The 10 biggest public speaking mistakes and how to avoid them

Being able to speak to an audience with confidence shows excellent communication skills, critical thinking, and an increased likelihood of career progression. It can also positively contribute to personal development.

At CoComms, we provide highly-rated public speaking training courses that can boost your confidence and equip you with the tools to tell any story with authority. 

So, if you’re ready to level up your public speaking skills, here are some of the most common public speaking mistakes to be aware of.

1. Not engaging your audience

It’s best to see public speaking as a two-way conversation. Instead of talking at your audience, remember that they are there to listen and be engaged by you and what you have to say. If you fail to engage your audience, they may lose interest or forget what you have to say.

Try engaging your audience throughout your speech, presentation, or demonstration by using storytelling skills, rhetorical questions, and tailoring your content to their needs. You could even use a Q&A session at the end to encourage audience participation!

2. Using too many filler words

Filler words like ‘um’, ‘uh’, and ‘like’ are a natural part of colloquial language, but when used in professional public speaking contexts, they can make you look underprepared or overly nervous.

When practising your public speaking, try a few techniques to reduce your filler words, like strategic pausing, slowing down your speech, and incorporating transitional phrases to remove the opportunity for filler words.

3. Reading from your notes

To be an effective public speaker, you don’t have to have the memory of an actor. However, reading directly from a piece of paper or your phone can disconnect the audience, limit your body language, and lead to a monotonous delivery.

Practice is the best way to avoid reading from your notes, and a great technique to help with this is to mark specific keywords or phrases within your speech that trigger the next main idea you want to discuss. 

With this in mind, it’s essential to structure what you have to say carefully so that there is a clear flow, making your points easier to remember.

4. Ignoring preparation

Practice makes perfect, and it’s an age-old saying because it is true. Even the best public speakers spend time practising what they have to say, even if it’s their full-time job! 

Public speaking preparation may take time and effort, but you’ll notice the difference in how the audience engages with you, how nervous you feel, and how natural and confident your delivery sounds.

5. Not utilising your body language

When public speaking, it’s essential to use all of the tools you have available — and that’s more than just your voice. Using the correct body language can reinforce what you have to say and help engage the audience with your enthusiasm.

Maintain eye contact across the audience, stand tall, smile, and use your hands to drive home your key points. These small actions can make a huge difference. 

6. Speaking too quickly

Public speaking can be nerve-wracking, especially when addressing a large audience. With this in mind, public speaking anxiety can cause speakers to speed up what they have to say. While this is a natural response to nervousness, this can be detrimental to your delivery.

Speaking too fast can overwhelm and distract listeners from your messaging. So, when you can, remember to take a breath and slow down. It might sound too slow in your head, but it will be spot on for the audience.

7. Forgetting to follow a structure

When you’re addressing an audience, you need to have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. This may look slightly different for different types of public speaking, but the three main components remain.

Your introduction should grab your audience’s attention, outline what you’re discussing, and explain why what you have to say is worth listening to. Your body dives deeper into this, explaining your main points. Then, your conclusion gives a recap, a call-to-action, and a strong closing statement.

Our best advice? Don’t overthink it — this is all it takes to keep your messaging coherent and followable. 

8. Saying that you’re nervous

Nervousness is unavoidable in public speaking, especially if you’re a beginner. However, announcing or referring to your nervousness as a speaker can distract the audience, causing them to lose confidence in what you have to say.

Fake it until you make it is a key lesson here. Your audience probably won’t notice that you’re nervous unless you draw attention to it!

9. Copying someone else

If you’re giving an important speech or talk, you’ve likely looked up a few videos of some amazing public speakers. While this can be useful for motivation and inspiration, it’s important not to replicate someone else’s persona.

Why? Because they’re not you. Personality and presence play a huge role in audience engagement, and this is something only you can create. When you can channel into your own public speaking persona, you can build genuine trust and engagement with the audience.

10. Over-relying on visual aids

Remember — visual aids (like PowerPoint slides, for example) should support what you have to say, not carry it. When you over-rely on visual aids, your speech could quickly turn into a slideshow, leading to disengagement and boredom.

It’s acceptable to include a few relevant key slides as you speak, but remember that the audience is there to hear you speak, not watch a screen.

Take a public speaking training course with CoComms

Ready to take your public speaking to the next level? Our Public Speaking Training Course includes everything you need to know, from the basic skills to delivery tips and tricks. 

We also offer presentation training and other courses in stakeholder communication and how to speak during video calls for a fully comprehensive overview of all things communication.

Learn more about what we do at CoComms, and feel free to contact our team today to enrol on one of our courses.