10 public speaking techniques that make great speech out of ordinary speech

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Top tips from James Hume's book Secrets of Great Speakers. Speak like Churchill, behave like Lincoln”, which will teach exciting and convincing public speaking.

The appearance of the head of the company, his leadership qualities and sales skills determine the success of the enterprise. This is known by PR specialists who write speeches for leaders, think over their appearance, teach them how to speak in public and correctly place accents. However, even the best PR specialist cannot independently turn an ordinary person into a bright personality, a hero of public speeches.

The book by James Hume - famous writer and former speechwriter for five American presidents - reveals some of the secrets of public speaking and charisma creation. Having mastered the techniques suggested by the author, you will gain confidence and learn how to easily and successfully cope with public speaking.

1. Pause

Where should any successful performance start? The answer is simple: with a pause. It doesn't matter what kind of speech you have: a detailed presentation for a few minutes or a short introduction by the next speaker - you must achieve silence in the room. Going to the podium, look around the audience and fix your gaze on one of the listeners. Then mentally say the first sentence to yourself and after an expressive pause, start talking.

2. First phrase

All successful speakers attach great importance to the opening phrase of their speech. It should be powerful and be sure to elicit a positive response from the audience.

The first phrase is, in TV terminology, the "prime time" of your speech. At this moment, the audience is at its maximum in number: every person in the audience wants to look at you and find out what kind of bird you are. Within a few seconds, the screening of listeners may begin: someone will continue the conversation with a neighbor, someone will bury their phone, and someone will fall asleep altogether. However, the first phrase will be listened to by all without exception.

3. Bright start

If you do not have a bright, suitable aphorism in stock that can grab everyone's attention, start with a story from your life. If you have an important fact or news unknown to the audience, start right away with it (“Yesterday at 10 o'clock in the morning …”). For the audience to perceive you as a leader, you need to immediately take the bull by the horns: choose a strong beginning.

4. Main idea

Before you even sit down to write your speech, you must define its main point. This key point that you want to convey to the audience should be succinct, capacious, "fit in a matchbox."

Stop, look and make a plan: first of all, highlight the key thoughts, and then you can already supplement and explain them with examples from life or quotes.

As Churchill said, good speech is like a symphony: it can be performed at three different tempos, but it must retain the basic melody.

5. Quotes

There are a few rules to follow to give strength to your citation. First, the quote should be close to you. Never quote an author who is unfamiliar to you, uninteresting, or unpleasant for you to quote. Secondly, the name of the author must be known to the audience, and the quote itself must be short.

You also need to learn how to create a citation environment. Many successful speakers use similar techniques: before quoting, they pause and wear glasses, or with a serious look they read a quote from a card or, for example, a newspaper sheet.

If you want to make a special impression with a quote, write it on a small card, take it out of your wallet during the presentation, and read it out.

6. Wit

Surely you have been advised many times to dilute your speech with a joke or anecdote. There is some truth in this advice, but do not forget that a joke for the sake of a joke only offends the listener.

You don't need to start your speech with an anecdote that has nothing to do with the situation ("It seems that it is customary to start a speech with an anecdote, and so. Somehow a man comes to a psychiatrist …"). Better to quietly jump to your funny story in the middle of your speech to defuse the situation.

The author of the book advises to use the rule of three Rs to test a joke or sharpness: the joke must be realistic, relevant and told (not read).

7. Reading

Sight-reading speech with downcast eyes, to put it mildly, does not delight the audience. How then to proceed? Is it really necessary to memorize a half-hour long talk? Not at all. You need to learn how to read correctly.

The first rule of reading a speech: never speak a word when your eyes are looking at the paper.

Use the SOS technique: look - stop - say.

For training, take any text. Lower your eyes and mentally take a picture of a few words. Then raise your head and stop. Then, looking at any object on the other side of the room, tell what you remember. And so on: look at the text, stop, speak.

8. Techniques of the speaker

It is known that Churchill recorded his speeches like poetry, dividing them into separate phrases and writing each one on a separate line. To make your speech sound even more convincing, use this technique.

Use rhymes and internal consonance in the phrase to give the sound of your speech a poetic force of influence (for example, Churchill's phrase "We must follow the principles of humanism, not bureaucracy").

It is very simple to come up with rhymes, it is enough to remember the most common of them: -na (war, silence, necessary), -ta (darkness, emptiness, dream), -ch (sword, speech, flow, meetings), -oses / wasps (roses, threats, tears, questions), -anie, -yes, -on, -cy, -izm and so on. Practice with these simpler rhymes while making up sonorous phrases.

But remember: the rhymed phrase should be the same for the whole speech, you do not need to turn your speech into a poem.

And so that the rhyme does not go to waste, express in this phrase the key idea of the speech.

9. Questions and pauses

Many speakers use questions to connect with the public. Remember one rule: never ask a question if you don't know the answer to it. Only by predicting the reaction of the public can you prepare and get the most out of the question.

10. Final

Even if your speech was inexpressive, a good ending can fix everything. To make an impression in the finale, tune in, call on your emotions: pride, hope, love, and others. Try to convey these feelings to your listeners as the great speakers of the past did.

In no case do not end your speech on a minor note, this is simply destroying your career. Use uplifting quotes, poems, or jokes.

And finally, the author's last advice: surprise your listeners, take them by surprise! This is what all great speakers have done. Do not be predictable and prosaic, do not become slaves to pleasantries. Be different from everyone else.