Coaching

Ever fallen asleep while someone else made a speech? Chances are that person was reading from a script. That’s never a good idea. Make it a habit to speak from as few notes as you can. That way you’ll sound spontaneous. If you have to speak from a script, don’t just read it, but sing it. Be passionate about what you have to say and deliver it in a way that will make it easy for people to understand what you want them to know. If you find it difficult being passionate, then at least make sure people don’t fall asleep while you speak. Pick out the important terms in your script and mark them with an accent. Insert columns to mark pauses immediately before and after important messages, then underline the message.

This will make it stand out. Pauses are particular effective in catching people’s attention. Notice how composers use what they call rests in their music to achieve the same thing. And there’s another page you can take from a composer’s book: place arrows facing upward or downward where you would want to raise or lower your voice. If this sounds like tips for a musical performance, that’s because a musical performance is about speaking to people’s emotions and trying to give them an unforgettable experience. In other words, exactly what you are trying to achieve with your speech, isn’t it?