One of the most challenging areas of speaking is impromptu speaking. You may be asked to speak for 30 seconds, or two minutes, and it could happen at any time. A friend is currently coaching a senior executive in Shanghai after the executive messed up when he was asked to speak at an event without any warning. That’s the thing about impromptu speaking: You don’t get any notice.
There are usually a few areas to work on.
One is language fluency. If you’re not accustomed to putting your thoughts into a coherent order and expressing your ideas in the relevant language, it’s going to be tough. This is a skill that native speakers can find challenging, so if you’re not a native speaker, it can be that extra difficult. The solution is simple though: Spend time speaking more and faster so the connections in your mind between the words, ideas and to say them, are highways rather than horse tracks. Prepare and practise.
Another area is having something to say. Here, having opinions and being knowledgeable helps a lot, so that when someone asks your opinion of something, you have something to say. Another activity that helps is associating with people with whom you politely disagree so you can polish your skills of persuasion, debate and repartee. It is lamentable that so many people have no opinions, ideas or original (even original-sounding!) thought… Prepare and practise.
The other day, I was asked about my opinion on a current political issue. Having opinions about most things but knowing that the issue is sensitive to many people, I formulated a very short response that was respectful while offering an actual opinion. They responded with little more than a ‘wow!’ – while they thought that they might sound ‘intelligent’ when they brought up such a topic, they didn’t realize that I really would have something to say and didn’t have any opinion to add to the conversation!
Of course, there are some people who are talented at saying nothing yet sounding like they are. I grew up with my family doing it. One of the guys from Shanghai Leadership Toastmasters is gifted in this area. If you can bounce ideas around with people like this, you will force yourself to get sharp!
In general, for improved impromptu speaking you can probably see that the solutions are obvious: Prepare and practice.
