Your voice is one of the most powerful tools you have for public speaking. Here's the best vocal tip for keeping audiences engaged.
There are many ways to keep a public speaking audience attentive and engaged. Your topic should be interesting, of course. Better yet, your message should be essential for these listeners to hear at this time. You should also have analyzed the audience enough to know what their needs are so that you can meet those needs in your talk. And you should certainly plan your presentation carefully and practice it enough for it to be a hit. (Here's my Free Guide on Six Rules of Effective Public Speaking to engage and move audiences.)
All of the above items have to do with what you strategize about and put together beforehand. Then there's the actual encounter between you and your audience. That's where your voice reveals itself as your most powerful tool of spoken performance.
Read Chapter 8, "The Power of Your Voice," in my book, How to Give a Speech. Also on Amazon. It's your portable speech coach! Click on the book image below for a free chapter.
The Sheer Power and Subtlety of Your Voice
Nothing in your public speaking toolbox is as flexible, responsive to the moment, subtle, and built to allow you to connect personally and even intimately with listeners as your voice. So it's a shame that speakers don't concern themselves more with their vocal delivery to achieve excellence. In fact, it's worth learning how your voice is a key skill of leadership. Here's my Free Tips and Tricks Guide on The Voice of Authority: How to Sound Like a Leader.
Is there anything that's more of an identifier of you as a speaker than your voice? Sure, the things you talk about, your energy level, your ability to organize a clear and impactful presentation, even the skill of the visuals you include are part of this mix. But what makes you you more than the sound of your voice?
What about phone calls and meetings via speaker phone? Talk about the importance of how you sound! Get my Free eGuide, How to Improve Your Vocal Presence on the Phone.
In the 1950s, there was a popular show on television—really an early reality show—called This Is Your Life. An on-stage contestant would listen to a recital of milestones in their life, and would be surprised by appearances of old teachers, friends, co-workers, family members, and other important people in the contestant's life. Often, someone would say something to the individual from backstage via a microphone. And as long as the voice wasn't from the long-ago past (say, the voice of a schoolmate from forty-five years ago), viewers could watch the contestant's face change as the sound of that person's voice brought back cherished memories to them.
Using Your Voice to Keep Audiences Engaged
Obviously, then, your voice has the power to make emotional connections with listeners. But it can also do something that, though seemingly mundane, is vital to a successful presentation. That is keeping an audience—often made up of total strangers—attentive and engaged throughout your talk.
It's as easy to do this as it is highly effective. It's simply including variety in your vocal delivery. We all know the saying "variety is the spice of life." Well, it's the spice of public speaking too! Here are the 5 Key Tools of Vocal Dynamics that you need to know about to include vocal variety in your speeches and presentations. I say "include" rather than "add," because, importantly, these speaking tools should be an organic part of what you're saying, not thought about and added to the recipe just before you serve your speech to the audience.
To make that happen, you only need to do two things, and once again, both should be easy and natural. The first is to fully invest yourself in what you're saying. If you do, the way you express yourself begins to sound authentic. That's because you're not just saying something—you're feeling it too.
It's Time To Give Up Your Business Voice!
The second thing is to banish your business voice from your presentations. That's the overly careful and "serious" sound we're apt to use when we mean business. Frankly, it's usually boring to listen to, and in my opinion is one of the reason so many presentations feel flat and uninspired.
In the theater, there's a saying about how to play the contradictions that you as an actor encounter as you try to understand and portray your character. The saying is, "Don't iron out the contradictions, play them." This means that humans are complex creatures, and to try to make them consistent—to basically play one emotion or intention—ends up showing theater-goers and TV/movie viewers a cardboard cutout rather than a fully realized personality.
The truth is, and it's good news indeed, that you already have an interesting and engaging voice. It's the one you use when you're with friends, colleagues, and family, and you're talking about something that interests and perhaps excites you. It's only when you get up to deliver one of those "serious" business talks that you iron out all the aspects of your vocal persona that make you an effective and engaging communicator! So, gives us the whole, quirky person that is you instead. Believe me, your assets and ability to speak on this topic will far outweigh any deficits you think you have.
We want all of you . . . vocally and otherwise. When it comes to responding to this presentation that you've so carefully prepared, that's what will keep us consistently interested and engaged where vocal delivery is concerned.
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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. For nine consecutive years, he was ranked by Global Gurus as one of The World’s Top 30 Communication Professionals. 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," and he has been named as one of America's Top 5 Speech Coaches. His handbook for presenting in videoconferences, Speaking Virtually offers techniques for developing virtual presence. He is also the author of Speak for Leadership: An Executive Speech Coach's Secrets for Developing Leadership Presence. His latest book is The Confidence Book: 75 Ways to Reduce Your Anxiety, Let Go of Your Fears, Change Your Negative Thinking, and Perform At Your Professional Best. He is also the creator of The Dr. William Scarlet psychic mysteries. Contact Gary here.
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