We Need To Watch Others In Order To Become Better Ourselves

We can talk about how to give better speeches until we’re blue in the face, but in the end it’s what we see that will really change how we give speeches. With that thought in mind I’d like to share with you a critique of a keynote speech that I had a chance to see the other day. Listen and learn from the efforts of others…

What The Speaker Did Right

Anyone who gets picked to deliver a keynote has got to be a good speaker, right? This speaker was a good speaker and it showed in a number of the ways that he gave his speech.

His work experience came from the gas and oil exploration industry. What this meant is that he had a lot of very good stories. However, that’s only the half of it – he was also a very good story teller. Throughout his speech he worked in personal stories that reinforced the point that he was making. Soon the audience was anticipating his next story.

His delivery style came across as being strong and confidant. His voice boomed out from the podium and there was no problem hearing him as he spoke. Clearly he had given this speech before and his delivery style was polished, not hesitant.

As he gave his speech, he looked at and spoke to the audience. He may have been using notes, but it sure didn’t show. His eyes remained on the audience during the entire speech and every member of the audience was left with the feeling that the speaker had been talking directly to him during the entire time.

What The Speaker Did Wrong

No speech or speaker is ever perfect and, of course, this speaker was no exception. One of the biggest mistakes that he made was that he was unsure of where to stand during his speech.

The stage setup was a bit unusual for this speech. The podium was off to the left of the stage and the rest of the stage was taken up by a row of chairs that had tables in front of them – it was set for a panel discussion.

The speaker desperately wanted to pace while he was talking. This is exactly what he ended up doing. However, from the audience it was a bit odd to see the speaker walking back and forth behind a row of chairs and tables. What he should have done was to remain behind the podium so that we would not have been distracted.

What to do with your hands is always a question that every speaker has to deal with. This speaker did an effective job of using his hands to make gestures that supported what he was saying. However, when he wasn’t making gestures he had the bad habit of putting his hands into his pockets. I was sitting off to the side and this was pretty distracting.

Finally, although the speech was good, the ending seemed rushed. We were traveling along at 60 miles-per-hour and then all of a sudden we pulled off to the side of the road and stopped — the speech was over. The speaker needed to have done a better job of winding the speech down and making his final points.

What This Means For You

As speakers, we would do well to learn from the efforts of other speakers. Every time we see someone else give a speech, we should watch them carefully and take good notes.

In the case of the keynote speaker that I had an opportunity to watch, he did a number of things very well. Chief among these were the compelling stories that he told – when he was doing this he was able to completely hold the audience’s attention.

There were several areas that he could have improved on. The one that stood out the most was the fact that he didn’t know where to stand while giving his speech – he ended up pacing back and forth behind chairs on the stage which was very distracting.

No speech is ever perfect. We’d all like to find ways to make our next speech be better than the one that we gave last time. One of the best ways to make this happen is to take the time to truly watch other speakers do their best to deliver a speech. By learning from others we can become better ourselves…

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™

Question For You: Do you think that you should ever offer suggestions on how to improve to a speaker that you’ve just gotten done watching?

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Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Getting up in front of an audience to give a speech can be a nerve racking experience. If most of the members of that audience are under the age of 10, it can be downright terrifying. There’s no reason to fear the younger set, you just need to adjust both your speech and how you give it in order to be successful. I’m going to tell you how to do both…

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1. Life Lessons: How NOT To Open A Speech Let’s say that you owned a lot of real estate....
2. The 4 Parts Of Your Speaking Style That You Need To Control Speakers who are facing a challenging speech or challenging audience...

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The Best Speeches Contain The Stories That You Can Dig Up From Your Life

Congratulations – you’ve been asked to give a speech. Got one to give? Unless someone has asked you to deliver a speech that you’ve already given multiple times, you’re probably in the spot that most speakers find themselves all too often – standing in the middle of tracks while the train known as your speaking date comes racing towards you. What’s an accidental communicator to do?

What Makes A Speech Memorable

Let’s all agree on one thing first: if your speech is not memorable, then it’s really not worth giving. Starting from that point, you may start to feel some pressure – how the heck are you going to make your next speech memorable?

It turns out that there are a lot of ways to do this; however, the simplest way to do it is to work more of “you” into your speech. This means that you’ve got to find ways to share just exactly what makes you you with your audience. This boils down to one thing: you need to tell your audience some of your stories.

As I think back over all of the speeches that I’ve had an opportunity to listen to over my life, the handful that really stand out are the ones in which the speaker did a good job of sharing. You’ve got to remember that before they opened their mouth, I didn’t know anything about them. However, the personal stories that they told were so engrossing that they hooked me – I not only listened, but I’ve remembered their stories over the years since they spoke.

How To Go About Uncovering Your Stories

Fantastic you say, but I don’t have any stories to tell. Or at least no stories that anyone is going to want to hear. I hear you there – once upon a time I thought the same thing.

It turns out that your life story is a great story that, told well, everyone will want to hear. Now, you’ve been asked to give a speech and no, they haven’t really asked you to come and spend the time talking about yourself. However, adding your personal stories to the speech will make any speech have more impact.

One of the reasons that incorporating your personal stories into a speech can lend so much impact what you are saying is because you were there – you actually lived what you are talking about. This means that when you explain what happened, you will describe it using words that will build a vivid mental image for your audience.

Additionally, as you tell your story your body language will naturally synch with your words. This means that your audience will be getting a reinforcing message from your body even as you speak.

What All Of This Means To You

All too often when we get asked to deliver a speech we focus on doing the research needed to create a good speech but we neglect to do what it takes to make a great speech. A great speech is one that includes more of our personal content in it.

In order to personalize a story, we need to include more of our own stories. This means that we need to spend some time thinking about the things that have happened in our lives that would support the topic that we’ll be speaking on.
Speakers who can work their personal stories into a speech are the ones that will make a lasting impact. As long as you are going to go to the effort of giving a speech, doesn’t this seem like a good thing to do?

- Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills

Question For You: Do you think that it might be possible to work too much of your personal story into a speech?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Communicator Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

I think that it was Bruce Springsteen who in his song “57 Channels (and Nothin’ On)” lamented that although he now had access to 500 channels, there really was nothing on that he wanted to watch. Well of course not, you weren’t on TV yet. However, in the very near future this may all change…

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The Best Way To Become A Better Speaker Is To Ask A Pro

Happy New Year! As we start yet another a new year, you may be asking yourself what is the best way for me to become a better public speaker this year? Taking a crash course in which you immerse yourself in all of the subtle tricks of effective speaking is one way. Giving a million speeches and then studying how both yourself and your audience reacted is another.

The problem with both of these approaches is that they take time. Too much time. A much better way to quickly improve is to find a professional speaker who is doing it right and ask them how they do it…

Meet A Pro

Shawn Doyle has been a professional speaker for over 19 years. During that time he’s made mistakes. Lots of mistakes. The good news for you is that he took the time to remember what he did wrong and made sure that he never repeated a mistake.

He’s come up with his list of the “top 10” things that you just can’t learn in a class. Instead, these are the speaking lessons that all professional speakers end up learning on the road. Since you are reading this, just maybe you’ll learn them here and you won’t have to learn them the hard way!

10 Tips For Giving A Professional Speech

1. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare: I’m going to bet that I’ve fooled you on this one: I’m not talking about practicing saying your speech. Instead, I’m talking about taking the time to know your audience: how old are they, what do they do for a living, what are they expecting from you.
2. Become A Space-Man: The effectiveness of your speech will be heavily influenced by where you end up giving it. The room, the lighting, the sound system, etc. will all play a role in determining if you are able to connect with your audience. You need to arrive early and check out the room where you’ll be speaking. It will be too late to make any changes if you show up just before you go on.
3. It’s All In The Opening: Welcome to the age of instant-everything. We can download movies, cook a complete dinner in a microwave in minutes, and purchase almost anything over the Internet. If the opening for your speech is long, slow, and boring then you’ll lose your audience right off the bat. You need to grab them at the start and never let go.
4. Talk With Your Hands: When you are giving a speech, your hands are an incredibly powerful communication tool that you can use to boost the impact of your speech. If you are holding on to something (a pen, a piece of paper) while you talk, then your ability to use this tool is greatly diminished. Keep ‘em free!
5. Stop Hiding Behind PowerPoint: Ouch! This one probably hits all of us hard. We’ve worked hard to make a great set of slides and we love to use them. Stop! You are the presentation, not your slides. Don’t use PowerPoint if you can get away with it or use it sparingly if you have to. Don’t hide behind your slides.
6. Go For A Walk: All too often speakers will plant themselves behind a lectern and stay there during your entire speech. If you do this, then you will have missed an opportunity to engage your audience by moving around. Use your entire body and where you are standing to emphasize the point that you are currently making.
7. Use Your Own Stories: Forget those “Chicken Soup For The …” books, when you use someone else’s story it comes out much weaker than when you tell your own story. Doyle suggests that you use the following formula for creating and telling a story: story + moral + how it relates to the topic = great story.
8. Never, Ever, Apologize: Too often speakers spend much of their speech apologizing for a wide variety of things: the room being too cold, their slides not being in the right order, etc. Stop it! When you apologize, your audience starts to see you in a different light — a negative light. Just skip the apology and move on.
9. You Must Believe To Achieve: In order for your speech to have an impact on your audience, they are going to have to believe that you believe what you are saying. If you are just mouthing words that you don’t fully buy into, then you will come across as insincere and your message will have no lasting impact.
10. Think About Your Audience: All too often we write the speeches that we’d like to hear. The problem with this is that we are not necessarily the same as our audience. Your speech must be about your audience and what they want, not about you and what you want.

What All This Means For You

As long as you are going to go to the effort of creating and delivering a speech, you may as well do a good job of it. The challenge that we all face is finding ways to become better at giving our speeches so that we can have a greater impact on our audience.

There are a lot of different ways to go about improving our skills; however, one of the simplest and best ways is to get guidance from professionals who have already gone out there and learned the lessons that you want to know.

I’ve listed 10 suggestions from a pro that should go a long way in helping you to avoid making some of the more common mistakes that speakers make. Read, learn, and get out there and speak like a pro!

Do you think that you could feel comfortable giving a speech without using any PowerPoint slides?

Click here to get automatic updates when The Accidental Communicator Blog is updated.

What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time

Just how does one become a better public speaker? I mean let’s be serious here, you do want to get better, don’t you? Good news — I’m going to tell you how (and it’s free!) …

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