Professional Speaking: Five Common Pitfalls

Do You Worry About Your Professional Speaking Style?

Everyone’s style of professional speaking is different, which is exactly how it should be. Spend some time watching TED talks, and you will see a rich variety of professional speaking styles and deliveries, all of which flow from the unique personalities of the presenters. You can learn more about style in our article on the art of public speaking.

Although there are no right or wrong styles, there are common pitfalls that are easy to fall into. Benchmark your own professional speaking style against our checklist of the most common risks, and work on your presentation skills to eliminate them from your speeches and presentations.

1. Repetition

Think about a favourite film you have seen a few times. The first time you saw it, your emotional reaction was probably quite intense. On subsequent occasions, even though your reactions can still be strong, they will never be quite as intense as when you first saw it because you know the plot.

This illustrates the problem with repetition in professional speaking. The human mind reacts to change, so experiencing the same thing over and over can easily become boring. An overly repeated phrase or gesture loses its potency and can even become irritating after a while.

That said, don’t undermine the power of ‘good repetition’ in your professional speaking. The human mind learns because we see or hear things that correlate, which is why the ‘rule of three’ is an important professional speaking tool. Mentioning a key message three times helps the audience to acknowledge and remember it.

Try to vary the way you deliver the same message for maximum effect. For example, “we will not give up, we will not give in, and we will never surrender.” If you need to repeat the same phrase more than a few times, try to add new context so the audience is experiencing it afresh every time.

2. Monotone

Maintaining the same tone of voice is another form of repetition that can act as a powerful sedative. A steady, unwavering delivery can put even the most interested audience to sleep in minutes.

Successful professional speaking requires a rich delivery, but how do you know when to vary the pitch, volume and speed of your voice? The solution is to define it at the planning stage.

An emotionless voice is often the product of an emotionless speech or presentation, so look for ways to bring your messages to life. For example, why not break your content into three sections, and give each one an escalating crescendo? Why not use the power of storytelling to make it more relevant to the audience? If your speech or presentation has built-in emotion, then it becomes much easier to bring this out in your voice.

Bear in mind that gestures can also help your professional speaking. You can actually make a difference to how you sound if you point a finger, stand up or even smile. The physical has an impact on the vocal.

Professional Speaking

3. Unfocused

Politicians often talk about being ‘on message’ or ‘off message’ but worse than that is having no discernible message at all.

Your audience wants a clear reason why they are giving up their time to listen to you, so make sure your speech or presentation has a firm focus and, apart from a few quick asides, always remain within the scope of it. To define that focus, decide on what you want your audience to be thinking and feeling when you stop speaking.

There is a great phrase that many novelists use, which is perfect for professional speaking: ‘everything through theme.’ That means checking whether every message supports the focus of your speech or presentation. If something is off-message, then put a red line through it.

4. Slide Reliant

The audience of a speech or presentation probably isn’t coming to see your PowerPoint slides or the short video you want to show. They are coming to see professional speaking, not professional narrating.

By relying too much on speaker support, you are effectively saying that the slides are more interesting than you are. And by having too many slides, or packing those slides with too many words, you reduce your audience’s ability to concentrate on what you are saying.

Great speakers tend to use images that illustrate their messages rather than bullet points that summarise them. Similarly, great speakers tend not to have hundreds of slides. An hour’s worth of presentation may only have ten to fifteen slides that they talk around, if that.

5. Humourless

Professional speaking should be an enjoyable experience. The weightier and more complex your content, the more you need to work hard to make it entertaining and memorable.

Humour is an important addition for every professional speaking occasion, but that doesn’t mean you need to be able to tell jokes, particularly if you don’t feel comfortable doing so. Instead, look for the inherent humour in certain messages and try to bring it out.

For example, you can exaggerate something for comic effect, or liken it to something funny. You can also call on someone in the audience who is good at adding humour to situations in a way that reinforces the point you are making.

Bear in mind that enjoyable professional speaking also makes it more enjoyable for you. That can go a long way to alleviating any anxieties about standing in front of a group. Check out our other tips for speaking with confidence.

Professional Speaking

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