Gary Genard's

Speak for Success!

"Be a voice not an echo." - Albert Einstein

Are You 'Big' Enough To Speak For Leadership?

Are You 'Big' Enough To Speak For Leadership?

How's your leadership size? If you want to speak with power, you may need to grow! Here's how to be 'big' enough to speak for leadership.

In public speaking terms, you need to be big to lead.

And I don't mean that metaphorically. All performances that take place in front of an audience need to be larger than life—from Broadway musicals to ballet to poetry readings to . . . public speaking. The energy and power needed to excite and enthrall audiences has to be a step up from the everyday. 

Want to speak with poise, presence, and power? You'll learn how in my book, Speak for Leadership: An Executive Speech Coach's Secrets for Leadership Presence. On Amazon.

Speak For Leadership: An Executive Speech Coach's Secrets For Developing Leadership Presence, by Dr. Gary Genard.

So, What's Your Leadership 'Size'?

If you're thinking this is too tough a row to hoe, it isn't. It's an opportunity! Here's the logic: (A) When you speak, you're automatically the leader in the room, because you have the floor. (B) That means you've suddenly acquired power you may not have had before. It's one of my 12 Way To Achieve Presence And Charisma. (C) That power is ready to used by you for beneficial outcomes. (If it places you in a good light and advances your career, well, c'est la vie!)

This also means, however, that you need the right physical size to lead: you need to be 'big' enough. Fortunately, there's no way to fake that and put something over on listeners, as some speakers try to do without really getting away with it. If the proof is in the pudding, the pudding here is your performance. The good news is, you don't have to scurry back to your desk and spend the next twenty years growing as a speaker.

Notice what I'm saying here: your in-the-moment job as someone sharing important ideas with people isn't to become a better leader. It's to became a more successful speaker. That can happen a lot more quickly than the other routes to leadership. In fact, you have some easy tools at your disposal. In a few words: you need to get out of your head and into your body.

Want to know how to do this? Download my Free White PaperThe Body Language Rules: 12 Ways To Be a More Powerful Speaker. Learn how to get your body into the act!

Are You Ready To Get Physical?

In my speech coaching practice, many of my clients are already leaders in their fields or are on the cusp of leadership. When I discuss leadership presence with them—what it means and how you can acquire it—I usually ask this question: "What's the fastest way to gain leadership presence as a speaker?"

The answer is: nonverbal communication. It's easy to understand why. What you show an audience physically and how you sound as you're speaking are the tangible aspects people take away concerning who you are. And all of this is produced physically; yes, including your voice. The 'you' when you speak in public is the face you show the world. It is impossible to overestimate how important that is in terms of whether audiences accept you as a leader and are ready to sign on to your agenda.

Learn how to speak as a leader in my Free EbookHigh-Impact Speaking: The Leader's Guide to Presenting With Integrity and Influence. Command the room and the stage!

The Magic Trio: Breathing, Grounding Yourself, and Projecting. These three aspects of your performance, when understood and practiced, will help give you the 'size' you need to speak in the way I'm describing. You can use all three by linking your physical self with a smidgen of imagination, and without any lengthy stage training.

It starts (what doesn't?) with breathing properly. In terms of public speaking, that means diaphragmatic breathing. In the clearest terms, it involves breathing deeply enough to allow your belly to expand outward when you inhale. That shows that your diaphragm is descending enough to allow your lungs room to fill, while pushing your abdominal wall out so you can see and feel it.

That's also a key technique for overcoming fear of public speaking! Learn more in my book, Fearless Speaking, named as "One of the 100 Best Confidence Books Of All Time."

Then, whenever you're in front of an audience, ground yourself. Again, it's simple: stand with both fleet flat on the floor at armpit-width. Feel the stability this gives you—like a mature oak tree with roots that go wide and deep. It's even more beneficial than this, actually. If you look steadfast, then people will believe that what you're saying is steadfast too.

Now you're ready to do what actors do to connect with people, no matter how far away they're sitting, by projecting. The word in this sense means sending your performance persona out to reach them. This is, basically, the tactical use of energy to "get you across the footlights"—from where you're standing to 10- or 20- or 50-feet away. You have to do this to touch your listeners, not only in terms of audibility, but emotionally. So: breathe deeply, get grounded, then expend sufficient energy to project out to your audience. There's a reason that performing is exhausting.

Sound too strange for your world? Nah. It's only the most hands-on way to be big enough in performance to be seen and felt as a leader. And chances are you ain't been practicing it. 

Like historical mysteries? — Discover my Dr. William Scarlet Mystery Series!

A haunted young artist. A trail of bodies. What is terrorizing London? Scotland Yard surgeon and psychic Dr. William Scarlet pursues a serial killer in Red Season! Also on Amazon.

Red Season, by Gary Genard, a tale of romantic obsession and murder in Victorian London.

You should follow me on Twitter here.

Cropped headshot for Speak for Leadership back cover -- 8.30.21

Gary Genard is an actor, author, and expert in public speaking and overcoming speaking fear. His company, The Genard Method offers live 1:1 Zoom executive coaching  and corporate group training worldwide. He was named for nine consecutive years as One of the World’s Top 30 Communication Professionals, and also named as One of America's Top 5 Speech CoachesHe is the author of the Amazon Best-Sellers How to Give a Speech and Speak for Leadership: An Executive Speech Coach's Secrets for Developing Leadership Presence. His book, Fearless Speakingwas named in 2019 as "One of the 100 Best Confidence Books of All Time." He is also the author of the Dr. William Scarlet Mysteries. Contact Gary here. 

President Coolidge photo credit: The Library of Congress

 

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