Public Speaking

Poise is the ability to remain calm and full of composure. It shows the speaker to be dignified in his manner of speaking and his movement. Poise is important in gaining the confidence of your audience as someone who knows what he is talking about. If you think of a fidgety nervous speaker you know the effect. The audience may feel nervous for him and will not take his information as seriously as one who has poise.

So we have established what poise is and that it is important. How can we be poised?

First we must realize that poise is difficult to cultivate. Nerves can be the enemy to poise. However it does not have to be that way. Most poised public speakers will tell you they get nervous when they are on stage. However containing our nerves, even though we still have them, is key to gaining the ability of poise. We use the phrase I have butterflies in my stomach. Well what we have to do is get those butterflies to fly in formation.

When cultivating poise remember that it has a bearing not only on how we speak but on how we stand/posture or move. The most important thing to keep in mind here is being natural. If we try and force ourselves into something we do not do naturally we’re not going to have poise on the platform.

Let’s go back to the anxiety public speaking can cause us. In order to reduce that anxiety we need to take steps to aid ourselves in reducing it. Being well-prepared and well rehearsed will help us tremendously to have less anxiety and fear. If we get on the stage and really are not prepared to know where we are going with our discussion poise is going to be far from us. Investing time in preparation is the key here.

The time public speakers are most nervous is usually always at the beginning. Once they get in the flow the nerves settle. So you may want to become very familiar with your introduction. It could be something that you enjoy speaking about. Or you may decide to manuscript your entire introduction to start with. Be careful though with manuscripting. If your entire public speaking session becomes a manuscript it will be less interesting to your audience and your nerves could be elevated having to stick to a script. Free flow is easier and helps to promote poise.

Some speakers may look to ice breakers for help. Perhaps they start by talking about themselves, where they are from or their family. These kind of things can settle our nerves in the most anxious point of a presentation.

Finally remember nobody starts a poised speaker. What speakers need most is live experience. Experience with public speaking will teach you to become poised in public speaking.