How to step up your public speaking game with the brilliance of pauses

Using pauses in your public speaking can be your best friend. It can be one of the most effective ways to improve your communication skills. Here are three ways to use them.

Barack Obama uses them all the time. Eddie Izzard is a master. His brilliant Death Star saga is both a masterpiece of storytelling and pauses as God, Darth Vader and catering manager, Mr Stevens fight it out over the penne arrabbiata.

 And some of the best music is precisely the best music because of how it uses them.

Pauses.

Presenting in front of an audience can kick start the instinctive urge you get when you first learn to swim. You know, that voice in your head warning if you even think of stopping you'll go under. Immediately.

But including regular pauses in your public speaking won't sink you. It'll make you fly.

Start with silence

Starting with a pause is a very powerful and commanding way to begin a talk. It adds gravitas. Boosts your executive presence.

As you're standing up there at the front, look around the audience. Smile. Stand still. Breathe.

Then, when you've the audience's attention leave a second or two of silence.

The first time you do this that voice in your head might panic but hold on. Your silence is settling the audience and signalling you're in charge. Keep smiling and then begin with a welcome and start speaking.

White Space

Pauses can also be used to support your audience. When you're speaking in public you're the expert of what you're about to say.

Although the audience knows the title of your talk, that's pretty much it. The words, the ideas, the stories you're about to tell, they're all new to the audience. And that's where pauses come in.

And they become a gift to your audience.

Here’s why.

Remember your first driving lesson? When you put the key in the ignition? How you felt when the car moved forward and it was you who was actually causing that?

I'm betting that how you were spoken to that day made a difference.

The person teaching you might have used pauses when they patiently explained the mass of information on driving.

This meant you could absorb all this new information. On the other hand you might have been met with a barrage of instructions, reeled off quickly, giving you no time to process what you were hearing.

Pauses give breathing space for others to understand what you've just said.

They act like white space on a page and create room around your words, an oasis in a desert.

Highlighting your words in neon

Pauses also help you emphasise a point.

Kids' story books have colourful illustrations to add life and is reinforced by the bright drawings. Pauses can do just the same for your talks.

Say you've three points you want your audience to remember.

Using pauses as you introduce each of these points adds a little intrigue and drama. It’s the equivalent of adding colour to your talk, in this case highlighting your words in neon.

Using pauses sparingly can accentuate your main talking points. And the result of this? It could be the difference between your audience being able to remember your talk or for it to disappear quickly from their memory.

So, when you're planning your next talk, think how you can use pauses to add more impact: before you start your talk, to give your audience time to absorb what you're saying and to emphasise your key points. And if improving your communication skills is something you’re interested in, check out my range of 1-1 programmes that help you do just that.