Think about the last time someone’s words changed your mind or moved you to act. Chances are, it wasn’t because they had a perfect slide deck or a polished delivery. Something else was happening. They were clear. They understood you. They made their point without wasting your time.
That’s what separates average speakers from good ones. Excellent ones, in some cases.
Speaking is a core skill for professionals who negotiate, lead teams, or need to persuade skeptical stakeholders. Not necessarily speaking louder or longer, but speaking in ways that build trust, drive decisions, and resonate.
The 15 characteristics of a good speaker that we cover in this article reflect patterns we see regularly in many different settings. Some are about preparation. Some are about presence in the room. All can be developed with practice.
If you want your ideas to land more consistently, start here.
What Makes a Good Speaker? The Top 15 Characteristics
The characteristics below fall into a few natural categories: how you prepare, how you deliver, and how you connect. None of them requires theatrical talent or an outgoing personality. They require intention and repetition.
Some will feel familiar. Others might challenge assumptions about what “good speaking” looks like. Consider which apply to your current work and which might be worth more attention.
1. Confidence
Often, audiences decide whether to trust you within the first few minutes of your address. Confidence signals that you believe what you’re saying and that your message deserves attention. Without it, even strong content falls flat.
Confidence doesn’t mean arrogance or bravado. It means you’ve prepared enough to stand behind your words. You know your material. You’ve anticipated questions. You trust yourself to handle what comes up.
If stage fright holds you back, start small. Practice in low-stakes settings. Record yourself and watch the playback. Get comfortable with the sound of your own voice, making a point.
2. Clarity
A confused audience stops listening. Clarity keeps them with you.
Strong speakers strip away unnecessary complexity. They use precise language, short sentences, and logical structure. They explain difficult concepts in terms their audience already understands.
To sharpen your clarity, outline your key points before you speak. Ask yourself: could a smart person outside my field follow along? Cut jargon. Replace abstract ideas with concrete examples. Say what you mean in the fewest words possible.
3. Passion
People pay attention to speakers who care about their subject. Passion creates energy. It signals that you find the topic worth their time.
You don’t need to shout or wave your arms. Genuine enthusiasm comes through in your word choice, your eye contact, and your willingness to go deeper on key points.
If you struggle to feel passionate about a topic, find the angle that connects to something you do care about. Maybe it’s the impact on people or the intellectual challenge. Locate that thread and speak from there.
4. Authenticity
Audiences can tell when someone is performing versus when they’re being real. Authentic speakers build trust faster because they come across as human, not scripted.
Drop the corporate voice. Speak the way you would to a respected colleague over coffee. Use your natural vocabulary. Share your honest perspective, including uncertainty when it’s relevant.
Authenticity also means letting your personality come through. If you’re naturally understated, don’t force high energy. Play to your strengths and let your credibility speak for itself.
5. Strong Body Language
Your body communicates before your words do. Posture, gestures, and facial expressions either reinforce your message or undermine it.
Stand with your weight balanced. Make eye contact with different parts of the room. Use hand gestures that feel natural rather than rehearsed. Avoid crossing your arms, fidgeting, or pacing without purpose.
Watch a video of yourself presenting if you can. Most people have blind spots about how they physically show up. Small adjustments can significantly change how an audience perceives your confidence and openness.
6. Storytelling Ability
Your audience will remember a well-chosen story long after they forget your statistics. Concrete narrative gives abstract points something to stick to.
A good story has a clear structure: context, tension, resolution. It features a specific person facing a specific challenge. It connects emotionally before it delivers the lesson.
You don’t need dramatic material. Everyday professional moments work well when you tell them with enough detail to make the audience feel present. Practice identifying which experiences from your work could illustrate the points you make most often.
7. Adaptability
No speech survives contact with a real audience exactly as planned. Good speakers adjust on the fly based on what they’re seeing and sensing in the room.
Maybe the audience looks confused. Perhaps they’re more advanced than you expected. Or possibly the energy is flat, and you need to shift gears. Adaptable speakers notice these signals and respond without losing their footing.
Build flexibility into your preparation. Know your material well enough that you can skip sections, expand on others, or take a detour if a question opens a better path. Rigidity creates distance. Responsiveness builds connection.
8. Active Listening
Speaking well requires listening well. Even in a formal presentation, you pick up cues from your audience that shape how you proceed.
Active listening becomes even more important in conversations, meetings, and negotiations. The best communicators pay close attention to what others say and respond to the substance of it. They don’t just wait for their turn to talk.
Practice summarizing what you heard before adding your perspective. Ask follow-up questions that show you understood. Listening earns you the right to be heard.
9. Humor and Wit
A light moment at the right time can shift the energy in the room. For example, if a technical presentation is losing the audience, a brief, self-aware acknowledgment—”I realize I’ve been deep in the weeds for ten minutes; let me surface”—can re-engage attention and make the next point land more cleanly.
You don’t need to tell jokes to use humor effectively, though. Wit tends to work better in professional settings because it signals intelligence without demanding a reaction. A wry observation, a moment of self-deprecation, or a callback to an earlier point in the conversation can build rapport without interrupting your momentum.
The only caution: forced humor backfires, and humor that diminishes others erodes the trust you’re trying to build.
10. Audience Awareness
Effective speakers tailor their message to the people in front of them. What does your audience already know? What do they care about? What concerns might they have about your topic?
Answering these questions before you speak allows you to meet people where they are. You can skip the basics for experts. You can address objections before they come up. You can frame your points in terms that resonate with their priorities.
Preparation matters here. Learn what you can about your audience ahead of time. If you’re speaking to a new group, ask questions before you dive in.
11. Vocal Variety and Tone Control
A monotone voice puts people to sleep regardless of how strong the content is. Variation in pitch, pace, and volume keeps audiences engaged and helps emphasize key points.
Slow down when you want something to land. Speed up slightly when the energy calls for it. Pause before an important idea to create anticipation. Lower your voice to draw people in.
Record yourself practicing and listen for flat spots. Most people have more vocal range than they use in professional settings. The range you use in conversation usually works in presentations too.
12. Persuasive Communication
Persuasion gets a bad reputation because people associate it with manipulation. But ethical persuasion simply means helping your audience see the value in your perspective.
Strong persuaders understand what their audience needs to hear. They anticipate objections and address them. They use evidence and logic while also connecting emotionally. They frame their points in terms of benefits to the listener.
Study how effective negotiators make their case. The principles transfer directly to speaking situations where you need buy-in, agreement, or action.
13. Command Over Language
Word choice matters. Precise language creates clarity. Sloppy language creates confusion and erodes credibility.
Build your vocabulary so you can select the right word for each situation. Eliminate filler words like “um,” “uh,” “like,” and “you know” that dilute your presence. Avoid jargon unless your audience speaks the same shorthand.
Read widely. Pay attention to how skilled writers and speakers construct their sentences. Practice speaking in complete, deliberate thoughts rather than stream-of-consciousness rambling.
14. Effective Use of Visuals and Aids
Slides and props can strengthen your message or compete with it. The difference depends on how you use them.
Visual aids should support your points, not replace your delivery. Keep slides simple. Use images and minimal text. Never read directly from the screen.
If something goes wrong with your technology, keep going without it. Your preparation and presence matter more than your slide deck. The best speakers can deliver their message with or without visual support.
15. Strong Conclusion and Call to Action
How you end determines what people remember. A weak close wastes everything that came before it.
Summarize your core message in a single, clear statement. Tell your audience what you want them to do with the information. Give them a specific next step or a question to consider.
Avoid trailing off or introducing new ideas at the end. Land your final point with conviction and then stop. Silence after a strong close is more powerful than extra words.
Keynote Speakers: Putting the Above Principles to Work
The 15 characteristics of a good speaker apply to anyone who speaks professionally. But keynote speaking raises the stakes. You’re addressing a larger audience, often setting the tone for an entire event, and your time on stage carries significant weight.
If you’ve been asked to deliver a keynote or you’re working toward that goal, the principles stay the same. It’s just that the execution requires more precision.
What Is a Keynote Speaker?
A keynote speaker opens or closes a conference, summit, or major event with a presentation designed to anchor the themes of the gathering. The keynote sets the tone, frames how attendees think about everything that follows, and creates something memorable.
Organizations hire keynote speakers for their expertise, their perspective, or their ability to inspire action around a specific topic. The role differs from a breakout session or workshop because the entire audience experiences it together. Everyone walks away with the same core message.
Keynote speakers typically have deep credibility in their field. They’ve done the work, led the teams, closed the deals, or conducted the research. Their authority comes from experience, and their job is to translate that experience into insight that the audience can use.
How to Be an Effective Keynote Speaker
Delivering an effective keynote address that resonates takes deliberate preparation. The principles below are a good starting point to hold the room.
- Anchor Everything to One Central Idea: Identify the single message you want people to remember and build your entire presentation around it. Cut anything that doesn’t directly support that idea, even if it seems interesting on its own.
- Structure for Effortless Comprehension: Open with something that earns attention. Move through your points in a sequence that builds logically. Close with a statement or challenge that your audience will carry with them after they leave.
- Rehearse, Rehearse, Reshearse: Large audiences amplify every hesitation and stumble, so keynotes demand polish. Know your material well enough that you can stay present in the room rather than mentally reaching for your next line.
- Let Your Slides Support, Not Compete: The audience came to hear you speak, not to read your deck. Keep visuals minimal and make sure they reinforce your words rather than distract from them.
The Aristotelian Method for Being a Better Keynote Speaker
Those tactical elements will sharpen your delivery. But underneath the structure and rehearsal, you need a framework for how you persuade and make an impact. Aristotle offered one 2,400 years ago that still works today: ethos, pathos, and logos. Effective keynotes balance all three.
- Ethos: Your credibility. Why should the audience trust you on this topic? Establish your ethos early through your introduction, your credentials, and the depth of insight you demonstrate. Ethos also comes through in how you carry yourself. Confident, prepared speakers earn trust quickly.
- Pathos: Your emotional connection. Facts alone don’t move people. Stories do. Specific moments do. Help your audience feel something about your topic, whether that’s urgency, curiosity, hope, or recognition of their own experience.
- Logos: Your logical argument. Your points should follow a clear structure. Your evidence should support your claims. Your reasoning should hold up to scrutiny. Audiences respect speakers who make sense.
Many weak keynotes tend to lean too heavily on one pillar and neglect the others. A speaker with strong credentials but no emotional connection feels distant. A speaker with great stories but shaky logic feels lightweight. A passionate speaker without credibility feels unconvincing.
Work on all three. Let them reinforce each other. The combination creates keynotes that inform, move, and persuade.
Become a Better Speaker
Good speaking isn’t only about talent. It’s about preparation, self-awareness, and the willingness to keep refining how you show up in front of others. The characteristics of a good speaker, as given above, give you a framework. What you do with them is up to you.
Pick one or two that feel like your biggest gaps. Focus there. Practice in real situations where the stakes are low enough to experiment. Then move to the next area.
The people who speak well weren’t born that way. They put in the reps. They asked for feedback. They studied what worked and dropped what didn’t.
The same approach applies to any professional setting. Meetings, presentations, and routine conversations all offer low-risk opportunities to test and refine these skills.
And if you’re planning an event where the right speaker could change the energy in the room, learn how a keynote speech can transform the experience.
