Credibility plays an important part in effective public speaking and presentation.
So, how to speak with confidence to enhance your speaking credibility?
As I have said before, you have to know your audience before you stand in front of them to deliver your speech or presentation.
For instance their interests, needs and behaviors and know what they expect from you.
Speaker Credibility
The key thing is credibility.
It is true that when you have high credibility, people will overlook your presentation or speech even if they are not perfect.
They will forget about your bad opening joke, poorly organized message or even less than presentable visual aids.
Your audience believed what you said; and that's all that matters.
Your audience will start to decide whether you are believable from the moment they set eyes on you, even though you may not be speaking.
They observe your body language. For example, if the speaker of presenter is nervous, he will slump on his chair, while fiddling with his notes.
He makes no eye contact with his audience’s eyes and probably scuttles across to the lectern, and launches straight into his presentation, with a feeble voice.
Instantly, the audience knows that you are incompetent and sorely lacks credibility. In other words, they don't believe and take no interests in what you are going to say.
Remember it is the audience who decide and judge your credibility.
This doesn't mean that you have no control over your credibility. You can shape the audience's opinion of your credibility. The two factors are character and competence.
Characters refer to your honesty, fairness, and trustworthiness.
You have to convey the fact that you're reasonably honorable and ethical.
Do you know that by admitting a mistake or a failure can boost your credibility? By doing that, people will perceive you as honest.
As for competence, it means your expertise in a particular subject or topic.
Let them know of your education, experience, testimonials and overall expertise. Inform your audience about your credentials.
And I don't mean, you start off your presentation or speech by boasting about all your degrees, honors, awards, press and TV interviews, etc.
One great way to to let your audience know about your impressive credentials is let the master of ceremony (MC) do the job.
Of course you can tactfully mentioned about your credentials into your speech or presentation.
You can incorporate them into your talk. For example, you can say: "In my ten years in the public service industry... or "Last year when Times magazine interviewed me about ...".
Another thing is your composure. When you appear nervous or lacked of confidence, your audience will perceive you as less credible.
They can see it from your body language.
Not forgetting your dressing or what I mean good grooming.
I know you may say, you can't judge a book by its cover, but the fact is people judge people by their dress sense all the time.
We always heard people talking about charismatic or spellbinding speakers.
So, how can one appeared to be charismatic in front of an audience?
Having a commanding voice is certainly an advantage.
But being charismatic, you need more than just having a mesmerizing voice. One effective way is to sound enthusiastic. It is true that audiences respond well to enthusiastic presenters.
As they say, enthusiasm is infectious and contagious.
If you're enthusiastic about what you are talking about, automatically you become energetic and animated.
You will appear excited, and that can arouse your audience's interests and capture their attention.
And they will somehow respond favorably to what you have to say or share.
Here are tips on how to appear confident and ooze with charisma.
Always stand upright and keep your shoulders level and relaxed.
Do not keep your arms close by your sides. If you are nervous, just clasp your hands loosely at waist level.
Take your time getting into position, look round your audience and smile.Make eye contact with your audience.
If it is a large audience, then a slow sweeping gaze over the audience, in the figure 5.
What you do is you look at head level over the audience at the back row from your right to left, then look down slightly.
Now you continue to drag your gaze line across from the right to the left and make a slow curve back to the right, like the figure 5.
By using this way of looking at your audience, they will believe that you have looked at each and every one of them.
Do not rush, but speak clearly at a moderate speed.
To speak with confidence, breathe slowly to calm your nerve.
Make your gestures wide, upward and outward.
As I have mentioned before, you need to have a well-rehearsed opening or speech introduction, so that you can start off with a bang, without having to refer to your notes or making any mistakes.
An impact and flawless opening will definitely boost your confidence. and help to overcome your fear of public speaking.
As a result, it makes you look and sound like a charismatic and a credible presenter who speak with confidence.
