Steve Boyd Presentations

The Potential Power in Presentations

          Public speaking gets a lot of grief. Jerry Seinfeld in one of his monologues said, “According to most studies, people's number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death. Death is number two. Does that sound right? This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you're better off in the casket than doing the eulogy."

Many people will do anything to avoid delivering a speech. However, if you learn the skills involved there are tremendous values in speaking effectively. Daniel Webster once said, “If all of my skills were taken away from me except one, the one I’d want to retain is the ability to speak, for with it I could regain all the rest.”  In their autobiographies, both Lee Iacocca and Jack Welch credit public speaking skills as a major factor in their successes as CEOs of Chrysler and General Electric Here are some of the benefits.

          Your effective presentation skills will enhance your credibility for your products and your company. If you appear confident and competent, you will earn the respect of your prospective clients. Presenting allows you to demonstrate your experience and the expertise your company can provide. Your presentation can influence your audience to listen to you beyond the time you present. When you phone them again to ask for an appointment, if you have presented well you will not have to explain who you are; they will feel like they know you from sitting through your 20-minute presentation and will be more responsive to your request.

The presentation allows you to showcase your knowledge in an organized and complete manner. With a captive audience in a non-threatening environment, you can validate the value of whatever you may be advocating. At the end of your presentation, audience members will feel close to you and will remember you in a positive and helpful manner.

The presentation environment encourages you to look at all the material you have to sell your ideas or products and to use your strongest persuasive reasons with relevant and detailed evidence. If you are just having a conversation or email exchange, you are less likely to provide the structure and continuity that a presentation demands. Your persuasive powers will be increased because of the self-discipline of preparing the presentation.

The presentation allows the audience to size you up and think about whether or not they want to do business with you. In a conversation, whether in person or on the phone, a person is engaged actively in conversing with you and he or she does not have the chance to sit back and take stock of you and your company. Doing a great job in your presentation can’t help but assist you in doing business with them. By the time your presentation is over, the audience member will have a good gauge on what he or she wants to do next in the business relationship.

When you deliver in-house presentations, you have the opportunity of showcasing your skills and knowledge—a great advantage if you are seeking to advance in the company. Someone from another department may be so impressed with the quality of your presentation that you may be first on his or her list to seek out when a position comes open.

Even though delivering presentations can be challenging, they are worth every bit of initial anxiety due to the benefits outlined in this article. So if you have a choice between meeting a person or presenting to a group of l0 or 50, choose the latter. Then you will have opportunities for influencing people in your audience to buy into your ideas, your products, or you.

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Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor of Speech Communication in the College of Informatics at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. He gives keynotes and after-dinner speeches for organizations whose people want to speak and listen more effectively to increase professional and personal success. He can be reached at 800.727.6520, or visit www.sboyd.com for free articles and resources to improve your communication skills.

Recency Equals Relevancy in Speaking

     Millions have been touched in the past two weeks by the last lecture delivered to 400 students and colleagues by Dr. Randy Pausch, Carnegie Mellon University professor, whose pancreatic cancer gives him only months to live. Newspapers and the internet have reported on the impact of this one speech upon millions of lives. In referencing the power of a public speech, this story has been a great source for my own presentations to classes and corporate America. Just the sheer numbers who have been affected by the speech give powerful evidence to the importance of public speaking.

     Another important element is that this is a current story. I sometimes use the testimony of General Electric CEO Jack Welch. He said in his autobiography that his ability to tell GE success stories in his speeches was a key to spreading the good news about the company to its employees and to stockholders in his early years. Since the book was written several years ago, a testimonial about something that happened last week carries greater significance to audiences. I find that audiences listen more carefully when evidence is recent—happening today or yesterday or even last week.

     Up-to-date information is instantly relevant to an audience, and as speakers we must work hard to keep such information in our content. Let me suggest some ways to do that.

     First, research newspapers and the internet on a daily basis for information that fits your topic. I scan The Cincinnati Enquirer, which is our local newspaper, and the Wall Street Journal for information that relates to my communication topics. In addition, I peruse the New York Times Book Review Magazine for reviews of newly published books that might supply information I can use in a speech.

     Second, maintain contact with researchers in your field who can keep you abreast of breaking news. Remind them occasionally of your desire to keep up with new developments or case studies. This might be a colleague in your R & D department or someone who maintains the company library or website. Your professional organizations can also provide sources for keeping up with your area of expertise.

     Third, regularly evaluate your speeches to eliminate information that is outdated and can be replaced. If you have been using an example for two years, replacement time may have arrived. Sports stories have a short shelf life; for example, perhaps someone last week broke the record that was set in 2005 and made your World Series story outdated. Maybe someone yesterday performed an outstanding feat that should replace another story you now use.

     Finally, keep track of information that may change because of current events. What is happening in Thailand now may be drastically different from events during the tsunami aftermath a few years ago. Follow stories or studies that you use in your speeches to make any additions needed due to recent events. An illustration using Fidel Castro as a powerful leader, for example, should be followed by a comment about his continuing health challenges so your audience will know you are aware of his present situation.

     Some speech content, such as the date of an event or study, may seem insignificant. The recency effect of a day or a week or a month, however, can impact your audience to listen more carefully and even to accept the position you are advocating.

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Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor of Speech Communication in the College of Informatics at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. He works with organizations whose people want to speak and listen more effectively to increase professional and personal success. He can be reached at 800.727.6520, or visit www.sboyd.com for free articles and resources to improve your communication skills.

The Single Greatest Secret to Success

The single greatest secret to success in life is paying attention. Because of multi-tasking and the sheer amount of information we are exposed to, the inability to pay attention is becoming a serious problem. To communicate effectively, one must pay attention.

You may have heard the old story about a lady years ago who called directory assistance to get the number of a record shop to order a record. By mistake she got the number of a wrecker company. When a man answered, she asked, “Do you have “Two Lips and Ten Kisses in Texas?” 

“No ma’am,” he said, “but I have five wives and

twenty kids in Tennessee.” 

“Is that a record?” the woman asked,

incredulous.

         “I don’t know,” said the mechanic, “but it’s sure above average.”  More than one person in that story was not paying attention.

We must pay attention. One way we can do that is by making sure we understand the point of the message beyond the individual words. You can determine this by paraphrasing in your own words or by asking specifically for the person to clarify the point. You are less likely to misunderstand a word or phrase if you follow carefully the main thrust of the message.

Shut out the distractions going through your mind before you start the conversation by concentrating on an inanimate object such as the edge of a door or window or a concrete block in a wall of the room for twenty seconds. This will break the thought process and allow you to concentrate better on the message.

Focus on the face as you listen. The face is the focal part of the body. The face will help you connect to the message. I asked a caricaturist friend what he does to make each face unique and to capture the essence of the person. His response was, “I look at the shape of the face, and then the facial expression.”  But what surprised me about his answer was what he said next. “And I do that by engaging the person in conversation. Hearing the person talk helps me focus on his or her uniqueness.”

I talked to the age guesser at the Indiana State Fair’s Midway recently and asked him what  he looks for in a person to guess her or his age. His response was, “I just look at the person and go on instinct. I do not look at the people around him or her or anything about his appearance. I just concentrate on the face.”  We can apply some of the same philosophy in paying attention.

Look for content in the other person’s message that you can especially identify with. Does the person state something that connects to your job, family, hobby, home state, or favorite sport?  Even if nothing he or she says relates to you, just the mental discipline of checking on a connection will motivate you to pay better attention.

Sit so you are in line with the person you are talking to. This might mean sitting up with your knees facing your partners, leaning forward so you can make easy and direct eye contact. Show that you are paying attention by nodding at appropriate times and using facial expression that matches the content of the person’s conversation.

Finally, if you are having a hard time paying attention, admit it and set another time to continue the conversation. This lets the other person know you put a premium on paying attention.

Paying attention may not always keep you from having an accident; attention to the instructions you need to reach your destination may not help you arrive on time. But paying attention can certainly help you with human relations and help you to be an engaging and desirable person with whom people want to communicate.

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Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor of Speech Communication in the College of Informatics at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. He gives keynotes and after-dinner speeches for organizations whose people want to speak and listen more effectively to increase professional and personal success. He can be reached at 800.727.6520, or visit www.sboyd.com for free articles and resources to improve your communication skills.

Name-Dropping in Presentations

          A friend of mine once hosted at the University of Cincinnati a special committee which included both business leaders and university people. After they assembled around the conference table, she turned to one gentleman and said, “I’m sorry, but I don’t know you. What is your name?”

          Everyone froze. 

          With a gentle smile, he responded, “Neil Armstrong.”  She had certainly “dropped” his name, but not in the way we usually think of. Not recognizing the first man to walk on the moon was embarrassing.

          In speaking, name-dropping can add positive impact. Let’s examine how we should “drop” names in a speech.

First, mention the name of someone in your audience in the introduction of your speech. Before the speech, talk to enough people that you can refer to a person in the audience in a way that connects to you or your topic.

For example, I sometimes have in the audience a former student who now has a responsible job in the organization for which I am speaking. I will say, “___ was one of my students who majored in communication and now he is one of your managers. It is always great to see our graduates doing well.”  Or “I met ____ earlier today and found out he too is a Hoosier and grew up in Southern Indiana as I did.”  A specific reference to a person shows you have thought about and given attention to this specific audience. Such a reference helps establish your credibility.

          A second way to drop a name is always to tell the name of the person who is responsible for a study you reference or a statistic you use. Stating the name connected with the study or statistic indicates you have done your research and also removes any pressure for you to be responsible for the statistic or study results. You are simply the reporter of the information to prove or illustrate a point.

          Thirdly, quote a famous person. If the person is not readily familiar to them, you should also make a qualifying statement about the person. For example, I might say, “William James, an early American psychologist, said, ‘That which holds attention determines action.’”  Or “Bill Gates said, ‘How you manage and use information will determine if you win or lose.’”

Adding a literary quotation of a famous person will provide quality to the language you use; mentioning the name will add depth to your content. One of my favorites is from Goethe: “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”

When another person can say something better than you can, drop his or her name. For example, I like Thoreau’s statement, “The question is not what you look at, but what you see.”

          The last way that “dropping names” can add to your presentation is to mention someone who can be a source for more information on the topic of your speech. For example, if I were talking about learning to pay attention in a world of distractions, I might mention Alan Alda’s Never Have Your Dog Stuffed (and Other Lessons I’ve Learned) or another author who has written an article or book on the subject. If I wanted the audience to take action, I might say the name of a person who will assist in taking specific action. Doing so gives reality to the content of your speech.

          Dropping names in a speech can add depth and interest in your next speech. I’m thinking about talking to George W about how he could use some of the tips in this and other newsletter articles.

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Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor of Speech Communication in the College of Informatics at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. He works with organizations whose people want to speak and listen more effectively to increase professional and personal success. He can be reached at 800.727.6520, or visit www.sboyd.com for free articles and resources to improve your communication skills.

Be Direct!

          Last winter when our family was sightseeing in Italy, our rental car had an installed Global Positioning System. Over a period of three weeks, we commonly referred to the GPS voice as “the lady in the dashboard.” 

After about ten days of hearing this reference, our six-year-old granddaughter Kinley asked, “Can the lady in the dashboard see us?”  We all had a laugh, but although “the lady in the dashboard” could not see us, she enabled the driver more easily to find the direct way to an unfamiliar location.

          Whatever we are dealing with, we want the direct way, and that is especially true in speaking. We want to remember the truth behind the familiar admonition, “Don’t beat around the bush.”  In other words, be direct.

Let’s look at some ways we can be direct in delivering presentations. First, develop a thesis statement from your talk. This is simply the essence of your speech in one sentence. The thesis sentence may change completely from the time you start preparing the speech until you actually deliver the presentation. But this sentence provides the self-discipline to be direct and to stay on your limited topic as defined by the thesis. When you finish preparing the speech, compare the content with the thesis. If that one sentence does not apply to the thirty minutes of content, you need to keep working on it until it does. This will insure directness and avoid extraneous material.

          A second way to be direct is to use the deductive approach in organizing your thoughts. Going from the general to the specific in developing a point will illustrate directness. Make an assertion and then provide evidence for that point. Don’t begin your point by giving anecdotal material or a case study; this does not let your audience know where you are going with the thought. Give your conclusion first, and then develop your support.

          Tell the audience exactly what you want them to do or what you want them to understand. Look directly at your audience and say, “What I want you to do as a result of this presentation is…” or “The action I want you to take as a result of my three reasons is….”  Don’t make them draw their own conclusions; draw the conclusion for them. Leave no doubt as to what you want to happen as a result of speaking to them for your allotted time.

If you are delivering an informative presentation and you want the audience to understand a certain concept or how to use a particular product, tell them before you explain and then tell them again when you finish. You might do this early in the presentation by saying, “When I finish you will understand how to use this widget on your car.”  Then, in conclusion, say, “As you can see by this explanation, the way to use this widget is to….” 

          One way to improve any presentation is to apply the principles of directness. You never want an audience to leave wondering what you wanted them to do or understand. They may not agree with what you say, but at least they will understand clearly what your desired response as a result of your presentation.

Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor of Speech Communication in the College of Informatics at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. He works with organizations whose people want to speak and listen more effectively to increase professional and personal success. He can be reached at 800.727.6520, or visit www.sboyd.com for free articles and resources to improve your communication skills.

Add Spice to Your Speech with Dialogue

          As we checked in our luggage at the Fort Myers Airport, the Delta agent was intrigued by our taped suitcase. “And is this the last flight for this bag, or are you going to make it last a few more?”  he asked.

We laughingly explained that the zipper had broken and it was our only way to get our clothes home. As we started to leave, I asked, “Are they all checked?” 

“Yes,” he answered, “three bags and a roll of duct tape.”  We all enjoy the sense of humor of the agent, but this story has another element that is appealing to audiences: the use of dialogue in relating a narrative.

          When telling a story, dialogue gives you opportunities to enhance the impact of your message on the audience. Dialogue allows you to use variety in your vocal quality. As you take on the character of the person, you use a different tone of voice. You tend to change your rate of speech when you speak as another person.

          In addition, when you become one of the people in the story, you have a good reason to take a step to the right or left to show that a different person is talking. You can also make people in your audience become the other person by making eye contact and gesturing toward that person.

          The audience will pay better attention because of the change of pace the dialogue provides. And the story is more interesting when you involve other people.

          In preparing for a speech, find relevant stories which contain dialogue. The following example allows for including many nonverbal cues.

A little boy came crying to his father with the news that his turtle had died. His father looked at the dead turtle in his son’s hand and thought fast. “I know,” he said, “we’ll invite some of your friends over and we’ll have a big funeral. We’ll dig a little grave in the backyard and make a little coffin, and we’ll have a parade. I’ll speak some words over dead Herkimer there and….” About that time, the father noticed that the turtle was moving. “Hey, son, look! Your turtle isn’t dead after all!”

          The boy looked at the now animated creature, then looked at this dad with a sly grin and said, “Let’s kill him!”

          Certainly, you want to have a point to make from any story. Here the point might be that you can be too good at selling an idea and should know when to stop selling.

          Stories with dialogue can come from interviews you have had in developing content for your speech, personal experiences, historical events, and listening to other people in conversation.

          Consider making dialogue a regular part of your speaking repertoire. In doing so, you will insure variety in delivery and more attentive audiences.

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Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor of Speech Communication in the College of Informatics at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. He works with organizations whose people want to speak and listen more effectively to increase professional and personal success. He can be reached at 800.727.6520, or visit www.sboyd.com for free articles and resources to improve your communication skills.

Adapting on the Spot

            Once I was listening to an outstanding speaker when an audience member, succumbing to a long day of meetings, went to sleep so soundly that his head suddenly fell forward. He awoke with such a jerk that he pulled a muscle in his neck and had to be taken out of the room on a stretcher.

            During that time, the speaker calmly said to the audience, “We have a medical emergency. Let’s just wait until this is taken care of.”  She waited at the lectern until it was clear that the person was receiving help, then continued her speech. She became even more effective after this unexpected happening during her presentation because she knew how to adapt on the spot.

            One of the concerns of the effective speaker during preparation is to adapt to the audience he or she is addressing. But to really make a connection with a specific audience, the quality speaker must also adapt during the presentation. This requires quick thinking and the willingness to go with your intuitive impulse. Here are some tips on how to make those kinds of on-the-spot decisions.

            You are told ten minutes before your presentation that you will have to shorten your speech from 30 minutes to 20 minutes. The way to handle this emergency is not to rush through material hoping to get it all in. Instead, simply eliminate one of your points and support for you point. No one knows what you intended to include except you and thus they will just assume that that is all you planned to say.

            Sometimes an audience may be much smaller than the planner anticipated. You have many empty seats throughout the room, and empty seats make relating to an audience difficult. When you start your presentation, have everyone stand for a specific reason, such as a stretch break or to meet someone they don’t know. Then while everyone is still standing, suggest moving forward to fill an empty seat. This provides a full audience up front. Since the back rows are empty, how few people there are is less noticeable.

            You have an audience that seems lethargic or indifferent because of the length of the meeting or the time of day. What do you do to wake them up?  You see people nodding off or slouching in their seats. Make an abrupt change. Move to the back of the room as you speak, or include a piece of information that allows you to punch out words loudly. Speed up your rate of speech or make quicker gestures. If you are providing lots of data, break that up with a story related to the information you are providing.

            Finally, as you get into your speech, you realize that you have misjudged the knowledge level of your audience and that they don’t understand your material. Simply start providing more definitions and explanations. When possible, give a concrete example of the principle presented when you can tell by facial expressions that you are taking them into new territory. You might even stop and ask, “What questions do you have about what we’ve covered so far?” This gives the audience a chance to facilitate understanding by asking a pertinent question as well as giving you valuable feedback on what they do understand.

            A key part of adapting on the spot is to avoid showing that things are not going as you anticipated. Make it seem as though everything you do is carefully planned and that you are in charge. For example, don’t say, “I did not expect to have so many empty seats. Let’s all move to the front of the room.”  And refrain from saying, “I can tell this material is a little hard for you to follow, so I’ll back up and give you more definitions.” 

            When you adeptly adapt, your listeners are aware that you are audience-centered at all times and that you prepared specifically for them.

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Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor of Speech Communication in the College of Informatics at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. He works with organizations whose people want to speak and listen more effectively to increase professional and personal success. He can be reached at 800.727.6520, or visit www.sboyd.com for free articles and resources to improve your communication skills.

Keeping Material Fresh in Your Speeches

          As we prepared to take off from Cincinnati to Buffalo, the flight attendant rattled through her welcome speech so quickly that she was totally unintelligible. The clear message we did receive, however, was that she was bored with giving that speech on every flight. I’m sure you’ve experienced something similar.

          In contrast, we toured the home in Buffalo where Theodore Roosevelt was sworn in as President after President McKinley’s death. The docent there was excited about his topic and his enthusiasm was contagious. He gave the feeling that he’d just discovered all this great information and couldn’t wait to share it with us, though he has worked there for several years.

          If you speak very much, you tend to keep in your speech what works well and what is comfortable for you. However, to continue to be enthusiastic and appear fresh and current, you need to regularly add new material. Here are some ways to keep looking for material that will add depth and relevance to your content.

          Talk to people who have different backgrounds. They can give you a fresh approach to material you know a lot about. For example, I recently had a conversation with the president of a private university. He talked about some of the ways they are reaching the community, including persuading city fathers to make significant community announcements from their campus. This demonstrated that the university was integrating itself effectively into the community and becoming a force there. Since I am in a public university that also seeks to reach out to the community, I appreciated this different approach to reaching the same goal.

          Read in areas outside your expertise. I subscribe to Field and Stream although I am a minimal fisherman. Reading about hunting strategies for different wildlife and the kinds of equipment needed gives me information I had never thought about before.

          Another way of finding fresh material is to research a current event. A couple of years ago when I read about the suddenness of the tsunami that hit Thailand, I found that there were no large animals destroyed; they had all moved to higher ground. There seems to be a sixth sense in animals that allows them to anticipate danger and remove themselves. In one of my speeches I talk about the importance of being attentive to the events around us as we go through the day. I can incorporate the animals’ movements as an example of paying attention.

This month, race car drivers are qualifying for the Indianapolis 500. It is fascinating to contemplate how a driver can go around a track at over 225 miles per hour. Reading background information about the race might provide me with an idea or example for my next presentation.

          Another way of finding creative material to is to become involved in some activity that you fear. Because of fear in this area, you probably have avoided learning about it. Confront your fear, and you will also become educated in that area.

          I often coach in presentation skills people who have avoided speaking for years because of their fear. But once they start learning and practicing, they usually manage to cope with their fear of public speaking. In the process, they also learn a lot about techniques in giving presentations. Some even come to enjoy it! 

           I have a tremendous fear of heights, but the times when I have made myself face that fear—by climbing to the top of Ayers Rock, or most recently going to a look-out point at the top of Niagara Falls—I have learned not only about fascinating aspects of nature, but also the kinds of feelings I have when facing that fear.

          A final way to add new material to your next presentation is through observation. Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.”  On your drive to work or to your client, look around you for things that might be happening that you could relate to in a speech.

For example, near where I live a construction company is excavating a large residential area to build a shopping mall. As these older houses are razed, we see basement openings and configurations of trees in different stages of being bulldozed and pulled out. Watching how debris is removed and how a hill is being leveled are uncommon sights for most of us who drive by. A picture of a house foundation or of a 100-year-old tree being felled might be an attention device to demonstrate change, often a common topic in corporate speeches.

          As you can see, there are many ways of adding new content to keep fresh and engaging the ideas you present on a regular basis. There is no excuse for a speaker to sound bored as he or she presents ideas, even though they have been shared a dozen times before. Simply plug in at appropriate places comparisons, statistics, stories, and slides which have been obtained in any of the several ways described in this article. To your attentive audience, you will sound as though you are delivering the material for the first time.

          Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is a professor of speech communication at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky, and pulpit minister of the Central Church, Cincinnati, Ohio. He works with organizations that want to speak and listen more effectively to increase personal and professional performance. He can be reached at 800-727-6520, info@sboyd.com, or visit http://www.sboyd.com for free articles and resources to improve your communication skills.

So You Have to Deliver a Manuscript Speech!

       Years ago, a Kentucky State Senator was delivering a speech in the legislative session. The speech had been written by a disgruntled speechwriter who knew the Senator never looked over the manuscript before he delivered it.

       When the Senator got near the bottom of the first page, the script said, “Now the three most important points in this bill are….”  He turned the page to see only these words in large print, “You are on your own…I quit!”

       That story indicates one of the most important reminders about using a manuscript speech:  prepare as carefully as you would for a speech given from notes. There is the misconception among some that since the speech is written, you don’t have to spend much time in practicing—that because your speech is in front of you, all you have to do is read it.

       Avoid the manuscript speech if at all possible; it is very difficult to deliver effectively.

Because you read it, eye contact with the audience is difficult, your gestures and other nonverbal tend to be limited, and you will be tempted to read in a monotone. You might have trouble adapting immediately to an unusual audience response, and you can easily stumble over words.

       But certain situations demand the manuscript—a very important presentation where you could be misquoted, a highly technical speech, or a eulogy or toast where each word has significant meaning. When those criteria exist, here are some suggestions, in addition to careful preparation, to effectively deliver the manuscript speech.

       Place visual reminders in the margins. You could sketch a set of eyes as a reminder to make eye contact, a drawing of a megaphone to encourage you to speak louder, or a drawing of a hand to motivate you to gesture.

       Have lots of white space on each page so you won’t look down unnecessarily. Double-space. Only type two-thirds of the way down the page so you can maximize eye contact.

       If you have trouble pronouncing words as you practice, write the word phonetically in bold print above it. Practice saying words that are difficult for you, or choose a synonym instead.

       Look at the audience at the ends of sentences, ends of paragraphs, ends of pages, and ends of thoughts. This makes your eye contact natural; you avoid looking up and then down at your manuscript in the middle of a sentence. Thus you won’t break up your thought and make your delivery sound choppy to the audience. You will sound more competent and confident when you pause and look up at the audience at a natural break.

       Finally, don’t hide the fact that you are using a manuscript. There might be times when you want to hold the page up and take a step to show transition in the content of your presentation. As long as you can maintain a natural delivery with purposeful gestures, eye contact, and vocal variety, seeing you read your speech will not be a problem.

       Delivering a manuscript speech is rare, but there are times it is the preferred style. When you need to use this mode, the above tips will allow you to connect with your audience and deliver the speech enthusiastically.

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        Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor of Speech Communication in the College of Informatics at Northern Kentucky University in Highland Heights, Kentucky. He works with organizations whose people want to speak and listen more effectively to increase personal and professional success. He can be reached at 800-727-6520, or visit http://www.sboyd.com for free articles and resources to improve your communication skills.

Did I Hear What You Really Meant To Say?

         

          A wife asked her husband, “Have you heard the story about the dirty window?”

          “No,” he answered. “What is it?”

          “Oh, well, you couldn’t see through it anyway,” she responded.

          The next day the husband thought he would repeat this to a neighbor, so he asked, “Have you heard the story about the window you couldn’t see through?”

          “No,” replied the neighbor. “How does it go?”

          “Oh, well, it’s too dirty to tell anyway,” he answered. Unfortunately, many of our communication situations follow this same model of confusion.

          What you hear is not always what the speaker intended. How can you make sure you listen and assimilate what the talker wanted you to understand?

          One way is to interrupt with a question about whatever is unclear. This is one of the few times you can interrupt without offending. You show your concern for correct interpretation of the message. Ask for clarification about a word, story, an assertion, or a conclusion the person makes. If you don’t ask right then, you risk being distracted by what was unclear and missing the rest of the message.

          When he or she finishes speaking, paraphrase what you felt the person said. Begin your paraphrase by saying, “What I hear you saying is…” Quickly you will know if you got the message the way the speaker intended. This is especially important anytime you are receiving instructions or directions.

          Perhaps give an example of the meaning you interpret when he or she finishes his or her comment. If the example does not fit, the talker can clarify and you get the real message. Giving an example will also reinforce the fact that you were really listening and seeking to understand. This is a high compliment to the talker and will increase your credibility with the person.

          Apply the mental discipline of concentrating on the content of the message you are listening to by asking yourself as you listen, “What is the point?” Or “What is the meaning thus far?” If you feel there is no point, you can interrupt by saying, “I’m not sure I understand, could you say that again?” Usually, this will encourage the talker to be more concise when he or she gives the message the second time.

          Above all, if you are giving the person your attention as he or she speaks—give ALL your attention; don’t be doing other things. If you can’t give your undivided attention at that time, say, “Can I call you back in a few minutes when I can give better attention to what you’re saying?” or “I have an appointment in a few minutes, and I am having trouble concentrating on your message. I don’t want to miss anything you are saying. Could we continue this conversation first thing tomorrow morning?”

          Certainly being able to retell a joke accurately is not a significant commentary on your listening skills. Misinterpreting the message of your manager, your spouse, or the service manager at the car dealership, however, can create daily frustrations and hardships that can be avoided if you apply these techniques.

Stephen D. Boyd, Ph.D., CSP, is Professor of Speech Communication in the College of Informatics at Northern Kentucky University. He works with organizations whose people want to speak and listen more effectively to increase professional and personal success. He can be reached at 800.727.6520, or visit www.sboyd.com for free articles and resources to improve your communication skills.