Do you speak with Clarity?

Posted By on June 12, 2012

When addressing an audience, do you make your point simply? Are you unambiguous? Concise? If so, one of your Speaking Strengths™ is “Clarity.”

Speaking Strength: Clarity – Unambiguous, concise

Speaking with clarity is harder than it looks. You must do the work instead of your audience having to decipher your point.

To speak with Clarity, you must take complex ideas and convey them in language that your audience understands regardless of age or background.

Start by using plain English. Avoid technical terms and industry jargon.

Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, was famous for his obtuse reports to congress. Watch this classic video of Mr. Greenspan addressing Congress in “Fedspeak”:

Phew!

Don’t be lured into thinking that using “industry speak” will make you seem knowledgeable, authoritative or smart. It won’t.

Use imagery,  metaphors, similes and analogies to tie into experiences and ideas already familiar to your audience.

Use short, simple, direct sentences.

Explain Simply

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." Albert Einstein

Remember what Einstein said

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” Albert Einstein

Speaking for impact is not an accident. It’s a skill. Speaking with Clarity is something you can develop. Building your speaking skills takes time.  It takes effort.  And the practice is well worth the investment.

Share your thoughts

What public figure do you feel exemplifies the speaking strength “Clarity”? Post your favorites as comments to this post and I’ll share my thoughts, too. Feel free to include a link to a video or podcast of your speaker, too.

Top Ten Speaking Strengths™

Top Ten Speaking Strengths™

Register to request a copy of all ten Speaking Strengths.


Share

Do you dread impromptu speaking?

Posted By on May 15, 2012

Microphone

Here's the mic

I was speaking with a client this morning who told me his boss was a superb speaker.  In fact, he said, there are times it makes him jealous.  My client said he is witness to his boss jotting notes on cue cards for 15 minutes, only to take the stage a few minutes later and proceed to mesmerize an audience of 400 people for 45 minutes.

This skill has been cultivated.

Most leaders will need to work hard to achieve this level of impromptu speaking skill.  The more energy, commitment and investment you put into working on your speaking skills, the bigger the pay off. Like my client’s boss, you want to be at the top of your game!

Here are a few tips to help you to seize the moment when you feel the moment has seized you!

Impromptu Speaking Tips:

  • Take a moment to think. Consider your audience. Who are they? Why are they in the room? What interests them? What observations have you made during the time you’ve been with the group thus far? What insights, facts or observations might you share?
  • What result(s) do you most want to have happen as a result of your communication?  Do you want to inspire the audience? Inform them? Persuade them?
  • Identified a message that supports your result and will tie into the audience’s interest and reason for being there. Draw upon what’s been said by speakers who have spoken before you or an upcoming portion of the program, a strange occurrence or interruption in the proceedings.
  • Put the message into a story. Jot down your key points in the order you want to make them. A napkin, 3×5 card, or sheet of paper will do. Use large lettering so you can see it at a glance.
  • Choose one of the Top Ten Speaking StrengthsTM you have to emphasize during your delivery.
  • Keep it short. It is worth remembering what Dorothy Sarnoff famously said: “Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening.”

Just like my client’s boss, these few minutes of preparation will pay off. You’ll have a relevant message that is well organized and interesting to the group.

Remember, speaking for impact is not an accident. It’s a skill. If you want to sharpen your speaking skills, attend our seminar, Speaking for Impact, or call about private coaching. We’ll be glad to help you up your game!

Share your thoughts

What do you do when you are asked to speak on-the-spot? Share your experiences – good and bad – and any tips others may find helpful by posting a comment to this post.

Share

“Yeah, but…”

Posted By on April 13, 2012

People Conversing

Constructive Conversing

I was at a party recently chatting with a small group of people when a new person entered the group, listened for a moment and then said “yeah, but…” As you might imagine, the group was ever-so-slightly put off. Why? Because “Yeah, but” is language that sets up opposition.

“Yeah, but I hear “yeah but” everywhere!”

It is pretty pervasive.  On the face of it, it seems to be an easy way to contribute.  And, if opposition is your intention then “yeah but” may be an acceptable opening gambit, however you might want a more classy way to oppose such as a forthright: “I disagree with you” or “You have a point and I have another point of view which I will put forward.”

Here are some tips on how to enter a conversation in a more constructive way.

Constructive Openers:

Build on the point(s) already made.  For example:  “You make a good point, John, and I have had that experience also; and in addition I have found xxx has also been an important way to move forward.”  This type of “building on an idea” allows you to move the conversation forward. This way you are seen as furthering, rather than hijacking, the conversation.

Another option is to expand upon what has already been said. For example “You make a good point about. . . .  which reminds me of. . .” or “Reflecting on how we started this conversation, I’d like to talk about. . .” or “I’ve had the same experience that you described and found . . . . helpful”.

Here are some constructive phrases for entering a conversation:

“I’d like to expand on . . . ”

“Yes, and. . . ”

“Reflecting on what you just said. . . ”

“My own view is that”

“Many people assume that. . . ”

“On the one hand. . .  One the other hand. . . ”

“This issue is important because. . . ”

“What are your thoughts on. . . ”

“A recent (article, movie, interview, book. . .) made the point that. . . what are your thoughts on that?”

Speaking Tip: Avoid Oppositional Phrases:

“No, . .”

“But, . . .”

“Yeah, but. . .”

“Not really. . .”

“I don’t think so. . .”

“You may be right. . .”

“Don’t you think. . .”

“Don’t you know. . .”

Remember, speaking for impact is not an accident. It’s a skill.

Update: This Forbes article shares more advice on business networking: Non-Awkward Ways To Start And End Networking Conversations

Share your thoughts

Constructive professional conversation is a valuable executive speaking skill. What are your pet peeve phrases you hear in the course of professional communication? Share them in a comment to this post.

Share

Speaking Tip: Your mother was right

Posted By on March 13, 2012

“Speak up!”, “Don’t mumble!”. Did you hear these words when you were growing up? If so, your mother was right. Poor enunciation and projection render otherwise good communication ineffective. When you speak, you want to be heard – literally. If you speak softly or do not enunciate clearly, your audience may not hear your message.

You may recall the “Moses Supposes” routine from the movie “Signing in the Rain”. Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor meet with a voice coach to practice enunciating by reciting tongue twisters.  When you enunciate, each word and syllable is given its due. Words are distinct from each other and you want to make it easy for your audience to distinguish between similar sounding words. The key:  open your mouth, form the words, and form the syllables that make up the word!

To achieve vocal projection allow yourself to breathe fully, into your diaphragm. Your breath gives support for a stronger vocal projection. Breath powers the voice.

Here are two useful exercises you can use right away to improve your enunciation and your vocal projection:

To improve clarity:

  • Practice tongue twisters. Tongue twisters help with enunciation and clarity of speech, so you don’t stumble over your words when making an important point. ‘She sells sea shells by the sea shore,’ works well, but here are a few others:
    • Moses supposes his toeses are roses, but Moses supposes erroneously. For Moses he knowses his toeses aren’t roses, as Moses supposes his toeses to be
    • Red leather, yellow leather, black blood, blue blood
    • Three tree dwellers
    • Cinnamon Synonym
    • Betty bought a bit of butter but the bit of butter Betty bought was bitter so Betty bought a bit of better butter to make the bitter butter better

    For more tongue twisters, check out this blog post Tongue Twisters for Actors by acting coach Mark Westbrook

To improve your vocal projection:

  • Practice speaking from your diaphragm. Find the little triangle of soft space between your ribs and place your palm flat on that spot. Then say ‘Hah!’ If your hand does not move, you’re not speaking from your diaphragm and your voice is coming out in a thin ribbon of sound instead of a powerful room-filling projection. Try it again. If you’re speaking from your diaphragm effectively, your hand should actually jump up a little bit from your midsection as you say ‘Hah!’

Speaking for impact is not an accident. It’s a skill. Enunciation and vocal projection are core presentation skills and public speaking skills. For these and more exercises, please register to download a handy reference card “Vocal Warm Ups”.

Vocal Warm Up Exercises

Vocal Warm Up Exercises

You can keep the card in your briefcase or speech folio where it will be handy before your next presentation.

Share your thoughts

To be affected by what you say, people need to hear it. Practice enunciating and projecting and notice the effect. Then share your results in a comment on this post.

 

Share

Are you giving a “Best Picture” performance?

Posted By on February 28, 2012

The Artist movie

"The Artist"ldflj

Are you giving a “Best Picture” performance? The Academy Award-winning silent-era-style movie, The Artist, truly underscores that powerful movements and expressions create impact. What did the actors in this movie communicate? Joy, anguish, enthusiasm, worry, fear, despair. Even Uggie, the little dog demonstrated the power of purposeful movement as he hustled down the street to get help to save the life of his owner, George Valentin.

What are you “saying” with your body language? How powerful is your facial animation?

Take a good hard look at your body language by video recording your next presentation or speech. Watch the recording and notice whether your facial expressions, gestures and movements are purposeful and consistent with your message. Are they improving or diminishing your impact?

When coaching professionals, we help them to leverage body language to elevate their impact. Remember, speaking for impact is not an accident. It’s a skill. Effective use of body language is a core presentation skill and public speaking skill.

Share your thoughts

If you saw the movie “The Artist”, what impressed you about the actors’ use of body language?

In preparing for a speech or presentation, have you practiced your gestures, facial expressions and movements to identify those that are most effective?

Share you observations in a comment to this post.

Share

Speaking Tip: Reception is crucial in football and in speaking!

Posted By on February 3, 2012

Reception. It’s crucial in football and in speaking.

Receiver poised to catch football

Reception is Critical in Football and Speaking

When the quarterback passes the football, the goal is for the ball to be received. The same is true when you speak. You make your point and the audience needs a moment to receive what you say. This is why the skillful practice of the “pause” is so valuable.

We call it the “Power of the Pause.”

 

Speaking Tip:  The Power of the Pause

Deliver a key point and allow your words to linger for a few moments.  Think of your words sailing – just like a football – through the air. The words need to meet their destination and allow those listeners a moment to “receive” your point. You will actually see the light in the audience’s eyes when your pass is received.

Use this tip to build pauses into your remarks and watch your impact improve. Remember, speaking for impact is not an accident. It’s a skill. Effective use of the pause is a core presentation skill and public speaking skill.

Share your thoughts

Did this exercise prove helpful for you? Have your found other useful tips for mastering the Power of the Pause? Please share your experiences and tips for improving speaking skills by commenting on this post.

Share

Speak Often – It’s good for business, great for your career

Posted By on January 14, 2012

Speaking at Conferences

Speaking at Conferences

Sharing your experience and expertise with industry peers is good for business and great for your career. Each year thousands of trade shows and conferences are held covering virtually every topic, industry and profession. These events provide you the chance to build your reputation as well as the reputation of the company or organization you represent by giving a keynote, a speech, or participating on a panel.

Of course, the quality of your content and delivery will determine just how valuable your contribution turns out to be. Good speakers are often asked back and receive invitations to present at other events. Your opportunities will grow when you build your speaking reputation.  Honing your speaking skills to maximize your impact can be invaluable.

Start now.

  • Develop a core list of topics you are comfortable addressing and develop speaking points for each.
  • Begin to explore speaking opportunities for those topics.
  • Once you secure a slot, develop a schedule for preparation. Include time to develop your remarks; practice and revise; and for at least one dry-run.
  • Use video to help identify areas for improvement.
  • Consider getting a presentation coach to help you prepare.

Subscribe to this blog and enjoy proven speaking tips and advice. Remember, speaking for impact is not an accident. It’s a skill. Stellar presentation skills and public speaking skills will help you advance in your career.

Share your thoughts

Are you planning to speak at an industry event this year? How will you prepare? Share your approach by commenting on this post.

Share

New Year’s Resolutions with a Twist

Posted By on January 1, 2012

Planning for 2012Our fresh take on classic New Year’s resolutions will help you communicate effectively as an executive and leader and to succeed in 2012. Sticking to these speaking tips will keep your communications sharp and clear and your team inspired, aligned and focused on the goals you’ve set for the year. Whether speaking during a meeting, giving a speech, addressing a customer or pitching an investor, the quality of your delivery matters.

Download the free poster. From all of us here at Grant and Associates, we sincerely hope you find these resolutions inspiring as you plan for a successful 2012.

2012 Communications Resolutions

This year resolve to:

1.    Get in Shape – Build your speaking “muscles” with regular exercise. Technique matters (perfecting poor skills is worse than not practicing at all!). Work with a professional coach privately or in a program such as our Speaking for Impact program. Practice weekly. Even 10 minutes three times per week will produce results.

2.    Lose Weight – Lighten up by using fewer words. Try this simple tip: state your points aloud 3 times in advance. You’ll trim, on average, 30% of the words. Remember, short is sweet. No one ever complains that a speech or remarks are too brief!

2012 Communiations Resolutions by Grant and Associates

2012 Communications Resolutions

3.    Stick to a Budget – Setting and adhering to a time budget for a speech or presentation will reduce stress, increase your confidence, ensure your points are all made and provide adequate time for questions/answers. Include time for your opening statement, summary and closing statement as well as your main points and Q&A. Practice and, if necessary edit your remarks, until you can comfortably and reliably deliver them on budget.

4.    Get Organized – Prepare. While it sounds basic, it is common for people to “wing it.”  Don’t make this mistake. Organize your thoughts in advance. Try this simple exercise: take 10 minutes before your next meeting to identify your key points and put them in priority order. Write them down. Have evidence to support each and a story or analogy to help drive them home. Practice making your points aloud. You’ll

be delighted by how much more effective – and efficient – you will be in the meeting. For a speech or presentation, you can follow the same basic structure but allow more time to write/refine remarks, practice them and finalize the timing.

5.    Find a Better Job – Excellent speaking skills will help to generate new career opportunities and to secure a position you want. It is no accident that most senior executives and leaders are good – even great – speakers. Continuous cultivation throughout your life is an investment in your career. We work with many CEOs to up their game. They know that no matter how good they already are, they can get better. Follow their lead!

Take a positive step toward reaching your goal of becoming a superior communicator in 2012!

While on the subject of resolutions, Harvard Business Review bloggers John Coleman and Bill George share their Five Resolutions for Aspiring Leaders in their recent post. My personal favorite: ask more questions than you answer. You can follow John and Bill on Twitter @johnwcoleman and @bill_george

If you would like to elevate your speaking and media skills, consider coaching for you or your team. Our firm works with professionals both individually and in groups.  If you prefer private one-to-one coaching we offer our Executive Presence program. Our popular seminar, Speaking for Impact is available as a private program for your team or in a public seminar offered in cities around the country. We’d be delighted to work with you.

Share your thoughts

We hope you enjoy these free top five communications resolutions. Speaking for Impact is not an  accident. It’s a skill. For more presentation tips to sharpen your presentation skills and public speaking skills, check out other Speaking for Impact blog posts. Stellar communication skills pay off in income, opportunity and achievement. We’re confident they will help you succeed in 2012.

How do you plan to elevate your speaking skills in 2012? What are your communications resolutions? Tell us in a comment to this post.

Share

Rapid Speak is a Liability

Posted By on December 5, 2011

Rapid Speak” gets a lot of people in trouble. What is rapid speak? Speaking uncomfortably fast for the listener.

A number of years ago, FedEx ran a famous, amusing commercial that illustrates the tension produced by rapid speak.

For some, rapid speech is their natural speed.

For others, it’s a by product of anxiety.

And for some, it’s a way of compensating for being less prepared or being unsure of the content of their remarks.

It is never good when speaking to a group. Your friend or colleague may find it invigorating but in a group there will be more who find it annoying, exhausting, overwhelming or ineffective. You will undermine your “command” of the room and almost certainly reduce the content people can remember from your remarks.

So where do you start?

Listen

Record yourself and listen to the recording. Identify new or different opportunities to slow down, add pauses for emphasis or cut content. Use whatever recording device you carry with you – Smartphone, small handheld video cam, or Smartpen. All you need is the audio.

Use the audio recording when trying the following exercises:

Set a 10% goal

Consciously slow down your normal speech by 10-15%. Before you answer the phone, greet someone, or respond to or ask a question deliberately slow your speech just a little bit. This exercise will help you to be conscious of your rate of speech and slow down your delivery. The more you practice, the more control you will have over your rate of speech.

Mirror a friend

Find a friend who speaks at a normal or somewhat slow pace. Have you both read, simultaneously, the first few sentences of your remarks.  Your job is to match your pace to your partner’s. You’ll be amazed at how hard it actually is!

Place the Pause

Before your next presentation or meeting, identify specific places in your presentation where you will pause.  And practice those pauses. For example, insert a brief pause at the end of a sentence. Pause prior to making your important point as it will serve to emphasize your important point. Listen to the recording and adjust the location of your pause reminders to create the greatest impact.

Go short

Practice delivering prepared remarks at a slower-than-usual pace. Time your delivery. If you find your remarks are too long to cover in the allotted time at the new, slower pace, cut down your content. Less information delivered at a digestible pace will be more effective than more information delivered at record speed.

Remember, speaking for impact is not an  accident. It’s a skill. Follow these tips to sharpen your presentation skills and public speaking skills.

Share your thoughts

Then let me know how things changed by making a comment on this post. What was the impact of slowing down?

Share

Executives – Get Ready for Video

Posted By on November 7, 2011

John Chambers Corporate Video

John Chambers Video Introducing New Product

More and more executives are inquiring about training for video presentations. Organizations are using YouTube, video interviews, webcasts and website videos to reach a wide audience with key company messages delivered personally by the corporate leaders.

If you’ve done some video you know it’s not as easy as it looks.

To get you started:

With video, the viewer wants to sense that he or she is in the conversation with you. That intimacy is best suited to a warm and approachable demeanor and attentive posture.

Sit still. Nodding, fiddling and excessive gestures distract the audience from you! Stay steady and let your voice – not your head — convey energy.

Smile with your eyes more than your mouth. As when engaged in a one-on-one conversation, smile in response to something that’s said rather than holding a smile on your face the entire segment.

Do not speak too quickly or rush to make your points. You’re better off saying less in a calm, animated and interesting way than to try and fit every possible point into your statement.

Prepare. Video is forever so you don’t want to ramble or misspeak. Prepare your key points in advance and practice them until they are second nature. This will free you up to focus on your delivery rather than formulating what you want to say on-the-fly.

For more suggestions

Executive Video Secrets

Secrets of Successful Video

Click here to register for: Secrets of Successful Video.

Review the Secrets of Successful Video prior to the shoot.

Video is pervasive and powerful and here to stay. Every executive and professional must be ready to leverage this engaging medium. Remember, speaking for impact is not an  accident. It’s a skill.

Share your thoughts

Is your organization using video today? Have you been on-camera? Share your experiences, good and bad by posting a comment to this blog.

Share