Project Your Voice

In my previous post, I gave you tips to influence your stakeholders. One of the best way to do this is by inspiring the people around you.

When you inspire people, you motivate them personally and emotionally. You also encourage your stakeholders to greater success, to adopt higher goals or to contribute to the success of your project.

Inspiring people relies more on emotional appeal than logical appeal.

First you need to connect with your audience’s feelings. You need to recognize and address their fears and goals. You can use Maslow’s hierarchy of needs as a checklist. You will know that you have connected with your listeners when you see them nodding their heads.

Now that you established the connection, you need to describe the desired changes. As you lay out the plan, make sure you show them how their fears and worries are counterproductive.

You can now challenge your listener to adopt nobler feelings and values. Make sure to explain the benefits of these new sentiments.

To support these steps towards inspiration, you must pay particular attention to the words you use. Be prepared to use quotes, stories and anecdotes. Use inclusive language to unite your listeners and create a bond between you and them. For example, use we instead of you. Make sure to use action verbs to convey power. Finally, be positive with your team, don’t criticize.

With these tips, you can light a fire in your stakeholders’ bellies. You will set them on the path to success. Everybody’s success.

The Stakeholder Management knowledge area explains that we are called to influence our stakeholders in favour of our project. The question is how do we do that?

There are three ways you can persuade your stakeholders: you can inspire them, you can convince them or you can call them to action. Inspiring people is all about creating excitement. Convincing people is about changing people’s minds. Finally, a call to action is about getting your stakeholders to do something.

Your influence on your stakeholders will depend greatly on the opinion you create of your knowledge, reputation and sincerity. Your knowledge is based on your qualifications and your supporting material. Your reputation is built on past performance, accomplishments and honours. Your sincerity is reflected in your conviction and your belief in the benefits to the stakeholders.

If your stakeholders are agreeable, your job is to strengthen and reinforce their sentiments. If they are apathetic, you need to show them how they are affected. If they are hostile, all you can do is get them to recognize the merits of your position. If they are simply uninformed, you must educate and convince them.

Your burden of proof should rely on logic. It should also rely on emotions like anger towards the problem and happiness for your solution.

You can present your message in different ways. You could present the problem followed by the solution. You could state a proposition which you would then support with proof. You could compare multiple solutions’ pros and cons then share your recommendation.

Your message starts with a bold statement, seizing your stakeholder’s attention. Follow up by stating the need or problem. You then satisfy your stakeholder with the solution. Now, paint a picture of the future with and without your solution, in your stakeholders’ mind. Conclude with a short statement calling them to action.

Don’t use notes: they cast doubts on your sincerity, knowledge and conviction.

As you master the art of persuasion, you will improve your stakeholders’ view of your project and of what the project can do for them.

You might be comfortable managing your stakeholders, the audience, during a presentation. Do you manage your presentation material properly?

Visual aids are great tools to support a point and increase understanding. From PowerPoints to props, visual aids may even be time savers.

The right visual aid will depend on the information you wish to convey and the size of your audience.

Visual aids need to enhance, not detract from, your delivery. Keep your visual aids simple and consistent. Don’t speak while you’re writing on a white board or flip chart.

A visual aid should support one main point. In the case of PowerPoint, that means you want each slide to represent one idea. Leave lots of white space. You want your audience to be looking at you, not your visual aid. If need be, give them a copy of the slides, after the presentation. It’s probably a good backup plan to have paper copies on hand, anyway.

Remember that a presentation is about you and the message. It is never about the visual aids. Plan your presentation like a project and your message will be understood and appreciated by the audience.

When you address your project team or stakeholders, it is important that the language you use be appropriate and correct.

Your language is appropriate when the words used match your purpose and your audience. For example, if your purpose is to inspire people, you will need to use words that bring about emotions in your audience. If you are sharing a story, use plenty of names and descriptive words.

Your language is correct when your audience pays attention to what you say, not how you say it. Be careful about grammar and how you enunciate your words. Take care when stating people’s names. Keep your words, sentences and paragraphs short.

Make the language work for you and your audience.  The message will come through loud and clear.

When communicating with others, make sure to use more than just your voice. Yes, you can do phenomenal things with voice variety but that’s still only one weapon in your communication arsenal. Don’t forget that you have a whole body that speaks volume to your audience.

Consider your stance. Do you slouch? People will think you are shy. Do you shift your weight from one foot to another? People will see you as uncomfortable and nervous. Make sure you stand straight with your feet apart. When sitting down, make sure to take space by keeping your arms open and leaning back in your chair.

If you plan on moving about while talking, make sure that each location represents a point or story in your presentation. When you are repeating or adding to the point, come back to the same spot. When you have to say something important, move closer to your audience.

Your gestures can greatly help in making physical attributes, such as size, weight, shape and direction, more visual. Hands, such as closed fists, can also help impress your audience on important points. Arms can also be balanced to help with comparisons.

Your face is what will set the emotional tone for your audience. They will pick up your expressions before they get your verbal message. When using facial expressions, think like a theater actor: the bigger the audience, the bigger your expressions must be.

Finally, use eye contact to build rapport with the people. If you are speaking to one person and don’t feel comfortable looking that person in the eyes, look at the bridge of their nose. You can look up and down but as soon as your gaze moves left or right, you will break the connection with the person.

While all this body language can and should be practiced, your goal is ultimately to look natural. Using your full body will make your communication much more effective, entertaining and enjoyable.