Want to add color, variety, and drama to your speeches? You can spend a few years making yourself into a good writer (for the ear). That's one way. Here's another: learn the key vocal techniques for more expressive public speaking.
As I've learned in 25 years as a speech coach and trainer, most speakers make the mistake of thinking that their content is the be-all and the end-all. But the whole reason audiences are listening to you is to benefit from what you bring to the table in discussing an important topic. So you should always be looking to learn how to connect with audiences for lasting influence.
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And when it comes to connecting with listeners and showing them what you've got, the best performance hack you have is your voice. No other public speaking tool creates intimacy with an audience—while at the same time delivering power and subtlety—like your vocal skills.
Specifically, there are 5 key aspects of your speaking style that give you clarity, variety, and sheer entertainment value. Here they are:
- Energy and emphasis
- Pitch inflection
- Rhythm and pacing
- Pauses and silence
- Vocal quality
Learn more about the 5 Key Tools of Vocal Dynamics for speaking success. Your voice is your most flexible and powerful communication tool. Learn to use it with power!
The speaker who uses these vocal techniques not only is more interesting to listen to. He or she also aids listeners' comprehension by making clear important content versus supporting material. Your audience can clearly hear the difference!
Speaking at Your Best
How can you hear the difference between varied and expressive speech versus what I call "speaking in black and white?" Simply pay attention the next time you're speaking to friends or colleagues—in other words, people you're comfortable and unselfconscious being around. Notice how you use every one of the key tools mentioned above effortlessly.
Now videotape yourself practicing a speech or presentation—or better yet, delivering an actual presentation. Does your vocal technique seem inhibited, tentative, or "tight"? If that's the case, you're not alone. Many speakers and presenters are not lively and dynamic in formal speaking appearances, even though they might be quite expressive in casual situations.
That's because the world of business and the professionals often causes these people to play it safe. After all, this is serious stuff and we can't be too emotional or uninhibited. But as I said above, the whole reason the audience is present is to hear the real you. We want and need your personality to come through, with all of your best ideas and commitment. And the truth is that audiences will never receive the full impact and value of what you're saying if you don't tap into your natural expressive voice.
What about the other side of the equation: what goes into your talk? Download my Free Tips and Tricks Guide, Want to Wow An Audience? Here's How to Prepare Your Speech.
Break Out That Box of Crayons or Sidewalk Chalk
Think of it this way: If your vocal delivery lacks full expressiveness, you're using a coloring book with none of the pictures colored in. You know what such a book looks like: pretty line drawings that remain, well, colorless: sketches only that haven't come to life.
Such a book in a child's hands has tremendous potential. But that's all that it will ever be until that child throws caution to the winds and gets to work with his or her crayons.
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What fun ensues when the characters in the book are fleshed out in living color—and sometimes those colors aren't realistic at all. No matter. Richness, tonality, vibrancy, subtlety, brashness, softness, warmth, and excitement—these traits and more appear and communicate themselves with the help of the color palette in that crayon box. The same is true of beautiful or silly or hopscotch designs drawn on sidewalks with chalk.
You have exactly the same limitless potential to move people emotionally and otherwise through your performance skills, including your voice. Giving listeners anything less risks leaving your audience bored, unimpressed, and missing the excitement your voice can add to your material. Worst of all, it does a disservice concerning what you're really trying to say, which always consists of much more than your PowerPoint, flip charts, and spreadsheets.
That information is important. But it can't really come alive without you. We need your voice and your other performance skills to make that happen.
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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 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.” For nine consecutive years, he was ranked by Global Gurus as one of The World’s Top 30 Communication Professionals, 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 supernatural thrillers. Contact Gary here.
Photo credit: Олександр Білоцерківець on unsplash.com
