Are you as exciting as your ideas when you give a speech or presentation? You need to be! Here's how to command any stage for public speaking.
Leaders speak, and speakers lead.
Whether you’re contributing at a team meeting, presenting in a boardroom, or delivering the keynote at a national conference, if you’re the one speaking, you’re leading.
Or you should be.
Want to look and sound like a leader when you speak? You'll learn how in my book How to Give a Speech in Chapter 9: "The Visual You: Body Language." Get started now! Amazon.
The Importance of Your Physical Expressiveness
Among the traits you need to speak for leadership are the physical aspects of your presentation. In other words, your skills in performance equal in importance anything you say.
And that means looking the part. That, of course, means knowing how to develop leadership presence as a speaker.
Actually, it's more fundamental than that, because you need the qualities of a leader. Find them in my Free Tips and Tricks Guide, "The 7 Leadership Qualities of Great Speakers."
In my coaching program for speaking as a leader, Leadership Communication, I usually ask the client this question: "What do you think is the one element of your performance that gives you leadership presence as a speaker?" The answer is: your nonverbal communication: body language and gestures, movement on stage, facial expressions, voice, eye contact, and even your pacing and pauses.
Audiences pay close attention, and make important decisions based on what they see and hear. It's the reason you should learn effective body language! You can learn more in my Free White Paper, The Body Language Rules: 12 Ways To Be A More Powerful Speaker.
Three Ways to Command A Stage for Public Speaking
Below are what we can call three leadership skills of spoken performance that will help you captivate audiences. These are all grounded in theatrical techniques. They are actor-based methods that are the world’s best tools for moving audiences. For that reason, they’re custom-made for any leader’s toolbox.
After all, leadership is a performance skill! Adopting these practices will prime you for your own standing ovation when the curtain comes down. They are a reminder that if you want to be a memorable speaker, learn how to create influence with audiences.
- Move Fluidly and with Purpose: Learn this all-important lesson now: what an audience sees from you is how they’ll judge you. Be the picture of self-assurance. Avoid awkward jerky movements, weak or repetitive gestures, or a deer-in-the-headlights quality on stage. All of those habits advertise self-doubt. Use gestures sparely and with intention, making each one clean and powerful. In other words: when you use a gesture, make it count!
- Take Charge of Your Performance Space: Your performance space is yours to command—however large or small that space is. You’re a body moving in space; and your use of a stage is just as important as gestures where body language is concerned. Don’t wander the boards like a cloud or pace back and forth like a tiger in a cage. Instead, make your movement purposeful. And that lectern? Leave it behind and stand center-stage if you can. That looks like leadership!
- Create a Physical Expression of Your Message: Think of this as your culminating skill as a presenter. Ask yourself if you’ve embodied your speech. That is, did you literally give it some bodily expression? Or did you just deliver data like an automaton? Every time you speak, it’s your persona people are buying as much as anything else. Actually, when you think about it, you'll realize this: physical expression is what public speaking performance is all about. Sending an email or a report is one thing. But a speech or presentation? . . . Ah, now you’re talking!
Do you like mysteries or supernatural thrillers? Gary is also the creator of the Dr. William Scarlet Mysteries. Book #1 in the series, Red Season, is now on sale here. Read it now!
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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 Coaches. He is the author of the Amazon Best-Seller How to Give a Speech. His second book, Fearless Speaking, was named in 2019 as "One of the 100 Best Confidence Books of All Time." His handbook for presenting in videoconferences, Speaking Virtually offers strategies and tools for developing virtual presence in online meetings. His latest book is Speak for Leadership: An Executive Speech Coach's Secrets for Developing Leadership Presence. Contact Gary here.
Main photo credit: geralt on pixabay.com.
