In my book Easy Speaking and Presentation Skills programs I emphasize that the
central core of speaking is to focus on the audience. In fact, I even have a
name for it, audience focused presentations. Today my friend David
Greenberg wrote about this in his newsletter and has
graciously given permission for me to reprint on the blog.
Question: “What is most people’s favorite topic?
Answer: Themselves! Harvard Business School reports that “you” is
one of the top five selling words. Your listeners’ ears will perk up
when they hear you say the word “you” or “your” in your presentations
(this works in one-on-one conversations, too). In our Simply Speaking
workshops and coaching sessions, we refer to this as the “You Factor.”
Increase your “You Factor” and you will increase your group’s attention
and retention of your ideas.
Here are a few examples of how it works:
Instead of saying: “This plan saves an estimated $10,000 each year.”
Say: “This plan saves you an estimated $10,000 each year.”
Instead of saying: “Forty percent of the population will contract heart
disease.”
Say: “Forty percent of you and your loved ones will contract heart disease.”
Instead of saying: “This will significantly impact the bottom line.”
Say: “This will significantly impact your company’s bottom line.”
Instead of saying: The four areas I will discuss today are . . .”
Say: “The four areas you will learn about today are . . .”
Review your presentation notes and ask yourself: “Where can I add impact
and connect better with my audience by using the “You Factor”?
Remember… It had to be YOU!
Last week I was asked by Psychology Today to study tapes of the speeches and
interviews of the top presidential candidates. Over the next few weeks I will
be posting the detailed notes I took as I read over 12 hours of tapes on the
candidates. As you read these notes I want you to be thinking of what you do
nonverbally during your speeches and how it may be “read” by your audiences.
Body language analysis of Presidential candidate Barack Obama.
One of the most interesting and dramatic aspects of Obama’s body and para
language is that it changes so much from speech to speech and location to
location. While many candidates slow down their speech slightly to charm
their southern audiences and increase their rate for New York news shows,
Obama transforms. For example, if you had never heard him speak before and
watched him give his Selma Alabama speech you would note his voice is
extremely slow and takes on the relaxed consonants and cadence of Alabama.
When he is interviewed on1/10/2007 concerning his response to the Bush
Speech his voice pace is face, his speech is clipped, and his consonants are
crisp.
When he is out in crowds he stops to talk to someone, he laser focuses on
them. He gives them significant extended eye contact, leans forward and
stays in their intimate zone of space. These behaviors we observed in the
“charismatic” Clinton.
Remember what makes a candidate look honest and powerful to us when we view
him or her on the small screen, may be counter to what may look appropriate
to the audience he or she is speaking to when they are taped live.
When speaking, behind a podium or on a stage without one, he does
something rather unusual…Â he turns his face and body to either side or moves his
entire body towards the audience to shows his desire to empathize and
connect with them. However, when we view that on video, we may read it
differently subconsciously. For example, In the Selma speech he turns his
face and body to his right side then left again and again, rather than focus
to the front and center. Front and center speaking is read as more honest,
more forthright and powerful. On the tapes, heactually leans his body from the waist up out towards the audience of students as he makes each point. Typically candidates stay straight up and down to show they are “straight†and strong on issues.
Obama’s body language cues are different in debates and interviews than in
speeches. In his third televised debate with Alan Keys, Obama becomes visibly angry:
he jabs out his finger at the interviewer in a symbolic weapon even a one time at
the end of the interview. At one point he even puts up both hands with the
forefingers out, symbolically firing as if there were guns in each hand. He
pushes his hand out toward, not just in a symbolic stop sign, but a more
aggressive pushing away motion. Nonverbally we can see he is an emotional
man. Look for interviews like his response to Bush speech. Watch his mouth
goes up more on his left side. Our emotional right hemisphere controls the
left side of he face and when there is a split face and one side shows more than
the other, note which side. The mouth twisting up to his left says he was
feeling very emotional, and though he wished to control it, he couldn’t.
So many speakers get up to the front of the room and become someone else when they speak. I think it is because it is seems safer to put on the mask of formal speaker than expose who you really are to the audience. And that’s sad because the very thing that makes you unique and special is real and is the best gift you can offer to the audience. If you are funny, be funny! If you are caring, be caring; if you are excited and passionate about what you’re saying and show it. I have seen the most warm, gregarious people make friends with the stranger sitting beside them and then when they go up to speak they become cold autotrons. You may say, “But I am boring!” Think about what in your life you get excited about: baseball, cooking, and your kids? When you are doing fun activities or talking about them you are wondrous. Weave baseball analogies into your speech or a story about your family, and take that energy you know you have when you are in your element and show it to your audience. I know you have something unique to offer! Maybe you’re great at explaining things, maybe you have a wonderful smile, maybe when you talk we believe what you say. Be the best you. Emphasize your strength when you’re speaking. Knowing what you do well gives your confidence!