How to Get the Feedback You Need to Boost Your Speaking Confidence
Do you ask for feedback when you've delivered a presentation? Or are you just so glad it’s over and done with that you prefer never to think of it again, let alone hear what anyone else thought of your talk!
We often view feedback as something negative and automatically assume that it will mean criticism (however “constructive” that might be.)
But if you really want to improve your speaking skills, feedback is vital. It’s one of the best ways to learn, improve and become an even more confident speaker as you figure out the tweaks you can make, so each presentation is better than the last.
Are you getting the right type of feedback?
Now, if you’re saying to yourself, “well, I always make sure to ask someone what they thought of my presentation, so I don’t need to read on…” Hold on a moment. There’s feedback, and then there’s valuable feedback. And I’m going to dedicate the rest of this article to sharing some tips for you to create a process for gathering effective, actionable feedback to enhance your presentation skills.
This article is the final post of a 3-part series to help you deliver more polished, powerful presentations. If you’ve not caught the first two instalments yet, you can read them here:
1. Your 5-Step Guide to Planning Powerful Presentations
2. 4 Key Things to Focus on When Practising Your Presentation or Speech
Start by evaluating yourself - objectively!
The simplest way to create a feedback loop is to record yourself delivering your speech or presentation and then watch it back. If you’re cringing at the thought of this then trust me, you’re not alone. So many of my clients feel uncomfortable when I suggest this, but let’s approach it in a slightly different way. Instead of just watching the recording from behind your hands, ready to berate yourself for how awful you are, start with a list and a plan. Create a checklist of things you want to look out for as you speak. For example:
What’s your eye contact like?
Are there too many “filler words” (umms, ahs, etc.)
Do you have good vocal variety?
Using an objective list of points like this to guide you means you’ll get specific, useful insights from the exercise that you can put into action straight away.
To help you create your own tailored feedback checklist, download my Complete Guide to Presentations Feedback here.
Ask someone else for feedback
Once you’ve used your checklist to self-evaluate your presentation, it’s time to seek a second opinion. But not after the event where you deliver your speech. The best way to tackle this is to be proactive.Have a word with a trusted colleague beforehand and say something like, "I'm trying to improve my presentation skills. Could you spare some time to look at my delivery and see what you think I might improve on or let me know anything specific that comes across well?” (That second part is important, don’t always assume that you’re not already getting a lot of your presentation right!)You could also let them borrow your objective checklist to help guide their feedback. Or ask them to look at specific aspects of your presentation:
Was your opening memorable?
Were they engaged and drawn in by the story you shared?
What message did they take away from it?
This also takes the pressure off the person you’ve asked to help you. Once they know the particular areas you’re trying to improve, they’re more likely to give you honest, actionable feedback rather than just saying, “yeah, that was excellent, well done,” because they’re worried about offending you with their observations!
Don’t try to fix everything at once
You decide what you want to get feedback on, but keep it simple. Ask your feedback partner to focus on 2 or 3 key things instead of presenting them with a long list of things to watch out for.
And then work on one element at a time. Get that right and be happy with it before moving on to the next. We’re going for small steps and steady progress rather than trying to do everything at once and ending up overwhelmed and frustrated.
Two (or three, or even four) heads are better than one
If you ask two or three people for feedback, you might get different assessments from them on various aspects of your presentation. For example, one person might really like your opening, another might be less keen, but that’s ok. People have different opinions, and we can't please all of the people all of the time.
But if you’re getting consistent feedback on one particular thing, maybe that you were mumbling a little bit when you spoke, your voice dropped at the end of the sentences, or there was a point you made that wasn’t clear. That’s something to look at and see what you could do differently next time. Keep fine-tuning and adjusting until you’re happy with it.
Change your perspective on feedback to unlock your speaking confidence
It can be nerve-wracking to be vulnerable and ask for feedback, but if you use the tips I’ve mentioned here to guide you, you’ll come away with effective, objective intel you can use to improve your presentations and feel more confident every time you step up to speak.
I work with professionals, business owners and teams to help them increase their influence with effective communication. If you’d like to learn more or are interested in working with me, let’s set up a call to discuss how I can help you unlock your speaking confidence.