Public speaking was never a natural talent for me. I didn’t grow up doing debates or presentations—it’s a skill I had to learn from scratch, and, in spite of recent years of experience, it's a skill that I’m still continuously learning to refine and improve.
This year's MTAQ pidato was another opportunity for development. Here, I'd like to share ten public speaking strategies I used for the competition:
1️⃣ 📝 Concise scripting - with a hard time limit of 7 minutes for introduction + points + conclusion, you have to keep the script sharp, and trim down the fat. Make it precise: No room for fillers or repetitions for emphasis, just nail the points and move on.
2️⃣ 💚 Express a range of emotions - to keep audience engagement, vary your tones of voice strategically and authentically express your emotions: what comes from the heart goes to the heart.
3️⃣ ☝🏼Hand gestures - In her book "Captivate", author Venessa Van Edwards emphasizes some interesting findings on the impact of hand gestures: it signals confidence, builds trust and rapport, and if done right, serves as visualization aids that drive your points further.
4️⃣ ❓Ask questions for reflection - strategically place questions at parts that emphasize interesting points or create a sense of wonder and anticipation.
5️⃣ ⏸️Pause. Give space - this is a tip I struggle with (especially when getting nervous onstage!), but one that's super important. Don't just hammer your points like a machine gun - give audiences space to reflect, especially after asking thought provoking questions.
6️⃣ 🫡Give credit to other contestants - since I was #5 and last in sequence and they didn't have restrictions of listening in other contestants, I decided to give a subtle shout out to them in agreement, as a small nod and gesture of respectful professionalism.
7️⃣ 🐝Use relatable stories and examples for reflection - aside from the analogy of the bees, to anchor the speech's key message, I picked a relatively unknown but inspiring story of transformation Fudhail bin Iyad - thief turned scholar. The message?
"You can't be worse than a highway robber, and at the same time, we are all far behind the status of a righteous scholar. Yet if this individual can transform, perhaps so can you and I."
8️⃣ 👀 Strategic Eye contact - this is important for engagement, but sometimes can be tricky, if you accidentally get a frown or a negative facial reaction that can derail your train of thought. So, look at audiences at the back.. you can't really see their faces 😁
9️⃣ ♻️Rehearse: again, and again (and again) - as boring as it sounds, to me, there's no escaping it. Know it so well that you can confidently go on autopilot, so your hands and eyes can do their thing and reinforce your delivery.
🔟 🤲🏽 Du'aa - I still get very nervous before any speech or presentation. So before speaking, I make it a habit to practice this: the Duaa of Musa.
When Prophet Moses was about to confront Pharaoh, fearing for his life and needing confidence for the difficult task ahead, Moses made this prayer:
رَبِّ ٱشۡرَحۡ لِي صَدۡرِي وَيَسِّرۡ لِيٓ أَمۡرِي وَٱحۡلُلۡ عُقۡدَةٗ مِّن لِّسَانِي يَفۡقَهُواْ قَوۡلِي
“My Lord! Uplift my heart for me, and make my task easy, and remove the impediment from my tongue, so people may understand my speech"
[Surah Ṭā-Hā: 25-28]
So that's it! The ten strategies. Any of them that you find useful and can implement? Any other major techniques you suggest? Love to hear it! 👇🏼
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