Just like a baseball pitcher, preparing for a World Series works at trying to eliminate mistakes while throwing that ball the successful speaker or presenter works at continuous voice improvement -- eliminating sloppiness while speaking.
Back in 1953 Harrison Karr, Ph.D. summed it all up very nicely in his book Developing Your Speaking Voice published by Harper & Row in which he said that our goals should be to build a voice that is first of all expressive -- able to capture and project all the shades of meaning; vital, -- full of energy and enthusiasm -- "strong enough to suggest strength of personality"; articulate -- able to recreate words clearly with no slurred or indistinct components; pleasant -- "with a tonal quality that attracts"; free from affectation -- expressing warmth and sincerity in a normal voice; personality -- your natural personality -- whoever you are. (Don't try to be somebody else or something your're not.)
All worthwhile goals and something all of us need to keep improving on. And one of the best ways to do this is to work on these qualities at all times -- in our everyday conversations as well as our speeches and presentations.
Just like that major league pitcher needs to keep working on his techniques between seasons so we too need to keep honing our speaking voices between those speeches or presentations.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Monday, October 8, 2012
Detecting and Dealing With Fake Listeners
The best way to encourage people to listen to what you have to say is to make it as concise and interesting as possible and loaded with benefits to them. But that still might not draw everybody in. You might still have fake listeners.
These are the great pretenders who respond with cliche comments like: "That's interesting!' "Is that right?" " How about that!" often accompanied by the appropriate facial expression such a smile, a raised eye brow, or a shake of their heads in disbelief. They might appear to be listening intently but their minds are miles away.
But you can detect such fake listeners by watching for poor eye contact shuffling feet or fidgety hands or a disinterested slump.
Watch for these or perhaps an unrelated response that has nothing to do with what you are talking about.
You can snap such ones out of this game by asking pointed questions says Ken J. Murphy in his book Effective Listening asking such things as: "Oh, do you find that interesting? What about it in particular interests you?"
That type of question would obviously work only with an audience of one or two persons but other questions such as: "Does anyone have any thoughts about this this?" or other questions to see if people understand what you are saying would work with an audience of any size.
Many speakers leave any question periods to the end of the presentation when they turn the floor over to the audience but if you feel you might have an audience infiltrated by more than a few idea surfers -- getting carried away with whatever flashes into their minds instead of listening you to making your presentation more interactive with intermittent questions will help you to keep them more attentive to your ideas while you are speaking.
These are the great pretenders who respond with cliche comments like: "That's interesting!' "Is that right?" " How about that!" often accompanied by the appropriate facial expression such a smile, a raised eye brow, or a shake of their heads in disbelief. They might appear to be listening intently but their minds are miles away.
But you can detect such fake listeners by watching for poor eye contact shuffling feet or fidgety hands or a disinterested slump.
Watch for these or perhaps an unrelated response that has nothing to do with what you are talking about.
You can snap such ones out of this game by asking pointed questions says Ken J. Murphy in his book Effective Listening asking such things as: "Oh, do you find that interesting? What about it in particular interests you?"
That type of question would obviously work only with an audience of one or two persons but other questions such as: "Does anyone have any thoughts about this this?" or other questions to see if people understand what you are saying would work with an audience of any size.
Many speakers leave any question periods to the end of the presentation when they turn the floor over to the audience but if you feel you might have an audience infiltrated by more than a few idea surfers -- getting carried away with whatever flashes into their minds instead of listening you to making your presentation more interactive with intermittent questions will help you to keep them more attentive to your ideas while you are speaking.
Monday, October 1, 2012
An Illustration of Commitment
Here's a good illustration about one-hundred percent commitment and success.
This comes to us through a seagull looking for drink of water and refreshment. I encountered him (or her) around the back of a building on a hot day last month seeking relief from the scorching heat. And the way it went about is a perfect illustration of how one-hundred percent commitment is the key to success in whatever you're trying to do.
This hot and thirsty bird could have been content to just peck at the shallow puddles on the asphalt below a leaking water tap. But instead traced the water back to is source and put itself right under the tap where he could drink the water as it came out of the tap and have a cooling shower at the same time.
You couldn't have been happier as the water flowed over its buddy and into its open beak until its thirst was quenched and it flew away, refreshed and full of vitality. I'm sure this wouldn't have happened if it had been content just to peck half-heartedly at those shallow puddles full of sand and other debris from the building under demolition.
The to its success was willingness to put everything it had into getting refreshed with that water just as the key to any project we start is the same one-hundred percent commitment to doing whatever it takes to succeed.
Not too bad an illustration for a speech or even some feature article. You might even be able to use something like this an an interest grabbing introduction to your speech or presentation.
Just remember that such illustrations are all around you if you keep our eyes open for them and keep that camera or note book handy.
This comes to us through a seagull looking for drink of water and refreshment. I encountered him (or her) around the back of a building on a hot day last month seeking relief from the scorching heat. And the way it went about is a perfect illustration of how one-hundred percent commitment is the key to success in whatever you're trying to do.
This hot and thirsty bird could have been content to just peck at the shallow puddles on the asphalt below a leaking water tap. But instead traced the water back to is source and put itself right under the tap where he could drink the water as it came out of the tap and have a cooling shower at the same time.
You couldn't have been happier as the water flowed over its buddy and into its open beak until its thirst was quenched and it flew away, refreshed and full of vitality. I'm sure this wouldn't have happened if it had been content just to peck half-heartedly at those shallow puddles full of sand and other debris from the building under demolition.
The to its success was willingness to put everything it had into getting refreshed with that water just as the key to any project we start is the same one-hundred percent commitment to doing whatever it takes to succeed.
Not too bad an illustration for a speech or even some feature article. You might even be able to use something like this an an interest grabbing introduction to your speech or presentation.
Just remember that such illustrations are all around you if you keep our eyes open for them and keep that camera or note book handy.
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