3 TOP TIPS FOR IMPROMPTU SPEAKING

1. EMBRACE THE POWER OF THE PAUSE

When asked an impromptu question in front of a group many speakers, whether experienced or not, often panic and leap straight into responding to the question. I challenge you to avoid leaping in and make a conscious effort to pause. Pausing for a few seconds prior to starting your answer is powerful for a number of reasons.

pausing gives your brain a few seconds to not only think about what you are going to say but how you are going to structure it

• pausing allows the audience to contemplate the question and gather their own thoughts on the subject before listening to yours
• pausing can help to ensure the first few words popping out of your mind are not a string of fillers words….”hmm, well, ok, so, ah…”
• pausing adds credibility to your answer as the audience can witness you have thought it through
• pausing sends a signal to the audience that you are a confident speaker. Confident speakers don’t fear silence, unconfident or insecure speakers usually do.
• pausing prior to commencing your answer for a few seconds is only ackward if you as a speaker think it is awkward and make it awkward. I personally think of pausing before starting as a way of building a sense of anticipation regarding my response.

Next time you feel the need to leap in straight away to answer an impromptu question, challenge yourself to take a deep breath, pause, make eye contact with your audience and then begin your response.

2. ENSURE THE RESPONSE HAS A CLEAR STRUCTURE

When we write anything we hopefully know from our early education that we should have an introduction, main body and a concussion. Whether it is an email, resume or formal report. However, when we speak impromptu this same simple logic often goes out the window. As a result many impromptu responses often sound like a shopping list or a verbal brainstorming exercise with every possible idea being thrown in for good measure whether it is relevant or not. However, this does not need to be the case if you remember when impromptu speaking you still need to structure what your saying to get your message across effectively. I therefore recommend you always have:

An introduction: This does not need to be over the top it can be as simple as one sentence. Options include for example:

• repeating the question that has just been asked
• rephrasing the question
• beginning with an opening line such as “thank you for your question”

Main body: It is important to make sure that you make a few key points and then elaborate on this with relevant examples or other relevant supporting material such as statistics. Ideally 1-3 key points is recommended. It is important to try and make the points clear, concise and relevant without being too long winded. In my own opinion the energy and interest in answers to questions is often killed by long winded answers that are overwhelming and hard to follow.

Conclusion: The conclusion is very often abandoned completely when impromptu speaking. I am not sure if it is relief that the question has been answered and the speaker is out of the firing line that causes a conclusion to be missed or for the answer to end with a phrase such as “that is it” “yeah”, “that is me”.

From my years of public speaking experience I came to the conclusion that wrapping up and concluding an impromptu speech actually takes confidence. It take confidence to make the decision that what has been said is adequate in answering the question.

How should you conclude?

In a conclusion what I recommend you aim to do at a minimum is:

• Have a general closing sentence referring back to the original question. The reason I recommend this as a minimum is that quite often in an impromptu speaking situation you might not always remember all your key points especially if your feel really under pressure. Keeping the conclusion general elevates this pressure and may prevent brain freeze during the conclusion. Referring back to the question effectively “bookends’” your answer and let’s the audience know that you are wrapping up.

A more advanced conclusion includes the following:

• referring back to the question
• summarising the key points made in the main body of the answer to highlight and remind the audience
• includes a ‘call to action’ as appropriate for the audience. A call to action is where you are encouraging/suggesting/telling the audience to do something. For example, if your speech is for a charitable cause you might include a call to action for the audience to make a donation.

3. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE:

Like most skills practice = progress and I highly recommend practicing impromptu speaking. Formal practice with a public speaking coach or at a public speaking course or club is ideal because not only do you get to practice using a range of different topics you also will hopefully get helpful feedback which will allow you to advance and develop your skill by trying out different techniques.

If formal practice is not possible all is not lost. Almost every time you open your mouth to speak you are impromptu speaking and can get feedback. Ways you can still get feedback can include for example:

• a trusted colleague providing you with feedback after a meeting where you contributed to discussion
• family/friends can help you out as usually it is bad habits we pick up in casual impromptu conversations that we then need to work hard to eliminate in more formal public speaking situations
• Self-reflection by observing and analysing yourself. There are many ways you can do this including for example noting how often you find that you have to repeat yourself, how often there is misunderstandings or misinterpretations of something you have said, or even counting your filler words such as ‘um, ah, so” during a phone call.

Great impromptu public speakers tend to practice as often as they possibly can and also really value feedback. Don’t take yourself out of the race, hiding behind a colleague or a friend to avoid an impromptu public speaking opportunity. Embrace every opportunity to practice and as you do you will gain more experience and confidence.

I hope these three top tips are helpful for you next time you find yourself “speaking off the cuff” “thinking on your feet” or being “put on the spot”.