Project Your Voice

When you conclude, you have to leave your audience restless. You want them wanting more. Even better, you want them starting something new.

Start what?

Start a new way of thinking, a new journey, or even a new action.

When you speak to people your words should never be an end. They should always produce something new.

Yes, you can review quickly the points you presented in the body of your speech. This is a good way to entrench your message into their mind. Just don’t leave it at that.

If you plan on persuading and inspiring people, consider leaving them with a challenge. The challenge should be, SMART, like a goal: specific, measurable, achievable, results-focused, and time-bound.

In my blood donation speech mentioned before, I ended with a challenge that each person make one blood donation in the next two weeks. Do not water down your challenge with words like “consider” or “suggest”. The next time you see them, ask them if they have met your challenge yet. If not, offer them support and encouragement.

Like a finish-to-start dependency, when you conclude your speech your audience starts working on your message.

Between your introduction and your conclusion is the body of your speech. This is where you present your points that support the purpose of your communication. If you want your listeners to remember your points, keep them to three or less.

Each point should present sufficient information to convince your audience. A point should contain an assertion supported with information and an anecdote, preferably personal.

When I did a speech on being a blood donor, I supported my three points (feeling good about yourself, supporting your community, helping save lives) with personal stories from my twenty years of blood donations. That brought home each point I was making.

Not only was I able to substantiate my statements but the stories also allowed me to build an emotional bond with my audience.

You may notice I presented my points in order of reverse importance. Keep your best point for last. The idea is to leave your audience nodding, smiling and engaged.

Build a great speech body. It will impress your stakeholders.

Whether you are to speak for ten, twenty or two minutes, you want to set the mood with an introduction.

The introduction serves two purposes. First, it showcases your credentials: why should your audience be interested in what you have to say? In a more formal setting, you may be introduced by someone else who will attend to this purpose.

The second purpose for your introduction is to tease, excite and arouse your audience. The idea is to connect immediately and completely with your audience. You want their rapt attention; they want to hear more.

There are different ways you can achieve this purpose.

You can use a question. Use a closed question to physically engage your audience: “How many have experienced team communication difficulties?” Lead the answer by raising your whole arm in the air, not just your hand. Alternatively, you can use an open, rhetorical question to get your audience thinking: “Remember the last time you were not understood by your team?” Make sure to give your audience a few seconds to think about it.

You can use a quote. Make sure that the quote is vivid and its source renown. You don’t necessarily want the audience to remember the whole quote but you want it to make an impression. Consider repeating the quote, for emphasis, when you conclude.

Another way to introduce your topic is to use statistics. “Four in five project team members misunderstand what the project manager requires of them.” Make sure that the stats sufficiently impress your listeners. Use “four in five” rather than “80%”. Don’t forget to identify the source of the data. Do not spell out the web link. Give the link on a handout instead.

Questions, quotes and quips are great ways to set the mood for what you are about to share. Make sure to practice all three and you will become a speaker that requires no introduction... but uses them.

When you talk, think of it as a project. You plan what you will say, you say it, then you review what you said.

Part of your planning will include structuring. Think introduction, point(s) you wish to make, and conclusion.

When you speak off the cuff, you are doing the planning a few seconds ahead of the delivery.

When it’s over, consider asking someone for feedback on what you said. At the very least, review yourself. Jot down something you thought could have been better.

Your words have the power to shape people’s mind. Take your time; choose words carefully.

Think short: short words, short sentences, short paragraphs.

People don’t remember long words. They remember the short ones.