The 4 Most Common Mistakes People Make In Public Speaking

Are you a part of the 75 percent of the population who fears public speaking?

If so, I’m here to help!

After almost 20 years of public speaking experience ranging from being a speech and debate participant, a Model United Nations delegate, a campaign staffer and candidate, a teacher, and a debate coach, I’ve heard and delivered a lot of speeches.

Here are some of the most common mistakes I’ve seen people make when starting out in public speaking AND tips for what you should do instead so that you can be a public speaking pro!

Mistake #1: Lack of organization

Regardless of the speaker’s age or audience, this is the biggest mistake people make in public speaking. We’ve all heard those speeches or lectures that leave us asking, “What the hell are they talking about?”

These are the absolute worst speeches and presentations to listen to, especially if there are visuals involved. It’s extremely awkward to watch someone trying to find a previous slide so they can address a point that nobody would have even missed in the first place.

Most professional public speakers are able to go in without notes and wow a room, but those are professionals who have worked at developing their public speaking skills for years. The biggest mistake I see people make when they are new to public speaking is thinking that they can just give a speech off the top of their heads because they saw Tony Robbins do it on YouTube once.

What to do instead

You should take notes on what other people are saying. This goes for opponents in a debate, an audience member asking a question, or other panel members answering questions. Taking notes on what other people say will make you look and sound like a superstar because it allows for callbacks or references during your own speech.

You should have a plan for how you want to present your content and visual supports that is consistent and coherent. People like to receive information in a way that makes logical sense, which is going to look different in different settings. If you are teaching a course, following a presentation structure will pay off for your students and your end-of-semester evaluations.

You should take the time to reflect on how your organization worked for you after every public speaking opportunity. I personally like to have a notecard with any important data and sources on it so that I know I’m accurately citing my sources. Some folks might want to phonetic pronunciation of difficult words or a bulleted outline of topics written down. Once you figure out what works for you, keep doing it. Your audience will thank you.

Mistake #2: Turning an error into a big deal

I know that making an error in a speech can feel like the end of the world when you are standing in front of a group of people who you want to impress, but half of the people listening to you probably didn’t even register the error.

That being said, if you pause, apologize, and try to backtrack, everyone in the room will ABSOLUTELY notice. This applies to mispronunciations, stammers, accidentally skipping a word in your sentence, and a whole host of speaking issues. By making a big deal about it, you take something that was probably a blip on your audience’s radar and direct their full attention to it, which creates a self-fulfilling prophecy on your end.

It’s especially important to avoid wasting time correcting an error in your speech if you are delivering a timed speech. If you only have five minutes, you want to use all of them to form a clear argument instead of wasting time trying to correct yourself.

What you should do instead

You should take a short pause, breathe, and start over where you left off if you make a mistake while speaking. This is a lot less noticeable than stopping and saying something like ohmygodIlostmyplacegivemeasecond.

You should practice delivering your speech at least once before delivering it to an audience. This will help you identify words you might struggle with so you can practice the correct pronunciation without people watching. When I was coaching debate, the first thing I had the kids do with their cases was read them and circle any words they didn’t know how to pronounce or know the meaning of. Then, we went through all of the evidence as a class and addressed all of those questions up-front so they wouldn’t become an issue later.

You should coach yourself by looking through the content of your speech or presentation, marking down the things you are unsure of, and doing some good old-fashioned Googling for meaning and pronunciation. This also works well if English is not your first language because listening to pronunciations allows you to hear how the word or phrase sounds coming from a fluent speaker.

Mistake #3: Reading directly from your notes

We’ve all sat through a lecture or talk where someone just reads off a slide deck or a piece of paper word-for-word. Usually, these are accompanied by a monotone voice to make it extra exciting!

This is absolutely NOT the move as a public speaker. Visual aids are great, but they shouldn’t be a word-for-word script of what you plan on saying.

This is also true for written scripts. I can’t tell you how many students I have coached who went from being unsure of themselves to master public speakers when I took away the papers they were reading from.

Trust me on this, your presentation will be 10x more engaging and your audience will thank you for not wasting their time on something you could have just emailed them.

What you should do instead

You should use slides to present data visualizations or bullet points displaying high-level ideas that you are going to use your speech or presentation time to explain.

You should do enough research on the topic of your speech or presentation to be able to speak off the top of your head about the topic if needed.

You should find someone to talk to about your topic and see what it feels and sounds like to speak about it in a normal conversation. For most speaking engagements, a conversational tone is what you should aim for because it will be most engaging for your audience.

Mistake #4: Lack of preparation OR over-preparation

I know this probably feels contradictory, but both extremes on the preparation scale can absolutely ruin an otherwise great speech or presentation.

First, let’s talk about lack of preparation. If you’ve ever taken a class that required an in-class presentation, you have 100% seen this in action. There’s always at least one person who thinks that they can just wing it without any research or practice.

This is a terrible idea for a variety of reasons, the biggest one being that you are more likely to misspeak, stumble over words, and ramble about unnecessary points if you are just winging it. This is a massive issue if the speech is timed and you have a certain number of topics you need to hit.

On the other hand, over-preparation can be just as ruinous. I’ve watched people practice their speeches for so long and have things so rehearsed that a cough from the audience or someone coming in late completely throws them off their game.

Much like the speakers who read directly from their notes or slides, these speakers also tend to speak in a monotone that comes off as disingenuous and can honestly be a little boring to listen to. Having a rigid plan for your talk also takes away the option to vary your delivery style if your audience ends up being bored or just has a different composition or energy than you expected.

What you should do instead

You should do enough research so that you could have a 5–10 minute conversation with someone about the topic. This will ensure that you are prepared enough to avoid looking sloppy without preparing so much that you absolutely lose it when the slide projector ends up being broken.

You should try to anticipate the common questions you think people will have about the topic. This will keep you from getting caught off-guard if there is a Q&A at the end of your talk or if someone wants to chat afterward.

You should record yourself (video is best, but audio works too) giving your speech at least once and you should listen to or watch the recording at least once to see how you sound. If you find yourself feeling bored while you are listening, I guarantee that your audience will be bored too. Use this opportunity to make adjustments as needed.