical techniques (such as storytelling, examples, and metaphors)

A basic rule of public speaking is that you have to know your content before you can practice your delivery. This leads us to the first, and most important, piece of advice about delivery: learn your speech well.

 

Tip # 1: Practice, Practice, Practice

There is no substitute for practice. If you’ve ever played a sport or a musical instrument, you know that it takes many hours a week to become proficient. Most speakers don’t spend anywhere near as much time improving their presentation skills. Yet they wonder why their progress seems slow.

There is a world of difference between practicing alone in a room and practicing with an audience, even if it is just one person. On your own, you may stop and start over, or you may stop to take notes. With an audience, you will take it more seriously and treat it like an important rehearsal.

Find a way to speak in front of people more often. Some of the best speakers in the world cut their teeth as trainers, preachers, or professors – people who speak multiple hours a week for a living.

If you do not have a job like that, join Toastmasters, try your hand at stand-up comedy, or volunteer to lead training sessions in your community. Toastmasters is an especially helpful organization, since you can go to as many meetings as you like and have a speaking role at each one.

 

Tip #2: Speak Clearly, Slowly, and Remember to Pause

Novice speakers tend to rush. They want the presentation to be over. Rushers talk a bit faster than normal. “Rushers” tend to run words together, rather than enunciate distinctly. Rushers don’t pause much.

Don’t be a rusher. First, speak at a normal pace – don’t speed up (unless you do it intentionally, to create a particular effect). If you speak slowly, you will sound more relaxed. You will also have more time to plan what you want to say next.

• Second, remember to pause in strategic places. These include:
• After you’ve asked the audience a question
• When you deliver a poignant line
• When you finish making a point

 

Pauses make you look smart – as long as you don’t fill them with “ums” and “ahs.”

Finally, speak in a clear, strong voice. Make sure you speak loud enough for all to hear. Enunciate your words. Ask people in your practice audiences to critique your vocal style.

 

Tip #3: Start from the “Speaking Position”

The “Speaking Position” refers to the resting position you should assume just before you begin your presentation. This includes:

• Standing with arms at your side (then when you gesture, they are meaningful gestures)
• Standing straight and still, with feet about six inches apart (then when you move, your movements are purposeful)
• Making eye contact with the audience while you take a few seconds to get “centered”

 

Learning to deliver a speech is like learning to hit a golf ball straight. If you take golf lessons, you quickly learn that there are about 100 small details to remember about the golf swing. There are 10 to 20 components to addressing the ball. There are also 10 to 20 details to remember about the grip, about the stance, and about the backswing, making contact, and the follow-through. No novice golfer can remember them all as they get ready to hit the ball. You have to put many of them on “auto-pilot.” That means that once you cover the grip, the stance, and the address, you have to put those details on auto-pilot and think about the backswing, making contact, and the follow-through.

Speaking is like golf. As a novice speaker, you will find there are too many things to think about when it comes to delivery. You have to put some things on autopilot while you focus on others. Here’s what I recommend you put on autopilot:

• Vocal cues: put your volume and pitch on autopilot, and work on your pace (rate) and your pauses
• Visual cues: put your gestures and your facial expressions on autopilot, and work on your body movements, especially standing still and standing straight.

It’s worth mentioning here that the room, the size of the audience, and the equipment with which you are working will provide some constraints. If the audience is larger than 50 to 70 people, you should probably use a microphone. If the microphone is anchored to the lectern, you will be too. This simplifies all the issues related to movement.

Regardless of the room setup, remember: don’t try to focus on 100 different aspects of your delivery. You’ll over think it – and end up in the rough!