How to Improve Public Speaking Skills: Seven Techniques That Build Confidence Through Competence

Public speaking is often approached as a problem of confidence. Speakers are advised to feel more assured, and skill is expected to follow. The relationship is more plausibly the reverse. Confidence tends to be the product of capability, built through preparation, intentional delivery and repeated practice rather than through theory alone.

So how can you improve your public speaking skills? Prepare the thinking behind your message, design it for a specific audience, use voice, body and silence deliberately, give ideas a narrative shape, and practise with structured feedback. The seven techniques below follow that sequence. None is a shortcut, but together they form a coherent discipline.

Prepare the thinking, not merely the words

Effective preparation begins with a question: what is the one idea this audience should take away? Once that is clear, an opening, a small number of supporting points and a deliberate close can be built around it. Rehearse aloud rather than silently, because language that reads well often sounds laboured when spoken. Memorising a script word for word carries its own risk, since a speaker who loses one sentence may lose the thread entirely. Knowing the shape of an argument is more resilient than recalling its wording.

Begin with the audience

A presentation is not a broadcast. It is an interaction. Consider who is listening, what they already know, what they need and what you hope they will do differently. A briefing to senior leaders and an explanation to new colleagues may share content, yet they should differ in emphasis, vocabulary and pace. Audience awareness also continues during delivery. Attending to expressions, restlessness or engagement allows a speaker to clarify, adjust or pause. Listening, in other words, is part of speaking.

Treat the voice as an instrument

Pace, volume, pitch and articulation each carry meaning. A uniform delivery signals little about what matters, whereas variation directs attention. Supported breathing allows a speaker to sustain volume without strain and to complete sentences with intent rather than trailing away. A practical starting point is to record a short passage and listen critically. Where does the pace quicken, and where does energy fade?

Align the body with the message

Posture, gesture, eye contact and movement communicate alongside words. The aim is not to adopt rehearsed gestures but to remove distractions and allow natural emphasis. A stable stance, open hands and eye contact with individual listeners, rather than a sweeping glance across the room, signal attentiveness. They also help the speaker notice how the message is being received.

Give ideas narrative shape

Stories make abstract points concrete. Research on narrative transportation by Green and Brock (2000) found that readers who were more absorbed in a story held beliefs more consistent with it.[1] Those experiments involved written narratives, so applying the finding to live speaking is an inference rather than a demonstration, but a reasonable one. A leader explaining revised service standards may achieve more by describing one client's experience than by reciting policy. The story should serve the point, not decorate it.

Use pauses with purpose

Silence is among the most underused tools in speaking. A pause before a key point signals its importance, and a pause after it allows listeners to process it. Pausing can also replace filler words, which often exist to relieve the discomfort of silence. In practice, nerves can make time feel compressed, so a pause that seems long to the speaker may sound composed to listeners. Practise pausing deliberately until it feels like control rather than hesitation.

Practise deliberately and seek feedback

Repetition alone does not guarantee improvement. Practice must be purposeful. Choose a specific focus, such as a clearer opening, a slower pace or steadier eye contact, and raise the stakes gradually, from rehearsing alone to a trusted colleague to a wider audience.

Feedback is essential, but its form matters. Hattie and Timperley (2007) concluded that feedback is among the most powerful influences on learning, while stressing that its effect depends on the type given.[2] Specific, task-focused observations that indicate next steps serve a speaker better than general praise or criticism.

Nerves are also worth addressing directly. In experiments by Brooks (2014), participants who reappraised pre-performance anxiety as excitement, for example by saying "I am excited" aloud, performed better on tasks including public speaking than those who tried to calm down.[3] This is a modest intervention and no substitute for preparation, but it suggests that nervousness need not be eliminated in order to be managed.

A note on method

Applied drama approaches communication development through rehearsal, improvisation and reflection. Participants practise in a low-stakes setting, examine what occurred and try again. For educators, the implication is practical. Learners rarely lack ideas. More often they lack structured opportunities to rehearse, receive specific feedback and try again. The value lies not in any single exercise but in the reflection that connects it to real situations.

Conclusion

Public speaking improves when it is treated as a craft: thought through, shaped for others, delivered with intention and refined through feedback. Confidence rarely arrives beforehand. It accumulates as evidence that preparation and practice work. For most speakers, the more productive question is therefore not "How do I stop feeling nervous?" but "What will I practise next?"

References

[1] Green, M. C., & Brock, T. C. (2000). The role of transportation in the persuasiveness of public narratives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(5), 701–721. See the journal article.

[2] Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81–112. See the journal article.

[3] Brooks, A. W. (2014). Get excited: Reappraising pre-performance anxiety as excitement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(3), 1144–1158. See the journal article.