What makes a Great Speaker
The Five Senses of Great Speaking
1. A Sense of Occasion - Knowing the occasion and how you want to honor it is sign of a highly skilled and aware public speaker. Is the event celebratory or somber? Is it formal or fun? Sometimes you get an indication prior to arriving - more often it's something you need to be able to 'sense' when you arrive in the room.
Practice: When you arrive at the event, take a moment. Take the temperature of the room. Listen to it. How does the room feel? Is your audience restless, rambunctious or relaxed? Take stock and be aware.
2. A Sense of Rhythm - Good content has good rhythm. A Great Speaker knows this and uses it to their advantage. Bad Speakers don't know this and don't use it. OR they try to impose a pace on the content Taking unnecessary pauses or going to fast. They may be described as monotone. Or boring. Great Speakers know how to find the cadence content and use it well.
Practice: Try reading your content at a few different speeds. What feels right to you? What feels good? What makes the language come alive? If it doesn't feel good - take it apart and restructure it.
3. A Sense of Language - Words have texture and life to them.
The can vibrate like the words writhe and vindictive. They can bounce or slash. They can be languid or lethargic. All of these are wonderful words. They are like different paints with which to paint a work of Art. Bring several words together to make an elegant or ugly sentence. Several well written sentences together? Well, now you have dynamic and interesting content. Want to be a Great Speaker? Learn how to use your words well.
Practice: Read out loud everyday from different writers. Good writers. Good editorials, good stories, good poetry, good fiction. Anything. It doesn't matter. Pay attention to how the words feel in your mouth. Have fun with them. Just do it - 10 min everyday.
4. A Sense of Space - Great Speakers (and Leaders) have an understanding of Space and how to use it. Whether it’s in a boardroom, on a platform and from behind a screen. For some this is innate. For others it’s learned & cultivated. But sensing where you are in space and sensing the space its self is a masterful tool.
Practice: Hmmm…study design perhaps. Or theatre. Or martial arts. A sense of Space is both an easy and hard thing to get your hands around. Take some acting class. Or hire a coach. It’s both Interoception and Proprioception.
A Sense of Humor - Inevitably things will go awry. , you stumble up the steps, you misspeak, technology goes awry - what's a Speaker to do? How you handle yourself in these little moments is important. If you are on the podium, the audience is looking to you for Leadership - or at the very least, guidance. How are you going to handle it? How will you react? Will you fall apart, die of embarrassment or rise to the occasion?
Practice: Accidents can provide opportunity - for humanity, for vulnerability and, often, for levity. Optimize the opportunity by not taking yourself too seriously. The next time something goes ‘wrong’ - and it will because this is life - pause around your response - can you lighten it up?