One of the classic tips of public speaking is "know thy audience." There's a lot of good from proactively understanding who you will be presenting to. Great tip to have! But I wouldn't include it in my top 10 public speaking tips.
Why not?
Today, an acquaintance of mine gave a statement of thanks and gratitude at the end of a networking event we were both attending. I spoke with him after, and he said he was "nervous" and "shaking" and this his voice was "warbling," and made many other comments about how poorly he did.
He did fine. Excellent, even, considering the applause that came from the group (and my own opinion!). Yet, he was still mildly dismissive of my "good job!" congratulations.
I see this all the time — and often did it myself — and it hits me that maybe (for some people) the problem with getting on stage is less the fear of embarrassing ourselves in front of each other than it is embarrassing ourselves — in front of ourselves.
Today's symposium was one of the more powerful ones I've hosted. It's only the second one for the 2019 year, and yet the energy of the conversation was alight with inspiration. On the eve of Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday, holiday, this quote made itself recounted:
The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.
Martin Luther King, Jr., paraphrasing Theodore Parker
There's a lot to go over from today's symposium (and I won't even touch on a large fraction of what we discussed!).
The powerful imagery of MLK's paraphrasing come from our discussion about one of the attendee's, Lorenzo Peve (https://engineeringyourwell-being.com/) desire to be, as many are wont to do, on a TEDx stage, delivering a speech that will change the world.
I meet people every week who seem intent on keeping their vocabulary as small and simple as possible. As a public speaking guide, I understand the need for the right word at the right time. Sometimes, the simplest of words can have the greatest impact.
"I'm sorry for your loss," holds far more empathy in its pure simplicity compared to "I'm sympathetic to the passing of your loved one." Succinctness during times of pain is often the most compassionate thing we can offer.
Yet, we're holding ourselves back if we keep to using only the most simple of words and grammatical tools.
Over my numerous years of studying English and other languages and of teaching people to be better public speakers, I'm concerned that to many people are limiting themselves to echoing words rather than using the tools of vocabulary.
So you wanna write a speech, huh? Well, here are some basic tips to get you on track:
Grammar and vocabulary are, unexpectedly, crucial to a successful speech. But you can get away with a very limited range of words and still deliver an oration with all the power, fire, and emotional grandeur of an MLK speech — or the simple, yet raucous, taboo questioning nature of comedian Sarah Silverman.
A gun is a potent weapon.
Imagine walking into a luxuriant office: thick, softly upholstered lounge chairs; a vast sea of hardbound books, well-read and musty with age; and a large, heavy, dark wood desk, replete with a jar of thick Indian ink, a delicate nib-pin, and yellow writing pad.
And centered upon that writing pad, contrasting highly against the bright yellow sheets and thin blue lines, a gun lies.
No one walks into a room where a gun is openly visible and does not have concern ripple through their body. No one.
So why would a speaker present an audience with a gun, yet never use it?
The gun never need be fired. It never need kill. But if the gun is mentioned, if it is seen, it must have had a purpose to the narrative. For the owner of the gun on the desk — there was a reason it lay upon the yellow writing pad.
Speech is silver, silence is gold.
Ursula K. Le Guin
Cognition is, per Google: "the mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses."
When we are speaking to an audience, it is worth keeping in mind that despite the amazing power of the human brain, it does have limitations when it comes to cognition. Here are some of the "cogs" you should keep in mind both when you are preparing a speech and when you are on the stage.
It doesn't take much effort to find examples of truly deplorable leadership in the present (and it's a slam dunk if you take the historical route). Today, I encountered a LinkedIn article and an NPR radio program that centered around the idea of toxic leadership, so it seemed like an obvious choice for a topic, especially considering how many toxic leaders I've encountered in my own career.
My mother, of all people, use to always say "Screw up, move up." I remember her saying that about politicians when I was a kid and she still says it today. Why is that?
Part it is what is known as the Peter Principle.