The secrets of public speaking: the pleasure of public speaking

Article by Diego Ingrassia – “The secrets of public speaking: the pleasure of public speaking” – JUNE 2017_HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW

History tells us that Demosthenes, considered one of the greatest orators of all time, in his younger years was distressed by his severe speech defects.
Correct diction was indeed a requirement of utmost importance in a world, that of ancient Greece, which regarded the art of oratory as an indispensable tool for social and political ascendancy.
The solution to his problems came from an actor named Satyrus, who educated him about the importance of breathing and subjected him to bizarre exercises that consisted of going through long orations by holding a few pebbles inside his mouth.
Modern public speakers probably have different needs; in any case, refresher courses related to the topic of communication continue to be among the most sought-after by companies years later.
The main reason behind this strong interest is that it has become increasingly clear that communication is never merely a transfer of information and that it instead requires the development of specific skills.
If we accept to analyse different communication situations from this perspective, we will also discover that it has nothing to do with chance that a certain message is boring and soon forgotten, or that it appears clear, incisive and emotionally engaging.
The most effective example of this is that of certain slogans, born of the creative genius of a few advertisers, capable of making a difference.

In one-to-one communication, most of the words we utter are mediated through non-verbal communication, the real thermometer of relationships.
In addition to the content of the message, the gaze, voice inflections, facial expressions and micro-expressions, and postures assumed play a fundamental role.
All these elements ‘colour’ our communication interventions and provide us with valuable information about the interlocutors’ involvement in the conversation: interest, participation, level of attunement, resistance, etc.
However, what has been described so far is complicated in a public speaking context, where the interlocutors can vary from a few to hundreds of people depending on the type of event.
A meeting with one’s team requires a manager to manage an ‘audience’ with which he is familiar.
The situation in these cases is further facilitated by the formal nature of the roles in question; the combination of these allows (without forgetting the importance of relationship management) one to concentrate more easily on the content aspects of the speech.
But when public speaking is performed in the presence of a completely new audience, the role, technique and experience of the public speaker plays a fundamental role, in addition to the number of people present.
In fact, maintaining contact, being in touch, keeping the participants’ interest alive, may require different strategies and solutions depending on the context, the environment and the amount of audience present: thirty or three hundred people, for example, represent radically different situations.
If a small audience makes it easy to maintain eye contact and leaves open the possibility of involving the people present in different ways, a much larger group requires a different kind of commitment.
The style and mode of the speaker’s presence on stage, the materials he or she uses for his or her presentation, and attention to environment and context become much more important. In short: more attention to formal elements that can positively influence the perception of the audience present.
At this point, it becomes important to set some fundamental points on which a good public speaker should be able to focus. Here they are:

1) CHOOSE AN OBJECTIVE
What is the main objective of our speech: to inform, to motivate, to involve, to reassure, to convince?
Each of these aims requires a different commitment and different strategies, dispersing our energy by assigning more than one objective to our speech or not identifying it at all never produces good results.
Many professionals, strange as it may seem, when facing an audience are very well prepared on ‘what’ they will have to say but have not asked themselves: ‘why’ do I have to say it? What is the purpose? What effect do I want to produce? What do I want to happen? Why should they listen with interest?

2) “BREATHE THE ENVIRONMENT” BEFORE THE INTERVENTION AND MANAGE THE SPACE
Taking a look at the physical space where the intervention will take place helps to familiarise oneself with the environment, just as it is important to check the proper functioning of the necessary tools (microphone, projector, lights) in order to avoid annoying distractions.
It is also important to ask ourselves how we are going to arrange ourselves in the dedicated space; sitting may work well in some contexts (conferences with several speakers), but generally it is preferable to stand in front of the audience.
Speaking from the podium or in a free space are very different conditions: the former confers authority on the speaker, and is at the same time ‘protective’, the free space can instead emphasise the expressive skills of the public speaker capable of consciously managing his/her body language.

3) MANAGING EMOTIONS AND SELF-LIMITING THOUGHTS
It is common to experience fear or a slight state of anxiety just before or during one’s speech and this is not necessarily a bad thing.
Fear allows us to stay focused on our goal and with a little experience we can learn to turn it into energy and determination as we become more familiar with the audience.
There are thoughts and thoughts, those that can influence us in an encouraging way and debilitating ones related to the fear of damaging one’s image (‘losing face’ or one’s image in front of the public).
It all depends on the perspective we decide to take.
From the writer’s perspective, it is always better to think of something realistic, such as ‘I’m lucky, I’m speaking in front of a thousand people!’, as it puts us in a position to have a positive attitude.

4) SPEECH CUSTOMISED TO THE TARGET, NEVER STANDARD
Effective words are always addressed to a specific subject.
The nature of this subject changes according to the context, but it is important to understand that our words must reach people, ‘touch’ them.
Otherwise our words run the risk of going in circles and generating, at best, indifference in the listener.

5) PRESENTATIONS
A supportive presentation can be an excellent tool; however, it is good to reward simplicity and synthesis: too many graphs, numbers and tables, outside of specific technical requirements, risk tiring and boring the listening audience.
The use of too many bullet points, especially if ‘discovered’ one at a time, also makes the presentation less effective and potentially boring.
Slides should contemplate a 70/30 image/text ratio to be more incisive and easily remembered afterwards.
Using videos and setting up activations also allows the audience to be involved.

6) TIMING, AUDIENCE QUESTIONS AND RELATIONAL EXTRA-TIMING
It is always good to calculate the timing of your speech precisely, slide by slide.
Evaluate when it is appropriate to linger and when to slide quickly.
It is also important to anticipate whether and when to allow questions or interventions from the audience.
A tip: to encourage participation, you can also state that you want to receive them during the speech (if the context allows) and not only at the end.
Respecting the length of the speech is fundamental, as is granting extra time should one or more participants want more in-depth information not in plenary. All this helps to strategically enhance the relationship with the participants.

7) TRAINING AND PERSONALITY
Improving one’s public speaking skills is a path that requires, as with other complex skills, training and experience.
It is good to be gradual, especially if you are a beginner: start with small groups and do it frequently, and gradually tackle more numerous and complex contexts.

8) VISIBILITY, EFFECTIVENESS AND SOCIAL NETWORKING
Did my speech generate concrete results?
Did I increase interest in my activity, my company, my products?
If we register an increase in email requests or increase our social network followers in a marked way, it is likely that our speech has made an impression.
If people remember us even after some time, we can consider ourselves effective public speakers.

9) WE ASK FOR FEEDBACK FROM PEOPLE WE TRUST
It is always useful to get external feedback on our performance.
Videotaping yourself also helps to better identify the strengths and weaknesses of your speech so that you know where to improve next time.

10) PERSONAL SATISFACTION
Are we satisfied with our speech?
There may be no direct correlation between our perception and that of the audience, but it is always good to ask ourselves if we really liked ourselves.
Awareness, combined with technique, makes us competent professionals and public speakers always up to date.
Effective public speaking is therefore simple and innovative.

We have to talk about concrete things: actions and goals, emotions and motivations that we can share to enhance our leadership and business in a win-win perspective.