3 Speaking Skills of Effective Leaders
Positions of leadership, whether they are in a small start-up or Fortune 500 company, tend to require speaking as part of the position. Honing one’s speaking skills as a leader is paramount, not merely because it helps you clearly communicate with your constituents, but because it can open the door for additional opportunities, like helping you develop your credibility as a leader, and even invitations to speak at conferences and events. While not everyone has a burning desire to become a highly sought-after public speaker, having strong speaking skills as a leader is essential to creating connections, earning respect from your peers in the industry and establishing credibility.
A quick note: honing one’s speaking skills does not necessarily entail overcoming the fear of public speaking. Even excellent speakers can still be terrified when they first step onto the stage. However, as your skills improve and you gain experience through practice and speaking opportunities, so will your confidence in your abilities, which typically translates to feeling less fear and being more comfortable on stage.
1. Share Stories
Memorable speeches and addresses usually contain some kind of story. Stories make speeches stick because listeners can easily relate to and remember the arc and main characters described. In addition to utilizing stories to establish a point, they can be effective ways to initiate engagement and break the ice. Attention spans are short, so capturing your audience’s attention in a gripping way within the first minute or so of your address is crucial, even if it is just to your small staff at the weekly meeting.
Opening with a funny personal anecdote, an inspiring story of someone you know or even a historical example that illustrates your main point can make the difference between a monotonous address and a delivery that your listeners will connect with and continue to ponder throughout their day. The more personal, relatable, and succinct the story is, the better.
2. Adapt to Your Audience
Every great speaker tries to learn about their audience before speaking so that they can adjust the delivery of their message in a way that will have a better chance of resonating with their audience. For instance, if you’re talking to your staff, consider their experiences and knowledge of the subject matter. Factors like these should influence not only the topic of your address but also your delivery. A younger, less experienced audience, for instance, may need more underlying background information, but to a more experienced audience, spending too much time on basic information they already know would make them feel like you are speaking down to them, or even wasting their time with information they already know.
The key is to create a connection with your listeners in order to maintain their attention. Reading the room before you start your speech is an effective way to reevaluate your speaking tactics before you start. I usually try to walk around the room and introduce myself to learn a bit about the attendees before I speak to help me make adjustments to my delivery approach before I get on stage. Perhaps you have a funny story locked and loaded to share, but upon entering the speaking space, you see that your audience looks weary, overworked and stressed. Taking note of these nonverbal cues right away should influence how you speak. In this kind of case, using a more gentle and warm speaking style might resonate better.
3. Work from an Outline
Few speakers are adept enough to give off-the-cuff deliveries, and even those who are would do a better job of staying on track with an outline. Don’t be deceived into believing you will remember all your important points by trying to memorize your speech. You don’t want to waste your or your audience’s time by getting off track, forgetting a key section of your speech, or neglecting to touch on the important points you came to share in the first place.
Every speaker is different, and you have to find what works for you. I have found that an audience connects better with a speaker who is not reading from a script, and not standing behind a podium. I usually write out my speech, but I never memorize it. In fact, if I give the same speech two or three times in a row, it will be slightly different each time, as I gauge what is resonating with each particular audience. For instance, I recently spoke at an event that had so many attendees that I spoke to half the group on each of two nights. While I made the same key points each night, the speeches were very different from each other.
After I write my speech, I create an outline of the key points and how I plan to illustrate those points with a story, and then I memorize my outline. I then just talk from my memorized outline, typically without notes and I stand as close as I can get to the audience while on stage (not behind a podium). Since I haven’t memorized my speech, I can never get stuck because I forget the next sentence, which is likely to happen if I try and memorize my speech word for word. The audience doesn’t know what was in my original speech anyway. I just let the discussion flow from my memorized very simple outline. I have found that enables me to focus on the audience and allows me to see what is resonating, and what is not. If it is a point that seems to create interest and energy with the audience, I will stay on that point longer, and if I sense it is not resonating, I will move on to my next point.
It doesn’t have to be detailed, but a simple outline containing your big points and subpoints can keep you on track and is easy to commit to memory. You can even put them on an iPad or piece of paper if you feel you need a crutch when you first start your speaking, but you will sound better and do a better job of connecting to the audience without it. And if you do use a PowerPoint or Prezi presentation, make sure the words on the slides are different from the words coming out of your mouth. The visuals should help engage the audience and illustrate your point, but never read the slides to the audience. That is boring, and they can read the slides themselves. Well-crafted slides can also serve as a reminder to the speaker of what they need to discuss next.
Bonus Tip 1: Some advice I was given many years ago was that “People will never remember what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.” (I tried to research who first said this, and there are many people who it is ascribed to, I don’t really know who to thank). The point is that it is much more important that you make an emotional connection with your audience through your stories, illustrations, and speaking style, rather than the actual words you say. For me, that takes a lot of pressure away! And if you end up leaving out a few lines that were in your original typed-out speech, don’t worry about it--the audience will never know! Focus on the connection with the audience and you will have a very successful speech!
Bonus Tip 2: practice, practice, practice. Practice your speech several times in a mirror before you deliver, perhaps even recording it on your iPhone camera to review before your presentation. Even the best speakers in the world know to practice their speeches before delivering them. By creating an outline for your discussion (no matter how short or long), incorporating stories and illustrations that the audience can relate to, adapting your style and message to your particular audience, and practicing beforehand, you can significantly increase your speaking skills in a short amount of time, which will ultimately establish you as a more engaging and competent leader that people will want to listen to and follow.