Planning what you are going to talk about will help you to be a more confident speaker. Of course, we are not expecting you to plan every conversation that you have. But it is a good idea to plan for the important ones. It is especially important when you are addressing a group of people such as a large audience on a webinar.
It can be tempting just to “wing it” and skip any preparation. The problem with this is unless you are supremely confident with your speaking it is not likely to turn out well. In this article, we will discuss why it is important to be prepared.
You will have more Options
The worst possible thing that can happen to you when you are speaking in any situation is to run out of things to say. Imagine addressing a large number of people and then having to deal with an awkward silence because you don’t know what to say next. Your reputation will take a nose dive if this happens.
When you plan your important conversations and presentations you can identify a number of options that you can take should you need to do this. Yes, it does take effort to plan and prepare, but the results that you will achieve will justify this effort.
Your Words will Flow better
A major benefit of planning what you are going to say is that it should result in a better flow of your words. When you practice your speaking, you should find that you develop a more natural flow with your words.
Practicing will also help to boost your confidence. When you have rehearsed everything, you will feel a lot more in control. There is no need for you to create a script and read from it. It is better to create an outline and refer to this.
You will be more Focused
Staying on topic is a very important thing to do and confident speakers are masters of this. It helps to avoid not having enough to say or saying too much. Unfortunately, there are a lot of speakers that do not have the right focus when they are speaking and things can quickly come off the rails in this situation.
Create a Backup Plan
What are you going to do if something goes wrong when you are speaking? Maybe you notice that your audience is not as engaged as you want them to be for example. If you plan what you are going to say then you can come up with ideas for a backup plan if something goes wrong.
When you Plan it will help you to Anticipate
Confident speakers are usually able to anticipate the questions that their audience is going to ask them. Some of this comes from experience and some from the planning that they do. During the planning of their speech, they think about the type of questions that are likely to come up and prepare to answer these questions.
Planning helps to minimize speaking errors
We recommend that you record yourself speaking when you are in the planning stage and look for errors. Maybe you have repeated yourself or you are using too many “ums” and “ahs” when you speak. You need to be critical when you watch your recordings back so that you can minimize these errors on the day.
