There is no such thing as a natural talent for public speaking!

During his last speech, Emmanuel Macron appeared on screen with notes that were widely commented on. The sheets were crossed out and annotated. Above all, they show an obvious fact that is too often forgotten... all speakers prepare their speeches!

The greatest speakers in history appear comfortable and confident when speaking in public. It seems natural, even innate. Somewhere in their DNA, they have a gene for eloquence. This is why, during his last speech, Emmanuel Macron's cards, full of annotations and corrections, were so surprising. We are not used to seeing the backstage of a public speech. We forget the hours spent writing, rewriting and rehearsing speeches. And if it seems natural that a musician or a top athlete would train for years to succeed in his or her performance, it is not so for a speaker.

REPEAT, REPEAT, REPEAT

However, the evidence is there, the more time a speaker spends preparing and rehearsing his or her speech in great detail, the better he or she will be on the day. In other words, being at ease in a business presentation, in front of your superiors for example, or in a speech in front of a large audience is not pure talent, it is the result of experience and practice. In the words of best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell: "You don't rehearse when you're good. It's because you rehearse that you are good.

This is confirmed by the work of psychologist Anders Ericsson. He has studied the habits of great athletes, such as Michael Jordan, and has drawn three conclusions. Firstly, they all repeat the same gestures thousands of times to master their discipline or art. Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin has popularised the 10,000-hour rule on this subject: "Across all disciplines, it can be concluded that 10,000 hours of practice are necessary to achieve a world-class level of mastery. He bases this rule on the fact that the more identical actions are repeated, the more certain neuronal connections consolidate, making it easier to master the exercise.

Secondly, and at the same time, the best athletes set themselves ever more difficult goals to achieve in order to continue to progress. Finally, at each stage of their learning process, they take into consideration the remarks, positive or negative, of outsiders. They confront criticism.

The method of the greatest speakers

These are exactly the practices of the best speakers. Winston Churchill worked for hours on his speeches, as his granddaughter, Celia Sandys, recalls in her book We shall not fail: "The art [of speaking] seems simple but it takes a lot of work. Rehearsal is essential, especially if you want your speech to sound natural. Similarly, Martin Luther King used to rewrite his notes late into the night with the help of several collaborators.

In the corporate world, the canonical example remains that of Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple. In 2006, Mike Evangelist, then Apple's director of video products, told the press that Steve Jobs used to rehearse for days before his most important speeches. In a recent book, Ken Kocienda, a former Apple engineer, looks back at the creative processes that made the American company successful and shows how Steve Jobs became a better speaker every day.

Anticipate!

One of his habits was to start as early as possible, as soon as he had some of the messages and ideas to share. He also spent hours preparing his visual aids. Very simple, with little text and often just a picture, it took a lot of work to prepare them to know what message they conveyed. Finally, he prepared "in real life conditions". His posture, his voice, his gestures and of course his words were rehearsed just like on the day, always asking for feedback from his teams.

Today, especially in companies, rehearsals are still too often neglected, and preparation is not done early enough. Of course, some people will always learn faster than others, but it is certain that the time spent practising public speaking is positively correlated with the success of the speech. Any speaker who wants to make an impression and be comfortable speaking must rehearse regularly and for many hours... this is probably the main key to success!