The Art of Public Speaking

"Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after." - Anne Morrow Lindbergh

A plethora of communications channels, such as the Internet, niche cable channels, and cell phones, now play an increasingly dominant role in work and social life.

In such a world, speaking skills will distinguish the winners from the losers. Successful communicators will be able to use these channels to motivate people and marshal resources while those unable to articulate their ideas, no matter how worthwhile, will get lost in the din.

However, successful public speakers and other proficient communicators have long known and used certain techniques that can benefit even mediocre speakers.

These techniques can help you in virtually any communication challenge, from a job interview to a public presentation to asking for a date.

I’ve arranged them here in a format I call POWER.

POWER

- Preparation
- Organization
- Words
- Ears
- Rate

PREPARATION

Preparation is pretty self-explanatory. Know your audience.

If it’s a job interview, find out as much as possible about the position and the people with whom you will be speaking.

If a person is a manager, they’re going to be more impressed by how, at your previous job, you saved your company a great deal of money.

If the person is in operations, they’re probably going to be focused on your technical skills.

After preparation we have organization.

ORGANIZATION

Paying attention to how you organize your ideas and how you use words is crucial.

The average person retains less than 25% of what they hear.

But by organizing your ideas and focusing on what words to use, you can skew those odds in your favor.

Ideas that are pre-organized to match the mind’s filing system are much more easily remembered.

Tell them a story

Organize what you have to say using models such as time, space, cause and effect, logical parts, or even a metaphor.

A former manager, using cause and effect, might talk about how his prior company faced increasing competition and thinner profit margins. It became necessary for him to figure how to save money.

Or a District Attorney, using logical parts, might describe his job as the four "Eights." Educate, Investigate, Litigate, Legislate.

After Organization, we have Words

WORDS

To ensure that your message is understood and remembered, you want to follow certain guidelines.

Spend more words and time on your most important points

Remember, the ear is smaller than the mouth. People need a certain amount to absorb new ideas. Give your listener that time.

Use Short Sentences

Long meandering sentences are tough for a listener to follow. By the time the speaker has gotten to the end, the listener can’t remember the beginning.

Speak from the Known to the Unknown

Your might say, "Every time you use an ATM card, your using 3rd order authentication."

Or, "Do you hear those ringing phones? We had them to. The automated customer service system that I developed cut that in half."

Be Specific, Definite and Concrete

Listeners absorb information in direct proportion to its vividness.

You might describe how you handled an emergency at your prior job.

"It was 3:00 in the morning. I got a call. My boss sounded like he was going to have a coronary. A shipment of refined solvent we needed had been held up by customs."

As crucial as speaking effectively is, listening is every bit as important as talking.

EARS

There's a Turkish Proverb that goes, "If speaking is silver, then listening is gold."

Despite how crucial listening is, it is a skill in which many are woefully deficient. The average person remembers less than 25% of what they hear. However, with a little understanding of the listening process and some practice, you can exorcise this critical skill.

To begin with, its helpful to understand your own listening style.

Listening Styles

In his book, "How To Listen," Richard Bierck, of the Harvard Business School, talks about how individuals differ in listening styles. There’s a spectrum from the strongly linear to the strongly associative.

"Linear" listeners take in material as it’s presented, effortlessly following the speaker from point A to point B. "Associative" listeners tend to connect the ideas presented to things they already know.

The point is Linear types are capable of listening passively. Associative types are often not effective listeners when they’re passive. They may increase their attentiveness by taking notes or restating what they’ve heard.

Its also important to know what to listen for,

What to Listen For

What people express generally falls into one of five categories. These categories in order of importance are: Clichés, Facts, Thoughts, Feelings about external events, Feelings about oneself.

Clichés
Perfunctory language such as "How you doin?"

Facts
Statements of reality such as, "After we fill this spot, the support staff will be five."

Thoughts
Interpretations of facts, such as, "With five people on support, our project turn around time should decrease ten percent"

Feelings About External Events
Statements like, "Its horrible when developers are constantly called away to do support."

Feelings About Oneself
Statements such as "Last quarter, we missed two deliverables because of support issues. I never want to go through that again."

Keeping these categories in mind should help sharpen your listening skills.

Finally, after the preparing yourself, organizing your ideas, thinking about what words to use, and brushing up your listening skills, rate yourself.

RATE

The American philosopher and writer, Elbert Hubbard, said "Progress comes from the intelligent use of experience."

For instance, immediately after a job interview, think about what went right and what went wrong.

If possible, try to get feedback.

Maybe request it in a thank you letter.

Even, after an ordinary conversation, ask yourself how you might have made the other person felt.

Edward Donoghue is the principal of clickTechJobs, a cluster of skill specific job boards for IT people. He writes frequently on issues such as entrepreneurs, startups, outsourcing, difficult bosses, and changing careers and is a frequent contributor to publishing sites such as WebWorldIndex, and Amazines. He can be reached at edydon@clickTechJobs.com. See video tutorials or read more on job interviews, startups, and business communication at http://www.clicktechjobs.com.