Hate making presentations? You’re not alone: 74% of people suffer from speech anxiety, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Some surveys out there have ranked fear of public speaking ahead of all other phobias - even the fear of death itself!
Some managers manage to get over the common phobia (for the most part) after years of making presentations.
Getting rid of the fear is good - but there’s still tons of little mistakes that can make a presentation boring or ineffective.
Here are three common public speaking mistakes - and what you can do to avoid ‘em:
1. Relying on a script
Reading from a script or simply off the PowerPoint slide is an easy trap to fall into.
But it always makes for a bad presentation.
Not only does it make things boring for the audience, but it also gives the impression that a manager doesn’t really know what he or she is talking about.
A good way to avoid this: Prepare some keywords and have them with you while you talk.
A keyword outline can allow you to be more spontaneous, while also keeping your speech on the right track.
2. Using filler words
When a speaker is nervous, they’re likely to use filler word such as “um” and “like.”
Some speakers are wary that they’ll lose an audience if there are too many pauses and too much silence.
But the opposite is actually true.
Try to speak naturally (and not too quickly), and pause after:
- saying something important, so the point sticks with the audience, and
- transitioning from one topic (or PowerPoint slide) to another.
These brief moments of silence actually convey confidence, and they can win over an audience.
3. Providing too much info
After spending a lot of time preparing, you probably want to cover a lot of ground in your presentation.
But be careful not to go into information overload.
Audiences can easily get lost if they’re getting peppered with too much info.
When preparing the speech, remember that the main point is to convey certain information and a message, and then explain to the audience why they should care about it.
If you look at it this way, it’ll be pretty easy to cut out needless statistics or information from a speech.
