Cornerstones
of Speaking
Supposedly,
everyone who voluntarily chose or accept a speech want to be heard. But to be
hard is a hard task when it involves public speaking especially when sharing a
vision, due to individuals’ diversity in the audience (and what runs in each
mind) and the time restriction, to cite few of the obstacles. Other barriers/
habits that a speaker needs to move away from, listed by Treasure (2013) as
sins, are: gossiping, negativity, complaining, judging, excusing, lying and
dogmatism. These habits should be avoiding not only when publicly speaking, but
in every communication performed along the day in all interaction one makes, so
when it is time to a presentation, there is no barriers previously created in
the audience’s mind, including lack of credibility.
The
author, in the other hand, presents four cornerstones for a speaker to stand on
to deliver a powerful message, using the acronym HAIL, which stands for honesty,
authenticity, integrity and love. Duarte (2011) also touches base on the love
aspect, as a form to encourage emotion in the audience, facilitating the
process of connection with the message and the presenter. Love, in this sense,
represents the passion on the presentation.
While
Treasure (2013) shows general foundation for communication, Charlie Houpert (2016),
on his channel Charisma on Command, analyzing Kevin Hart’s storytelling techniques,
provides more specific strategies in order to capture people’s attention, as
follow below:
1.
Capture attention before start speaking (preamble,
be personal to with the audience, start with an introduction sentence until
getting everyone attention, then move to the presentation)
2.
Bring back the attention in case the
audience gets distracted, then continue with the story
3.
Tell the audience, and repeat it,
reinforce it, what is going to be said (first of the “Tell’em” technique,
as per Whalen, 2007)
4.
Commit to the story (with the content and
paralanguages)
5.
Spice up the story with expressions (the
passion aspect)
6.
Test your story and only use the best material
(the one’s that got audience attention in the past)
7.
Increase your awareness of what make people
loose attention and what catch their minds.
Up
to the present, there are two particular things I do to get people’s attention:
speaking with passion and play characters. When I am telling a story, it is
like I am reviving the moment, so I make the sounds, I tell fellow character’s
comments in first person, I increase my tone and I wait until the attention is all
on me. My strategies look pretty much like Hart’s techniques, although I have
never studied storytelling or public speaking cornerstones, so all of them is
part of an unconscious process.
The
technical jargons mentioned by McKay et al (2009) and Whalen (2007), which I will
be taking in consideration on my future presentations, are:
1.
Prepare my speech in advance, choosing
extemporaneous presentation always when possible.
2.
Have the speech designed in a logical
order
3.
Try to follow the Tell’em technique
(Whalen, 2007), inserted on Duarte’s (2011) speech design.
4.
Keep the communication simple
5.
Get on the message and get off fast
6.
Use the power of silence – enjoy pauses
7.
Use key words
8.
Do not read the talk
9.
Focus on the future possibilities and
benefits, not simple conclusions of the presentation, presenting expected
behavioral goal, by the end.
As
theorical science, technical learning also assists on leadership skills
development, although it cannot constrict a leader’s flexibility. There is a
considerable number of factors at stake, when developing and making a presentation,
so the techniques and strategies should be used along with critical thinking (Nosich,
2012) for the best outcome. The flexibility allowed in leadership and
storytelling is fascinating, but prudence is necessary to avoid neglecting the
social science researches, developed to assist leader to lead successfully.
Collectiveness, as in human interactions, also is shown to be powerful in knowledge
integrality.
References
Duarte,
N. (2011). The secret structure of great talks. Retrieved form https://www.ted.com/talks/nancy_duarte_the_secret_structure_of_great_talks/transcript
Houpert,
C. (2016, February 22). Kevin Hart’s 3 secrets to hilarious storytelling.
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vn_L4OPU_rg&feature=youtu.be.
McKay, M.,
Davis, M., Fanning, P. (2009). Messages: the communication skills
book. (3rd edition). Oakland, CA: New Harbinger.
Nosich, G. M. (2012). Learning to think
things through: A guide to critical thinking across the curriculum (4th
edition). Boston, MA: Pearson
Treasure,
J. (2013). How to speak so that people want to listen. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_how_to_speak_so_that_people_want_to_listen
Whalen, D. J.
(2007). The Professional Communications Toolkit. Thousand
Oaks, Ca: Sage.
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