Your public speaking always involves leading others. That means you need leadership presence. Here's more on why you have to create some onstage magic!
To give a speaking performance that’s truly magical, you can’t do it the way a stage magician does—by putting something over on everyone.
If anything, you need to do the opposite. You must be authentic, while sharing the truth of your topic so that everyone can see it. In fact, this is the task of a lifetime when it comes to influencing others through public speaking—your lifetime.
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As James A. Whittaker puts it in The Storyteller’s Spellbook:
Your life and career are spent showcasing yourself, your abilities, ideas, and contributions. . . . Simply put, your ideas and insights mean nothing if they cannot be transmitted to others. Without a good story, and the ability to tell it, your skill and passion remain trapped inside you instead of impacting the wider world.
There is a huge difference, Whittaker tells us, “between transmitting facts to an audience and transforming the way people think.” Stage presence in fact is a life skill.1
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How Presence Can Work For You When You Speak
It’s also a form of mindfulness. If you think of it this way, you’ll realize that ‘stage’ presence isn’t limited to being on stage at all. It’s simply a form of being present in performance, and of being in the present. The concept of fully occupying the present moment is actually the core idea of mindfulness.
You can benefit from this kind of mindfulness in any aspect of your life. That certainly includes communicating with others! Of course, public speaking is where you’re most likely to share your ideas with the largest audiences and gain the highest profile. Develop presence when you speak, and you'll magnify your ability to be present and to impact listeners.
And remember, this isn’t a one-way street. Both you as presenter and the audience are necessary to create presence. Having people around you who are fully in the moment brings YOU into the present. That means that the back-and-forth that takes place when you speak before any audience is a custom-made format for achieving leadership presence!
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Information or Influence? . . . The Choice Is Yours
Presenters everywhere—including those seeking presence—make a fundamental mistake, however. They too often focus on the information they need to deliver, rather than their purpose in giving the speech. Speaking in public is always about influencing your audience. It's never about just delivering information. (Here are 20 ways to connect with an audience for lasting influence. And take a look at my 7 tips for overcoming audience resistance.)
Sure, your content helps you to achieve influence. But the more vital element here is you. That’s because you filter the content through your unique personality and experiences. Consider how much more valuable that is than a slide deck that could have been emailed to everyone!
A speech, like theater, is a form of community, which carries much more of a wallop. And it can only take place if there's a speaker and an audience, whether in person or in cyberspace.
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Someone once referred to the theater as “a state of mind that both audience and actors can share and experience.”2 It’s exactly the same in a speech or presentation. There’s a reason that the words “present” and “presence” both have their origin in the Latin word praesentia.
Here's the other secret about leadership presence in public speaking: the skills needed to develop it aren’t special. They’re the same ones you use to persuade, inspire, and entertain people when you talk about anything you’re interested in. When you use these people skills that you already have to their greatest effect, that's when you achieve the presence you're looking for as a speaker.
1James Whittaker, “Master The Art of Stage Presence,” October 6, 2015. https://www. microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2015/10/06/master-the-art-of-stage- presence-with-james-whittaker/ Italics in original.
2Sarah Pini, “Alternative Approaches to the Classic Model of Stage Presence in Performing Arts: A Review.” https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Presence_ Performing_Arts_.
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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-Sellers How to Give a Speech and Speak for Leadership: An Executive Speech Coach's Secrets for Developing Leadership Presence. His book, Fearless Speaking, was 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.
