Here are five best practices of public speaking that speakers don’t always follow, but should resolve to in 2012:

1. Pick up the phone before you pick up the pen.

You can only learn so much from event planners and the demographic information provided by the group you are addressing. It takes actual conversations with expected audience members to get a handle on their interests, needs, and knowledge of your subject.

While e-mail is passable in a pinch, it is far better to pick up the phone and talk to five rank-and-file people who likely will be in your audience. Have a few questions planned, but only use them to keep the conversation going or ask for clarification.

Chris Lu, a senior official at the White House recalled, “When I was drafting my first college commencement speech, I called several graduating seniors to learn about their campus experiences – their triumphs and struggles, favorite professors and hangout places, and common bonding moments. Drawing on these references and vignettes in my remarks, I was also able to make my speech more relevant to the audience. Afterward, several long-time professors said it was the best commencement speech they had heard.”

As Lu successfully did, make sure to listen for stories and examples you can weave into your speech, as well as inside information or jokes you can allude to. This shows your audience that you have done your research and aren’t giving a canned presentation.

2. Have a laser-focused point.

No, not a laser pointer, a laser-focused point.

It may sound obvious, but too many speakers don’t have a succinct main idea. If you can’t explain your speech in a sentence, you certainly won’t explain it in an hour.

Use a short, clear phrase or sentence that summarizes the point of your presentation to tell your audience what to expect. It doesn’t have to be the first thing out of your mouth, but should come during the introduction and set-up of your speech. Then, make sure you relate your main points back to that central idea as your presentation progresses.

3. Rehearse six times for success.

We all know that practice makes perfect, but exactly how much? Rehearse at least six times. That’s right, a minimum of six times.

Why six? There is something special about the sixth rehearsal. It’s the rehearsal when speakers truly master their content, can recover quickly from hiccups in their delivery, and feel significantly more comfortable at the lectern.

A case in point is that of work-life integration coach Carolyn Semedo, a participant in a recent series of small-group coaching classes. During one session, she acknowledged feeling frustrated that she was stumbling over the content of a presentation she was slated to deliver.

She chalked it up to being a mediocre presenter. In response to a question about her method of rehearsing, she said that she had practiced once over the weekend and again on Monday evening as she was driving to class.

Of course Carolyn’s delivery was rocky! Even the most celebrated speakers don’t have their material down on a second run through. On the contrary, speakers who make presenting look easy are those who have practiced their material the most.

Carolyn is by no means a mediocre presenter. Like many speakers, she just needed some coaching on how to rehearse. She said, “I thought that by rehearsing two or three times, I should have it nailed. It was very helpful to learn that more rehearsals were the key to a better speech.”

4. Get feedback – before and after your speech.

You can learn a lot by asking listeners how your speech was effective… and how it was not.

Get a gut check before the curtain goes up; have a trusted colleague and/or a speech coach evaluate the content and delivery of your presentation. This will help prevent a situation where your presentation misses the mark or humor falls flat. It also will help you identify what works, as well as what needs refining. Make sure you ask for specific suggestions on how to improve the speech.

It is just as important to get feedback after the presentation. Written evaluations can be especially easy if the conference or event already is collecting data from listeners. Review the questionnaire ahead of time and ask to see the results. If the questionnaire isn’t thorough or specific enough, ask to add some questions or supplement it with your own form focused on the reception of your speech.

If a formal evaluation isn’t possible or appropriate, interview a few members of the audience after your presentation to see what stood out to them – asking about strengths as well as areas that need improvement. In some settings, like toasts and graduation speeches, it can be difficult to get specific feedback from members of your audience because they’re listening mainly for pleasure. In these instances, it is helpful to talk to a few known and trusted audience members beforehand, asking them to listen to the speech critically and provide an evaluation.

5. Get caught on camera.

Video is an unparalleled learning tool. Though some speakers find it painful to watch themselves on camera, reviewing recordings of rehearsals and presentations will open your eyes to bad speaking habits and other issues.

“Although I was initially apprehensive about watching the video recordings of my practice speeches,” admitted Kristie Patton, who works at the National Council on Aging, “I came to view this exercise as extremely helpful.

“It offered a valuable window into how I was communicating with my audience, both verbally and non-verbally. In addition to observing standard communication errors, like speaking too quickly or using filler words, it was also instructive to note that something as seemingly innocuous as my earrings could serve as a distraction to my audience.”

Furthermore, video is a great way to document progress. Like taking photos before starting a new diet and exercise regime, comparing video provides motivation when you see progress and the payoff for your hard work. And when you get more proficient in speaking and comfortable watching yourself on camera, recordings will become a useful tool for spreading your message well beyond your physical audience – whether you put them on YouTube, your website, social media, or other platforms.

Resolve to follow these best practices in the New Year, and your audience, undoubtedly, will see a dramatic improvement in your presentations.

What are YOUR resolutions for 2012?

In addition to these five best practices, what will you resolve to improve in 2012? Please share your resolutions in the comments.

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Christine Clapp is president of Spoken with Authority, providing one-on-one coaching, small-group classes and workshops that develop the voice of experts who want to broaden their impact. She also is a lecturer in the Department of Communication at The George Washington University.

Whether your resolutions are health-related (exercise more), family-related (spend more quality time together), or career-related (become a more effective speaker), there’s a proven way to set yourself up to succeed — make SMART resolutions.

S.M.A.R.T. Resolutions

Smart resolutions, or smart goals at any time of year, have five characteristics:

• S – Specific
• M – Measurable
• A – Achievable
• R – Relevant
• T – Time-bound

As we’ll see, these criteria are not entirely independent, but they are all critical.

Let’s look at each characteristic in more detail.

Specific

State your resolution and its expected outcome as simply, concisely, and explicity as possible.

Attempting to achieve a vague goal is like trying to steer a boat across an ocean without a compass. Which way do you go? What’s the best way to get there? What small steps will lead me there?

Be stating your resolution in specific terms, you provide sharp focus for yourself. What exactly will you do?

Examples

• General – I resolve to get healthy.
  Specific - I resolve to lose 10 pounds and eliminate alcohol.
• General – I resolve to become a good public speaker.
  Specific - I resolve to design, write, and deliver a 60-minute seminar on time management.

Measurable

Define the criteria that you will use to measure your progress and eventual success.

Think in terms of criteria which can be counted, or those which lend themselves to answering a clear “yes” or “no” question.

Examples

• Not Measurable – I resolve to lose weight.
  Measurable - I resolve to lose 10 pounds.
• Not Measurable – I resolve to exercise.
  Measurable - I resolve to exercise for 30 minutes, 3 times a week.
• Not Measurable – I resolve to spend more time writing my speeches.
  Measurable - I resolve to devote five hours to writing and editing each of my speeches.

Achievable

This third factor is perhaps the most tricky.

Goals which are too large given your current situation, resources, and available time are likely to be discouraging from day one. It is unwise to set a goal which requires you to spend many hours a day (if your existing commitments don’t allow it) or which requires you to spend a great deal of money (if you don’t have it) or use advanced skills (if you haven’t learned them).

When setting many simultaneous goals (as we tend to do at this time of year), be aware of how they may conflict with each other. You may have an hour a day to devote to a single goal, but not multiple goals. Be honest with yourself. It’s better to make and succeed in one goal than to make and fail on several goals.

At the same time, greatness is achieved by those who dream big dreams. If the goal is too easy to achieve, and if you know you can meet it with little effort, then it isn’t much of a goal at all. Don’t let fear of the unknown prevent you from stretching.

Find the balance that works for you. Reach high, but reach within your grasp.

Examples

• Improbable – I resolve to triple my consulting income this year.
  Achievable - I resolve to increase consulting income by 30% this year.
• Improbable – I resolve to spend 5 hours a day reading marketing books.
  Achievable - I resolve to spend 1 hour a day listening to marketing audiobooks during my commute.
• Improbable – I resolve to raise my speaking fee from $500 to $500,000 for a speaking engagement this year.
  Achievable - I resolve to raise my speaking fee from $500 to $2000 for a speaking engagement this year.

Relevant

Goals which are relevant to your personal or career development and tied to your core values are more likely to be achieved. It is this relevancy which will keep you going when failure seems imminent.

Are you losing weight so you can see your daughter on her wedding day? Or perhaps your granddaughter on hers? When you don’t feel like going for a run on a rainy, cold morning, a vision of that white dress which will propel you forward.

Examples

• Irrelevant – I resolve to take a course in Swahili, just because.
  Relevant - I resolve to take a course in French, to prepare myself to attend a French culinary school next year.
• Irrelevant – I resolve to learn to play the harmonica, because I may find myself alone on a deserted island.
  Relevant - I resolve to learn accounting skills, so that I can contribute to my local not-for-profit organization.
• Irrelevant – I resolve to develop a full-day course on tying knots, because the world needs more sailors.
  Relevant - I resolve to develop a full-day course on change management, to raise my profile and attract coaching clients.

Time-Bound

Humans are wired to work toward deadlines. Fixing your resolutions to a date on the calendar makes them real, and separates them from all those “Someday, I’ll get to it” dreams.

Failing to attach a timeline to your goals means you have no way to track progress. Are you on pace to reach your goal? Do you need to speed up? “I’ll work on it tomorrow” becomes a chronic excuse preventing you from inching forward.

Examples

• Unbound – I resolve to lose 10 pounds.
  Time-bound – I resolve to lose 10 pounds by July 1st.
• Unbound – I resolve to find a club and join Toastmasters.
  Time-bound – I resolve to find a club and join Toastmasters by January 31st.

Achieving All of Your Resolutions

Making your resolutions SMART gives you the best possible chance of success. But there’s one additional key: tell your family and friends about it!  Sharing your goal with others helps in two ways:

• It makes you more accountable. Knowing that you’ll have to answer to your friends if don’t stick to your exercise program may keep you from adopting your sedentary habits. (Note: This won’t help much if your goal isn’t SMART in the first place.)
• It provides an invitation to them to help you, probably in ways that you can’t imagine. Your friends and family want you to be successful, but they can’t help you if they don’t know what you need.

What Are Your SMART Resolutions?

Here’s your chance to go on record… share your SMART resolutions — for public speaking, or for anything else — in the comments.

Good luck!

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Frustrated… by nerves that never go away.

Frustrated… by audience questions that trip you up.

Frustrated… by the process of skills improvement which is more evolutionary than revolutionary.

In this article, we learn how to end the frustration by learning to love the process. We draw five speaking lessons from an extremely unlikely source: a motivational hooping video.

Lessons of the Hoop

A what?
A motivational hooping video.

The video below is just four minutes long, and chronicles the improvement process experienced by Sandra Sommerville (stage name: SaFire) as she develops her expertise as a hooper.

Watch the video first, and then read the rest of the article.
[If you don't see it below, click here to jump to the original article.]

Click here to view the embedded video.

Pretty amazing improvement, isn’t it?

Here are the words which accompany Lessons of the Hoop:

Practice makes… improvement. Try, then try again, and again. Try it slowly, even if it barely counts. Watch for hesitation or you’ll miss your chance. Just keep going. Document, even if you never plan to share. Repeat it over, and over. Stretch your limits. Try different sizes, even if it’s ridiculous. Seize the moment. Celebrate success. Get tangled up. Stop and breathe. Stay creative. Challenge yourself. Remove distractions. Laugh. Accept the uncomfortable. We only learn if we … drop, drop, drop, drop, drop, drop, drop, drop. And most importantly, try not to judge yourself. Practice makes… improvement. Be strong. Find balance. Take risks. Play hard. Smile, and… love the process.

How Does This Apply to Public Speaking?

Many of the lessons learned by Sandra are the same ones that public speakers must learn.

Let’s consider how these five apply to speaking:

1. Practice makes improvement.
2. Document, even if you never plan to share.
3. Accept the uncomfortable.
4. Stretch your limits.
5. Love the process.

Lesson 1: Practice makes improvement.

You won’t get better at speaking by only reading a book. (Or, this blog!)

You can only improve your speaking skills by practicing. Speak at work. Speak at your child’s school. Speak at a town hall meeting. Speak at your cousin’s wedding. Speak in your car. Speak for your cat. Speak in front of the mirror.

You won’t ever achieve perfection. But you will improve. Little by little, your practice will result in improvement. Most of the time, your improvements will be incremental. Other times, you’ll take a giant leap in an epiphany of speaking prowess.

Lesson 2: Document, even if you never plan to share.

You can keep a paper journal, but it’s probably easier these days to keep an electronic record of your speeches and PowerPoint presentations. Date them so you can look back on them someday and marvel at how far you’ve progressed.

Evaluate yourself, and keep track of the specific areas you are working on.

Keep a video record too. Not only will individual videos reveal areas for improvement, but comparing current videos to past ones will be eye-poppingly encouraging. When you are caught up in the process, it’s difficult to see your own progress. A video record won’t lie.

Lesson 3: Accept the Uncomfortable

Accept the butterflies in your stomach before a presentation.

Accept how your heart races when the pressure is on.

Accept that you will forget a word, a phrase, a story, or a punchline.

Accept that PowerPoint malfunctions will happen to you.

Accept that not everyone in your audience is impressed, or even listening.

Accept all of these things, but know that none of them will prevent you from communicating effectively unless you let them.

Lesson 4: Stretch Your Limits

There’s a quote that gets recycled in motivational speeches: If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.

If you are approaching every speech or presentation in the same way… if you are preparing the same way… if you are developing PowerPoint slides in the same way… if you use the same speech opening over and over again… if you always speak from behind the lectern… if you always use typewritten 12-point font speech notes…

If you never try new things, your skills will stagnate.

Look for opportunities to stretch your limits by:

• trying new vocal techniques,
• incorporating new stories,
• delivering new gestures,
• adopting a new style of visuals,
• discovering a new source of quotations,
• seeking out new audiences and new venues, and
• pursuing the 1-hour keynote when you’ve only ever delivered the 10-minute teaser speech.

Lesson 5: Love the Process

It’s understandable if you feel that the process is drudgery that you are required to endure before — someday — reaching the pinnacle of presentation mastery.

However, that mindset will only sabotage your efforts.

Love the process. Set small goals and celebrate your milestones. Laugh at your mistakes (because you’ll make lots of them).

The truth is that there is no pinnacle — only a lifetime of going through the process of improving your speaking skills.

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Is this the year you become a more effective speaker?

Is this the year you conquer your fear?

Is this the year you customize every presentation for the audience who will receive it?

Is this the year you worry less about ums and ahs, and worry more about connecting with the audience?

Is this the year you realize its not the quantity of information conveyed, but the quality of how you convey it?

Is this the year you eliminate the phrase “I don’t need to rehearse”?

Is this the year you stop driving people to tap on their Blackberry and iPhone during your speech?

Is this the year you stop letting poor communication skills stand between you and the career that you want?

Is this the year you solicit honest feedback after every presentation?

Is this the year you act on the feedback received?

Is this the year you not only read and talk about Presentation Zen and Slide:ology, but actually put the lessons into practice?

Is this the year you stop putting people to sleep?

Is this the year you study storytelling techniques?

Is this the year you stop allowing your colleagues to commit communication suicide and give them honest feedback?

Is this the year you realize that a lengthy Q&A session is not “stealing time” away from your presentation?

Is this the year you stop using PowerPoint as a crutch?

Is this the year you realize that eye contact and gestures mean nothing if you don’t have a clear message?

Is this the year you find your voice?

Is this the year you use it to communicate whatever message resonates in your heart?

Is this the year you lose your ego and have a conversation?

Is this the year?

This is the conversation I’m having in front of a mirror on January 1st.

What conversation will you have?

This may help: 5 Habits to Achieve your Public Speaking New Year’s Resolution

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.

Lose weight. Pay off debt. Quit smoking.

Easy, right? No, not really.

Most resolutions fail because they are wishes, not goals. Often, the best way to achieve a long-term goal is to focus on the supporting habits. For example:

By focusing on the supporting habits (and keeping the end goal in mind, of course), we put ourselves in an excellent position to succeed. The same strategy applies to all other New Year’s resolutions, including another popular one: becoming a better public speaker.

Becoming a better speaker is not going to happen quickly and it is not going to happen without dedication and hard work. Nobody can master the 25 skills every public speaker should have after just one speech. To put yourself in the best position to succeed, develop the public speaking habits which give you the best chance of success.

For general advice, check out 14 Tips For Resolutions That Stick in the New Year. For your public speaking resolutions, these five habits will bring you to your goal:

Habit #1: Join Toastmasters.

The cost is minimal, and is one of the best ways to invest in yourself. If you are not already a member of the world’s leading communication and leadership organization, then look up a club in your area and join today. Toastmasters provides a supportive environment in which you will conquer your public speaking fears, develop your presentation skills, and become an effective communicator.

As a bonus, sticking to this habit will help you stick to the other four habits on this New Year’s Resolutions list for public speaking.

Habit #2: Practice. Practice. Practice.

Integrate public speaking into your daily and weekly routines. Toastmasters is once a week, but speaking more often is better. Actively seek opportunities to speak. Chair a meeting. Conduct a seminar. Teach a course. Emcee an event. Speak up at your next volunteer organization meeting. Introduce another speaker. Whether you speak for 30 seconds or 30 minutes, consistent practice will grow your skills over time.

Habit #3: Study great speakers.

Seriously. Study them. Learn from the video critiques on this blog. Watch the many excellent TED presenters. Search YouTube. Take notes the next time you are listening to a speaker. Emulate their strengths. Avoid their mistakes.

Habit #4: Study yourself too.

Many people shy away from recording themselves while speaking, but there is no better form of feedback. You can use a digital voice recorder or a video camera (or a camera phone, or …). Watch and listen with an objective view.

Seek out feedback from others to help recognize your strengths and weaknesses, which leads me to the fifth supporting habit…

Habit #5: Find/Hire a public speaking coach/mentor/buddy.

Build a relationship with a public speaker who you admire. Ask them for advice. Find someone else who shares your goal, and work together with them to improve your speaking skills. The buddy system works for exercising, it works for quitting smoking, and it works for public speaking too. Make it a regular ritual.

To accelerate your growth, hire a coach! Hire me. Hire Lisa Braithwaite. Hire Joan Curtis. Hire Rich Hopkins. Hire one of thousands of speech coaches to help you achieve your goal of becoming a great presenter. Hiring a coach won’t eliminate the need for hard work, but one-on-one coaching is an excellent way to elevate your skills and discover your unique voice.

Let 2008 be the year that you become a great public speaker, a skill which helps you achieve your other resolutions too.

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Have a Question? Contact me anytime, or find me on Twitter: @6minutes

Andrew Dlugan is the editor and founder of Six Minutes. He teaches courses, leads seminars, coaches speakers, and strives to avoid Suicide by PowerPoint. He is an award-winning public speaker and speech evaluator. Andrew is a father and husband who resides in British Columbia, Canada.