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Archive for the ‘Non-Verbal Communication’ Category
Learn to Command Your Audience!
Monday, August 29th, 2011Well it Sounded Like a Great Speech…
Friday, August 12th, 2011
Man this sounded like a great speech. If only I could hear it! In my humble opinion, this clip is a classic example of amazing material, terrible delivery.
Let’s start with the material… great stuff. Philip Zimbardo asks “why are boys struggling?” and throws out some startling statistics about boyhood, including the fact that boys are five times more likely to develop ADHD, and 30% more likely to drop or flunk out of school. His stats are impressive, and build effectively. He also has a sharp wit, and tells a joke well.
But most of the speech flew by me in a mass of incoherence because he is rushing needlessly, and his articulation is terrible. Luckily I had the pause button handy, so I could go back and watch interesting sections over again to catch the speaker’s meaning, but the audience did not have that luxury. Yes, he only had a minute to make the speech, but time limits are not an excuse to rush. It doesn’t matter how brilliant your speech is if nobody can understand it.
I think Mr Zimbardo would have done himself and his audience a big favor by cramming less into his one minute speech, breathing more, and taking his time with the language.
What do you think?
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How to Slow Your Rate of Speech
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011“Silence hath more eloquence than words” – George Farquhar
Silence serves many purposes in a speech, but the simplest, and most important purpose it serves, is to allow you to breathe. Many people hold their breath while speaking, and this creates tension, and a monotone speaking style. It is best to breathe from the diaphragm, in a relaxed, organic manner (for a great breathing exercise, click here).
Of course, Martin Luther King used pauses to great effect. As an exercise, take a look at this excerpt from his “I Have a Dream” speech. Read over the excerpt silently, and then read it over out-loud, taking a two second pause for ending punctuation, and a one second pause for all other forms of punctuation:
‘This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.” And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.”
Notice any differences? Hopefully this exercise allows you to take deeper breaths between sentences, allows you to clarify your thoughts more readily, and let’s you more easily control your rate of speech.
Let’s compare it with the master himself….
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Video Blog- Non-Verbal Communication for Business Leaders
Wednesday, July 27th, 2011Click here for the “Brilliant in the Boardroom” Seminar!
Non-Verbal Communication and Leadership
Friday, April 8th, 2011Caroline Casey gives a stirring speech here…let’s look at it from the perspective of leadership, and non-verbal communication. When we are presenting, we often feel that we need to move in a certain way, a way that conveys “leadership”. I find that trying to move in a way that conveys “leadership” or “confidence” just creates tension. I like the way Caroline Casey moves. She gestures freely, and speaks passionately, and doesn’t seem to be trying to imitate other speakers. She moves in a way that feels comfortable, a way that is her own . This is the key to conveying leadership with your body language, not imitating “successful speakers”, but finding a natural, organic way to move that expresses you.
Vocally, I think Caroline speaks eloquently and expressively; however, I would quibble with the pace at which she speaks. She’s motoring through the speech, and I think she would benefit if she slowed down a bit, took some deep breaths, and clarified her points a bit more.
What do you think creates a confident speaker? Do you move in a way that is comfortable to you? Do you speak with a voice that is your own, and not an imitation of other speakers?
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Video Analysis of One of the World’s Best Public Speakers
Friday, February 4th, 2011Sir Ken Robinson is hands down one of the world’s greatest speakers. I defy you not to be immensely entertained and enlightened by this twenty minute speech.
Almost every moment here is a gem. Let’s start with his body language. Notice how still he is. Of course, one should feel free to move throughout a speech, there are no hard and fast rules about body language, but few among us have the tolerance to explore stillness while speaking the way Sir Robinson does.
Now let’s take a look at his language…every word is articulated clearly, and he uses an abundance of inflection and pitch. He hits his content words, and makes every point clear, yet never over-articulates. Because he is physically relaxed, we are not distracted by his gestures from the most important component of his speech, his ideas.
He uses his wit to wonderful effect in this speech, eliciting a laugh a minute. Every trick in the public speaking book is used here, analogies, stories, quotes (including a gem from Abraham Lincoln), one-liners…. the speech is crammed with interest. It’s no wonder his last TED speech was downloaded over 10 million times!
Notice the structure of the beginning of his speech; an attention getter at the top that elicits a big laugh, then a clear thesis statement outlying his topic, than a wonderful analogy is made playing off of the public’s fascination with “resources”. Now we are hooked, and we know where we are going. The discussion section of the speech is a series of short, pithy stories. The story he tells about the child who wants to be a fireman, and is humiliated for not wanting to go to college, is one of the best, most appropriate, and powerfully told stories I have ever heard. Watch when he polls the audience as to who is wearing wristwatches… he manages to make a point, and leave everybody in stitches at the same time.
I could go on, and on. Each brilliantly told story weaves effortlessly into his main point: education is in need of reform. He culminates with a lovely quote from W.B Yeats.
A colleague of mine once said to me; “You know a standing ovation is authentic if the audience stands as one unit, immediately after the speech has finished”. Sir Robinson’s authentic ovation here was well deserved.
The King’s Speech and the Wholistic Approach to Speech
Thursday, January 20th, 2011
If you haven’t had a chance to see the King’s Speech, do yourself a favor, and check it out. It’s a wonderful and well-crafted film about one man’s fear of his own greatness. It’s also a great tutorial on the role that emotions play in our speaking problems.
I coach executives, administrators, teachers, professors, artists, everybody, and the one problem I see over and over again is a tight jaw. Jaw tension is epidemic. Where does jaw tension come from? Some of it is physical, but a good portion of it is emotional. As Kritsin Linklater pointed out in her seminal book “Freeing the Natural Voice”, clear thinking equals clear articulation, and a free emotional life equals a rich, powerful sound.
So what is jaw tension? It’s over-socialization. It’s a habitual pattern developed over years. Throat and jaw tension often have a direct correlation to “swallowing” our thoughts, and our feelings. When we are young, and we are told not to think something, or not to feel something, perhaps because of social consequences, we tighten the jaw, and push away our thoughts and feelings. Over years this habitual pattern of repression, and it’s correlating muscular tension, builds into hardened, malignant tension.
How can jaw tension be cured? Through breathing exercises, muscular release, and learning, slowly over time, to express yourself freely. Yes folks, it is all related. Emotional release connects to muscular release. I see it time and again with my clients; as they feel freer to speak their mind, their speaking related problems begin to ebb.
So don’t hold back! If you do not speak your truth, the world will not have it. Speak clearly. Speak freely.
Roger Clemens and Non Verbal Communication
Tuesday, August 24th, 2010
I’m always telling my clients that 80 percent of our impression of a speaker is non-verbal (that’s right, that speech you’re sweating over right now means much less than the quality of your voice, your posture, and how you gesture), so what do you think of this photo of Roger Clemens testifying before Congress? As many of you know, Roger Clemens, the former Yankee, and former shoe-in for the Hall of Fame, is going to be indicted for lying to Congress about his use of performance enhancing drugs.
I think this image is a powerful reminder that our bodies rarely lie. No matter what we say, our true feelings will be revealed by our facial expressions, our posture, and our tone of voice. This image just reeks of duplicity; the cocked head, the sideways glance, the backward-moving energy. Throw the jerk in jail.
Here is Harry Markopolos testifying before Congress. Harry is the guy who tried to blow the whistle on Bernie Madoff to the SEC to no avail. What do we see here? Definace, a steady gaze, forward-moving energy, confident gestures.
What do you think?
Jeffrey Davis is the owner of Speak Clear Communications. He is a public speaking coach and accent reduction coach in New York City.
Listening and Public Speaking
Monday, July 19th, 2010A great speaker doesn’t speak at an audience, but rather listens to the audience, and responds to the audience. What exactly is good listening on a public speaking level? Is it about simply mirroring the body language of the person (or persons) you are speaking to, as some communication coaches suggest? Or is it deeper than that? I would argue that good listening on the public speaking level is the same as good listening on the personal level; it is the ability to understand the meaning of a question or comment, not just the delivery. On the micro level, this means repeating questions that are posed by your audience, and asking directly if you are understanding them correctly. It means paying attention to the context of the question, and picking up important non-verbal clues.
On the macro level, listening to your audience means understanding what they are expecting of the speech, and what they want, even need, to hear. Do you make sports analogies at a film industry convention with an audience made of movie buffs? Start out an awards ceremony with edgy humor when the audience yearns for sincerity? Perhaps you aren’t listening. Try imagining what you would want to hear if you were in the audience… this is the first step to becoming a speaker who is truly attuned to the audience.
In your opinion, what great speakers listen well?
Click here for a great article on listening @ Huffington Post
Jeffrey Davis is the owner of Speak Clear Communications. He is an executive public speaking coach and accent reduction coach in New York City.
Diplomatic Communication
Friday, June 4th, 2010What do you do if you’re chairing a panel and one of your guests makes a sexist remark? Or during a Q and A? Or ON NATIONAL TELEVISION. Well that’s what Mark Haines does here to broadcaster Erin Burnett. What do you think? Do you think she handled this appropriately? What is the best strategy here?
Jeffrey Davis is the owner of Speak Clear Communications. He is an executive public speaking coach and accent reduction coach in New York City.