Page 12 - Voices.May.2016

THE POWER OF SPEECH
BY Michael Reunert, CC
I’m going to give you one key phrase from
some famous speeches. Can you name the
speaker (the answers are at the end of the
article)?
1. I have a Dream!
2. Ask not, what your country can do for
you—ask, what you can do for your country
3. Four score and seven years ago. . .
Clearly, these are examples of powerful
speeches by great orators.
Some people are “naturals” with a
God-given talent for speaking—but most
great speakers didn’t start that way. They
gradually improved their skills through lot’s
of practice and coaching.
What do you think about Martin
Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, and
Abraham Lincoln? Were they just
naturals?
I didn’t know myself, so I did some
web research.
Martin Luther King was a minister.
He gave hundreds of sermons and
speeches, before I Have a Dream.
John F Kennedy was
described as “stiff and
wooden” in his early
speeches but he perse-
vered. He used family
members as a sounding
board, got advice from his
father, and practiced his
speeches in front of his sisters.
Abraham Lincoln was described as
ungainly with a squeaky voice but he spent
many years polishing his speaking abilities
from his youth to his presidency. His life in
politics gave him hundreds of opportunities,
as did his 25-year law career
Public speaking doesn’t come naturally to
most people. In addition, public speaking is
often cited as the #1 most common phobia.
Most of us are not going to be great leaders
on a national or international scale. Most of
us will encounter situations where we could
really benefit from good speaking skills.
Examples might include:
12 Volume 2 Issue 11 - MAY 2016
1. Representing your
department at a
company meeting
2. Speaking in a church, synagogue, or mosque
3. Advocating for your child at a PTA or school
board meeting
There is an association whose primary mission
is to help people become better at public speaking.
That association is Toastmasters. When I ask people
if they have heard of Toastmasters, most people will
say, “Yes, I’ve heard of Toastmasters.” If I ask, “have
you thought about joining Toastmasters?,” a great
many people I speak with will answer something
like. “Yes, I’ve been thinking about it, and one of
these days, I’m going to try it out.”
Sound familiar? It sure does to me.
I joined Toastmasters at the tender age
of 53. At that point, I had already given
lot’s of speeches and presentations, most
of them okay, but not very memorable.
I had even taken some courses and had
a bit of coaching.
I started my career with a big
company that had an exten-
sive list of in-house courses.
One of those courses was
“Effective Presentations.”
When I took the course, we
used an overhead projector
with transparencies. I learned
some good stuff from this
course. At one point, our
department had to make
presentations to upper management to get funding
for expanding our line of business.
Our manager brought in Peter Giuliano, who
provided strategic communications consulting for
CEO’s and other big muckey-mucks from major
corporations. Peter was great. After speaking with
us for only a few minutes, he could pitch our busi-
ness better than anyone in the department! I gained
some valuable tips from Peter:
1. Hang slides on a wall, to see how the presenta-
tion will flow, and re-arrange for maximum
impact
2. The power of video feedback. Seeing ourselves
was really powerful!