We all possess thousands of thoughts, ideas, and emotions in ourselves, they prevail in our mind consistently. To express our thoughts, ideas and emotions through words is an art, it shows how beautifully you can express your conception and present them in front of the people, so that they feel mesmerized to hear you. All the great people in the world are great orators, a great orator knows how to make an entrance, how to be aspirational, how to be commanding and confident.
As author Yehuda Berg states ‘Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity’. Words have energy to create impact, influence people and leave a mark on them. As we grow up, we realize the significance of good speaking and communicating, in order to convey our thoughts well. Especially, in our professional front, where people recognize you with your expression and words. Your words state your potential, and inspires the working environment and culture. Therefore, possessing good oratory skills is highly important for you to be successful in whatever you do. With this context we will be highlighting the essentials of being a good orator and having an impactful presence.
- Study great speeches- Confidence is perhaps the most important aspect of effective oration, you must have the confidence to stand in front of an audience. The only way to have confidence is by practicing, and practicing involves more and more reading and listening. Stuffs like novels, newspapers, blogs, speeches etc. Will help you to gain a better knowledge of effective speaking, this will improve your spoken as well as written ability. While watching or listening to great speeches, pay attention to sentence structures to develop engaging rhythm, choose specific words to create vivid imagery, stress on certain points to drag attention of the listeners and give necessary pauses to create dramatic effect. In this way you will be able to deliver the most engaging speech, moreover these are some of the effective ways to attract audience attention, this will compel them to hear you more and more.
- Do self-practice- Imagine yourself speaking in front of thousands of people, or stand in front of a mirror and speak. This is the best way to learn and understand what it takes to be a good orator. When you stand in front of a mirror you address your body posture and you choose to be in the position in which you look the most confident. Therefore, you should rehearse your speech aloud and find ways to use oratory skills in a realistic environment. Moreover, devoting time to prepare your best speech is equally important, research well about your topic of speech as different speeches has different tone, for instance an inspirational speech will have convincing tone to make people believe that they can succeed. Whereas, emotional wedding speeches will have a sentimental tone full of nostalgia and feelings. Hence, it is necessary to know the kind of speech you will be delivering so that you can adjust your expressions accordingly to make it realistic.
- Know your audience- One of the difficult, yet essential oratory skills are to have an ability to connect with your audience. This can be achieved through your body language, remember that your audience is people and people connect over shared experiences and values. You can begin your speech with an anecdote which will reflect your personality and attract the audience’s attention as well, they will appreciate and find it amusing. Moreover, having eye contact is equally important, it shows confidence and it is the best way to connect with the audience. Try looking at one person for two sentences and a different person for another two sentences and so on. In this way you will make a connection with most of your audience and they will perceive you as knowledgeable and trustworthy.
- Memorize key points- Another difficult and essential oratory skill is the ability to remember what you are saying. Often it happens, due to nervousness that we forget some points and zone out in the middle, we just lose track and forget what we have to say. In this situation it gets difficult to get back on track. Therefore, it is essential to memorize key points, however it should not sound scripted as great orators do not use scripts. Just remember the purpose of your speech and what ideology you are trying to deliver, memorize key points and then deliver them through your heart by giving them a personal touch. You should be talking about something you’re passionate about, in this way it will go effortlessly. The problem with memorizing the whole script is you lose your place and stumble and panic. Hence, avoid remembering everything only retain valuable points.
- Consider the length- Length here means the duration of your speech, ensure that your speech is within time constraint, if you are given one. If you’re not, then also you should keep your point brief but thorough. Long speeches are not something people appreciate; they will simply turn uninterested if you stretch your speech beyond necessity. Hence, it is good to be precise with your speech and hit on the right points. Even if you are elaborating a lot then try giving breaks in between so that the audience have time to process what you said. It is difficult to maintain the audience’s concentration for more than 15 minutes anyway. Having breaks in between will also give you time to recollect energy, so that you don’t sound dull anywhere throughout the speech.
- Use suitable content- The content of your speech is the soul of it, make sure you come up with the best and suitable content. When preparing your speech make sure your content is suitable to your audience, stay away from acronyms and jargon words if your audience is not familiar with the topic. You can use relevant quotation and metaphors to bring life to your content to engage the audience. Moreover, the plot of your content should flow like a story with a powerful beginning and impactful end. Your audience must be able to relate to the story, in this way it will be with them for eternity. Thus, framing content must be creative and extraordinary, so that the audience can take it away with them.
Conclusion
To be a great orator is an art, which comes with effort. Humans are powerful because we have the power of words, and there is nothing greater than that. All the successful people we know have a common quality of good speaking. The key element of being a good public speaker is confidence, it is confidence that makes everything possible for you on stage. When you are confident you have the ability to improvise, this is something not everyone can do. This comes when you give enough effort to practice, as said ‘Practice makes a man perfect.
Therefore, the more you devote yourself to preparation the best will come out of you. Moreover, adding value to your content will connect you with your audience. In this way they would love to hear more from you, hence to have your best impact on people, play with your words artistically.