J. Lyman Macinnis - The Elements of Great Public Speaking: How to Be Calm, Confident, and Compelling

Special thanks to my wife, Anne, and our sons and daughters-in-law, Matthew, Beverley, Alan, and Anna, for their reviews and comments; to John Vaillancourt and David Matheson, for their helpful suggestions; and to Don MacAdam, a great friend and finely tuned sounding board. Thanks, too, to Ten Speeds Clancy Drake and copy editor Holly Taines White for all their improvements.

Introduction

The adage says that talk is cheap. Well, it isnt. Talk can be extremely expensive, both literally and figuratively.

The next time you attend a business presentation, make a guess at how much in salary it costs to have all those people attend. Now factor in the probable salary cost of preparation; it would have to be at least a few thousand dollars. Add to that the actual out-of-pocket expenses of preparing and putting on the presentation. Then consider what the lost cost is if the presentation is not as effective as it could be, or worse, if it fails completely. Taking the time to properly plan for and deliver a presentation may make or save your organization more money in an hour than is achieved in a year of routine work. Superior communications lead to such increased profitability that its impossible to put an accurate dollar value on them.

Sit through twenty business presentations and you will find them almost indistinguishable. Business presentations tend to be too long, poorly delivered, and completely forgettable. This is usually because the people designing and presenting them arent sufficiently trained in the skills required to properly prepare and deliver an effective and persuasive talk.

And it isnt just for corporations and professional organizations that talk isnt cheap. Competent, well-educated, talented people often find their earning capacity limited because they cant effectively communicate their ideas, particularly when standing in front of a group. How well you communicate determines whether youre memorable or forgettable, boring or interesting, and whether people will ignore you or listen to you. Poor eye contact and mumbling have been known to sidetrack careers. The inability to organize and clearly articulate their thoughts has prevented people from all walks of life from achieving their goals and reaching their potential.

People are attracted to articulate, well-organized, forceful speakers. If you communicate well you will do well. But if you communicate best (meaning that you look, sound, and act like someone who is worth listening to and following) you will flourish.

Business leaders and professionals can no longer maintain low profiles. They now have to function effectively in an omnipresent communications environment that used to be restricted to celebrities and politicians. Todays business leaders are wide open to public scrutiny and, like politicians have had to for decades, need to gain the support of a number of constituencies, including peers, employees, clients, suppliers, shareholders, regulators, consumer activists, and occasionally the most important of all, the media. A successful business leader must have the ability to relate to people both within and outside his or her organization.

Concerned citizens wishing to make a difference in their communities need to develop the same speaking skills as do people in business. Taking the time to properly prepare and deliver an effective talk may result in persuading your local council to install those traffic lights that could save lives. Or you might successfully raise the funds to build a much-needed playground. Perhaps you simply want to do a good job of welcoming your new daughter-in-law into your family, or, as president of the PTA, pay a nice tribute to a respected teacher whos retiring. Whatever your purpose, a properly prepared and effectively delivered talk will considerably increase your chances of success and at the same time enhance your reputation as a leader.

You cant be a real leader if you dont have the power of persuasion. Theres little point in knowing how to solve a problem if you cant communicate the solution in a way that will encourage people to act. You must be able to organize your thoughts to convincingly present your case. If you cant communicate effectively, you will have great difficulty making things happen, and you certainly wont be able to make them happen the way you want them to or when you want them to.

Whether youre the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, an upcoming professional in a thriving practice, a struggling young entrepreneur, or that person who simply wants to make a difference, you will find that one of the most rewarding experiences in life is standing in front of a group of people and bringing them around to your point of view. Every speaking opportunity is a chance to influence one person, some people, or perhaps thousands. Perception really is reality. If an audience, whether of one or hundreds, doesnt perceive the speaker to be an effective person, then that speaker is going to fail in his or her main purpose, whether that is to inform, persuade, motivate, or entertain. Effective speakers will become todays leadership elite.

To be an effective speaker you first have to know what youre talking about. You must have sufficiently prepared yourself, through experience or study (preferably both), to talk about a particular subject. You also have to care about your topic, and you have to want to convey your message to others.

Then you need to understand everything you possibly can about your audience, whatever its size. Next, you have to craft your message in your listeners terms. To persuade an audience to your point of view you have to clearly show them whats in it for them, not whats in it for you; to do this you have to present your message in a way that they can easily understand and relate to. Finally, you have to develop a winning style, encompassing what you do and how you do it, what you say and how you say it.

Few of us are born with the necessary skills to achieve all of this, but, like playing a musical instrument, swimming, or riding a bicycle, these skills can be acquired and developed through study, coaching, and practice.

Then theres an important bonus. Nothing builds a persons overall self-confidence as much as acquiring the skills to give an effective talk in front of a group. Once you become a comfortable public speaker, the resulting self-confidence will spill over into all aspects of your life, with the result that you will become a more successful and effective person in everything you do.