Speaking your way to Success – 1

What is the most admired quality among speakers which the audience appreciates? Rob Sherman, the acclaimed speaker, author and attorney, asked this to his audience in one of his lectures.   The answers included words such as “authentic,” “passionate,” “motivational,” and “humorous”.  Someone said “A good speaker relates to MY problems and offers solutions”.

The keyword is always MY or ME, in any transaction the person being communicated to always looks for the answer to the question – “What is in it for me?”

Audience centricity is key to any communication. The responsibility or onus to communicate always lies with the person communicating. Like in the transaction with Rob, the common thread found in most responses is that people want to relate to a speaker in a meaningful way. The worst statement that any communicator can make – “I really wish to communicate but the people don’t listen to me or they don’t understand”.  The fact is contrary to this statement. The speaker couldn’t understand and gauge what the audience would like to listen and how he should communicate.

The most important driver is relatability. People do want to relate to a speaker in a meaningful way. As Mr. Terry Pearce states – “The unmistakable conclusion of contemporary social research is that people are eager to commit. They are truly starved to connect with competent, trustworthy leaders.”

So now the shopping list for the speaker has got “authentic,” “passionate,” ”motivational”, ”humorous,”  “competent” and “trustworthy.

The connection is the major distinction between an ordinary speech and one that has the potential to make a difference in someone’s life. The ultimate purpose of any communication is to move your audience towards accepting your point of you, believing you and do what you expect them to do after the communication is over. If you are a teacher you want your student to understand the concept and remember it. If you are promoting your product, you want your audience to make the purchase of the product or service you are promoting.  If you are a politician, you wish your audience to be convinced about your candidature and give you vote.

Working towards achieving the desired response from your audience is good, but you should also ask yourself, “What am I going to give?” will my listeners take away something worthwhile. Every person seated before you has a need, and you have the opportunity to fill it.

Audience benefit is the bottom line.  That is what must guide every addition, deletion and revision you make to your program. From the beginning tell your listeners how and why they will greatly benefit from what they are about to hear. In essence you are saying, “Listen up! Here is vital, important information for you!”.

It’s not about fancy presentation, it’s not about using state of the art PowerPoint features, as author Morton Orman says – “Sometimes we get so caught up in the presentation that we forget that our purpose is to provide value to the audience.

How are you presenting your content are you giving the right figures, data and information, is it verifiable. How sincere you are in your communication, do your listeners see you as authentic and credible?

Lee Glickstein, founder of Transformational speaking says “authenticity is one of the most effective leadership tools around. In an age of cynicism and distrust, it is one of the few things that inspire people to action.”  Incidentally we have seen the example of the same in recent demonstration by Anna Hazare. Last time when he did the similar act there were millions of people who stood with him, because they thought him to be authentic, but in his recent demonstration he could not gather even few thousand.  People stayed away from his demonstration because they believed that he is not authentic and has an ulterior motive.  Mr. Lee further says “What we say doesn’t count for much if people don’t believe us, or if they don’t think that we believe ourselves.”

You will never convince or motivate others unless you believe in yourself – and have total faith in what you are communicating. Before communicating your thoughts, ideas to public ensure that you yourself are convinced and believe in what you are saying; this belief brings conviction in your speech. This modifies your body language positively to supplement your statement. Rob Sherman gives some very important points to remember to make your speech powerful, authentic, convincing, and believable and that which affects your audience the way you want it to.

·         Connect with your audience by giving them something of value.  

·         Your objective is to provide benefits.

·         People have need that you have the opportunity to fill.

·         Believe in yourself and your message.

·         Authenticity is critical leadership tool.

·         When you stand for something you set yourself apart.

Now visualize one of the most powerful speakers in India, our current Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, and our Ex-Prime minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. Rate these two speakers on the point mentioned above, you would find the above mentioned points verified.