Don’t you hate it when you turn up to an event, hoping to learn a thing or two from the speakers, and find yourself disengaged or bored by one lacklustre presentation followed by another?

What’s wrong with this picture? Shouldn’t there be laws banning bad presentations?

Probably.

But in the meantime, here are 3 key speaking pitfalls you need to avoid to make sure your speeches don’t bomb when you’re audience facing:

Speaking Pitfall #1: Failing to Prepare (AKA Winging It)

Don’t turn up to speak at any engagement where you haven’t taken the time to research your audience, your topics and why what ever you want to suggest should be of interest to your audience.

If you fail to offer your audience something of value, expect them to be less than excited about you.

None of us likes to feel that our time has been wasted. You Included.

And suggestions like ‘I didn’t have enough time to get ready’ will be treated with contempt. You’ll be about as credible as a kid telling a teacher that ‘the dog ate my homework’.

Here’s the thing, no one cares why a speaker seems unprepared; they care more about the fact that they’ve just given up ‘N’ minutes for no good reason – time that could be used for other things, time they can’t recoup.

Speaking Pitfall #2: Focusing More on Process Instead of Content

How often have you heard a speaker cover all expected topics in a presentation, without making any obvious errors, and yet find yourself distinctly underwhelmed?

Often this is because you’ve just been subjected to a ‘going through the motions’ speech – where you heard plenty of words, but nothing of interest.

And the most common reason for your experience is that the speaker focuses more on the mechanics of performance than the audience’s experience.

While process (how you do things) matters, relevant content and passion count more.

Give your audiences something that will make them feel better off after you’ve finished speaking than they were when you stood up to the podium.

And don’t worry too much about the odd ‘em’ or ‘err’ if you’ve done this, they’ll hardly be noticed and soon forgotten.

Speaking Pitfall #3: Reading Your Speech

Have you ever looked at an audience when they realise that a speaker is about to read a speech?

You can just see a look of resignation descend.

They expect they’re about to be bored silly and they’re almost always right!

If you are reading a speech, even if it’s well crafted, you lose the opportunity to engage with your audience.

You can’t see them, and because you’re not looking at them, they won’t feel compelled to stay focused on you. Chances are they won’t. And who can blame them?

And if you do look up eventually, you’ll likely find far too many members of the audience day dreaming, tweeting or even checking emails.

The moral of the story is this – people have turned up to hear you speak to them and not a piece of paper.

Focus on having a conversation and look at your audience, as you would a friend or colleague when you speak to them.

Other Classic Speaking Pitfalls to Avoid?

It was quite a struggle to limit the number of speaking pitfalls that could be included in a key ‘Do Not Do the Following’ list.

What other classic ‘No-No’ would you have included and why?

Let’s work together and inspire others through your speaking. To find out more click here!