Art Of Great Speaking

Here is an example of someone who tried to speak in a different accent and someone who spoke naturally and the impact it has on being persuasive or not

For instance, a college student talked with a decided eastern accent. Although he’d perfected this accent well, and he was a clever actor, his speaking wasn’t natural for him. Investigation uncovered that this student was a native mid-westerner however that he hated his “hill-billy” environment. He signed up at Harvard University, but after a few months went back to his native haunts. He brought back with him, however, the Harvard method of talking. Even now he has continued speaking in that manner, most likely not realizing his unnatural-ness, clever as it is, has detracted from his ability to persuade. Once in class he said, “My ten-year-old son said, ‘Fathah, if I talked like you the boys just wouldn’t play with me at all.’ So I haven’t encouraged him to talk like me because evah pe’son must be himself!”
Audience members want to feel that a presenter is genuine, trustworthy, and dependable. And in most cases, however not at all times, they can tell when he lacks those particular qualities. No matter how loudly a public speaker yells, “I am sincere, honest, and dependable!” or no matter how much he purposely attempts to impress individuals with his virtues, his persuasive efforts will usually be fruitless unless those commendable qualities are an ingrained part of his personality. The very fact that a speaker tries consciously to impress his honesty upon an audience may be proof that he lacks this attribute.
Capable personality articulates a subtle, sub-conscious, yet a highly persuasive, language.
For instance, by no stretch of the imagination can Homer Osborn, a grower in Southern Indiana, have been called a 2nd Winston Churchill. He didn’t know the power of words, neither was he very skilled in presenting! However he did possess some basic personal qualities which added definitely to his persuasiveness when from time to time he did address people in his community:
1.    He was as genuine as a gold nugget.
2.    He thoroughly believed every thing he explained.
3.    He was very humble but believed in himself and in others.
4.    His honesty, frankness, truthfulness, courage, earnestness, and optimism induced people to trust and to really like him.
5.Even though he never attended college, his knowledge and good common sense was admired.
6.People knew they could rely upon him and what he said as certainly as they might anticipate a sunrise in August.
7.    He had a firm, sensible faith in God to Whom he turned for extra wisdom and strength.

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How do you feel when you are about to speak in front of an audience?

When a public speaker walks out in front of an audience believing that, as opposed to being on trial, he and his ideas are completely acceptable, his self-confidence immediately begins motivating this positive condition. Of course his liking and respect for the audience prevents his self-confidence from turning into severe or reaching the stage of egotism.
Confidence builds more confidence. Notice just how this functions when a team has a significant rally in a baseball game. 2 or 3 batters hit the baseball, yet another walks. The successful spirit is there. With extra self-confidence and eagerness the batters step up to the batting zone. The opposing pitcher will lose some self-confidence. He thinks about the clubhouse and a bath. He sees his name in the losing column on the neighborhood sports page. Every one of these influences have got their effects.
Likewise, whenever a public speaker steps out on a platform already possessing a winning spirit, his attitude definitely promotes that result. Obviously the opposite outcome is suggested when he arrives beaten just before he begins.
We see a victor as being a content, pleasant, smiling person. Notice a team which has only just lost a significant baseball competition. The players are an image of gloom, dejection, and defeat. But look at the delighted winners! In a somewhat comparable manner, a public speaker that feels himself to be a winner will appear like one. His smile, nevertheless, will come from deep inside. It will be natural, not added on. There will be nothing artificial or insincere about him because he has a deep affinity for his subject matter, and an keen want to discuss it with listeners he likes and sincerely respects.
Any “put on” manner will be resented by audiences. As Cecil B. DeMille said, “Affectedness in speech is the worst fault of all … Be yourself; your individuality is the most precious thing you possess. Let your voice be forthright and honest.”
Be your finest natural personal self.
When we purposely try to replicate somebody, or proceed through our life playing a part as though we were perpetually in a play, our personalities basically do not ring true, and dislike instead of persuasion is the outcome of our speaking endeavors.

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Jimmie Durante and Emerson had things to say about your attitude to others. With this attitude you will be more powerful and persuasive in your public speaking.

Good-natured Jimmie Durante, who considers everybody to be his friend, says, “Hatred hurts the person who hates far more than the one who is hated.” Hatred is  an emotional illness that sours and warps a speaking character. But sincere love and respect for everyone is the most powerful personal power in the world.
A speaker may have this positive perspective toward everyone when he emphasizes in his thoughts the worth of each person, when he refuses to minimize the worth of any human being. “Every person I meet is in some way my superior,” said Emerson. This kind of perspective did not cause this great speaker and writer to be timid or self-conscious. It simply helped him to like everybody in the world.
A persuasive presenter feels that everybody in his audience warrants his best possible efforts. Rather than think, “People are suckers. I’ll let them have as little as possible,” he feels, “In my audience today are the most significant, most worthy people on the planet. They are giving me a portion of their lives and in exchange are worthy of the absolute best of all things I have got to offer.”
Obviously when a person genuinely likes individuals his friendliness will become apparent in a variety of ways. The tone of his voice, his eyes, facial expression, and body language will uncover his friendliness. This should never be checked or knowingly withheld. A speaker should let his honest, feelings show by freely feeling “for all to see and hear.”
An error some presenters make is to draw a friendship circle and consider just those people that fall within the circle to be friends. Essentially the most influential convincing presenter believes that everyone is his friend. He approaches each and every audience with a positive mental attitude that all the audience members will believe him and respond favorably because they really .desire to.
Compare this perspective with a negative mental approach such as, “I know you dont want to trust me. Your minds are set. You are contrary. But what l am going to say is valid. You’ll have to trust me irrespective of whether you want to or not.” This kind of frame of mind of course has a tendency to put audience members on guard, causing them to construct an invisible wall in between them selves and the presenter. And they might say mentally, “Wait a minute, old boy, we don’t have to believe a single thing, least of all what you’re saying.”

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An important element of persuasive public speaking is personality. Does your personality attract or repel your audience?

Usually listeners can easily sense a presenter’s attitude toward them.
Does he like people or, while he speaks, does he have a hidden dislike for his hearers? Is his smile genuine? Does he really mean what he says, or is he merely putting on an act? Typically, although not always, an audience can spot this.
Ethical speaking is not acting. Instead it is a sincere transmission of a person’s truthful thoughts and feelings. Let a speaker be fair with himself and others. If he desires to act, he belongs in live theatre. There the audience expect pretense, but a convincing presenter should reveal his true self to audiences.
When a speaker’s congeniality and friendliness reveal a genuine liking for people – all people – an audience captures his spirit and is predisposed to react positively.
Will Roger’s passion for people – all people – was contagious. His genuine attitude, “I never met a man I didn’t like,” was highly persuasive and added much to his worldwide popularity. Although Rogers was a humorist and his speeches were
not always supposed to be persuasive, his personal quality of friendliness and congeniality is a convincing element which inspires an audience to recognize a presenter as a human being. And this of course is required before a person can wish to have his ideas and feelings acknowledged.
Listeners are normally willing to like a presenter who appreciates them. On the other hand they might ignore an unfriendly presenter.
Whenever a speaker does not like a particular person in his audience, his hatred or wrath is sensed by other listeners, causing them to question silently, “Why are you angry at me?” -
This is somewhat like an manager who, after having an disagreement with, his wife, passes his unpleasant disposition around to everyone in the office. Or like a businessman in a speaking training course who.stated, “I hate all females!” ‘His declaration was sincere. The hatred was clearly evident in his face and tone of voice. He really hated just 1 individual, but – his ex-wife who had left him suddenly to marry another man. However because his wife was a female he had shifted his hate for her to all women. And in fact the men in the audience sensed his undesirable attitude which is surely not a persuasive element in public speaking.

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Public speaking gestures are important in conveying your message effectively. What does your body language say about you?

There’s no 1 certain way to make any gesture. However UP and OUT (within reason obviously) are helpful terms to remember and use in connection with gestures. Actions that are up and out can be easily observed by an audience. Such actions are also usually far more positive and powerful than modest unsure motions made close to a speaker’s body. Then, also, when hands and arms move on a high sphere they are closer to the speaker’s facial area, which usually enables an audience to obtain a unified emotional impact from the hands, arms and face.
Whenever possible ideas ought to be illustrated with bodily action. For instance, whenever a speaker tells about the huge bass which got away he can picture the idea with facial and bodily action – if he can reach that far!
1 need not be absolutely exact when doing illustrative movements. They may be portrayed just as accurately as 1 readily can. Obviously the pace of the movement is going to be governed from the feeling that the idea encourages. “The train crawled around a bend,” will incite a far different sort of movement than, “A jet crashed in to the building!” As with all effective bodily action this is simply a case of talking naturally and openly with the muscles.
Healthy, successful gestures are not planned, even though at the beginning a student speaker might have to force his body and face, along with his tongue in order to tell his story. Nevertheless he needs to encourage body language right up until it becomes so natural he won’t need to give it second thought.
A presenter who refuses or fails to use natural gestures is similar to a boxer with a hand behind his back, or like somebody speaking through a television set that has no image. Such a speaker will be lacking a visual appeal which will certainly take away from his ability to persuade.
William Shakespeare reminds us, “Action is eloquence; the eyes of the ignorant are more learned than their ears.”
Perhaps the same could be said in all honesty regarding the very clever listeners in an audience, too.
And Demosthenes, who has a high ranking amongst speakers of all time stated, “The first qualification of the orator is action; the second, action; and the third, action.”
Act! – but as naturally when you would play your best game.

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