One of the most terrifying things to do is to give a speech. Believe you me, I have gone through it ; I actually fainted when I had to give an impromptu speech to qualify for a certificate in the Dale Carnegie course I took.

Yes , even those who have prepared their speeches well do get nervous. Therefore those who don’t make sense are he ones who would suffer the most.

You know that you are off the mark when nobody is listening to your speech. They fidget, talk to each other and some even walk off.

That does not say much for your eloquence

What went wrong ?

First, you did not create a good impression with your body language. This is most important because that is the first contact you have with the listeners. And this includes having a steady, audible voice.

Second, you did not talk in terms of the listeners. You had a message that may have been well-written but it was not delivered to the listener’s doorstep. In other words , you did not address the listeners’ interests. You probably spoke about your organisation and yourself to promote your own agenda.

Third, your message may have been muddled. There was no core message but many issues were spoken about. The audience was left wondering “what is this all about”.

Fourth, you might have said something that was not politically correct. Could it have been a matter of race ,religion , politics or gender?

Fifth, you could have been too personal with he audience. People like friendly speakers but they feel threatened if they get too close.

Sixth, you could have used poor English or Mandarin or whatever language you were delivering your message in. Poorly written speeches mean poor messages.

Lastly, you could have presented an unbalanced message that was tilted in your organisation’s favour. Unless it was a necessarily defensive speech as in the case of damage control, listeners don’t want propaganda.

These are some of the mistakes you could make. The best way is to learn from experience.