It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It

If there is one piece of advice I give to teams, leaders and audiences when speaking, training, or coaching them around presentation skills or how to deliver an effective talk it is this:

Powerful content without powerful delivery does not inspire people to take action. 

Words hold immense power, but their true potential is realized only in how we express them. To be specific, this means, your tone, body language, how you engage your audience and connecting through eye contact.

Great speakers are dynamic and use their voice and intonation to punctuate a point or pause for maximum impact and effect – this is where the magic happens. 

A strong example is how comedians engage an audience…effective use of vocal range, pausing at just the right moment to get the laugh or make the audience wait and anticipate the punchline. Effective comedians almost control their audience to what they want them to do or laugh at. This is an impressive skill.

How you say something can take an ordinary message and transform it into something extraordinary. My challenge to you is…try it out. Practice your next presentation or talk on a coworker, a friend, your family — whomever — and listen to their feedback. What resonated? What fell flat? Candid, constructive feedback only makes you stronger and more effective.

Trust me, the last place you want feedback from is your audience unless you hit it out of the park…so take the steps to ensure you do.

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