When she was a year old, I held my daughter Georgia at the closed window of our 30th floor New York City apartment so we could look out over Times Square.

Across the street, stretching the full length of a 40-floor building, was a painting of Dwight Gooden, the ace Met’s pitcher, coiled in his wind-up with his eyes staring straight at us from under his cap.

I had the habit of asking Georgia, “Is it a cloudy day or a sunny day?”  Soon enough, however, it got more complicated, and our conversation evolved.  In other words, sometimes it was not all cloudy or all sunny.  Sometimes, it was both.

So it is with effective communication.  Not in terms of sun and clouds, but in terms of assertiveness and empathy.  We need both—the will to assert and the sensibility to speak into the listeners’ capacity to hear. 

We do the audience a service to be assertive because we give them something to push against, to poke holes in, and thus create a dialogue between our experience and theirs. 

And we do ourselves a service to understand their capacity to listen—to see the world as they see it—so that we can clothe our assertions in terms that will help them see more clearly the validity of our view. 

Some of us lack empathy and find it hard to comprehend what the audience is able to hear. 

And some of us lack assertiveness and find it hard to engage constructively in intellectual combat. 

But those who can do both earn the respect and trust of followers and opponents alike.  We call these people leaders, movers and shakers, high potentials, charismatics, persuaders, influencers, top guns, visionaries, sales stars. 

My daughter and I thought Dwight Gooden was staring at us, but in reality he was staring at the catcher’s mitt, trying to hurl his pitch where the catcher could catch it.

Sims Wyeth is a speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

1.  Get the proper information from the person you will introduce

2.  Extract the information from the resume and write a short speech of introduction. Do not READ the resume.

3.  Show the speech to the speaker for editing and approval

4.  Structure the speech of introduction in this way.

- Why this topic?

- Why this topic before this audience?

- Why this topic before this audience at this time?

- Why this topic before this audience at this time by this speaker?

5.  That’s when you supply a few TELLING details about the speaker that give him or her the credibility to speak on the topic.

6.  You can be forgiven if you bring notes and read the information about the speaker, although it would be good if you could do the first three bullets points (above) without reading.

7.  Pronounce the speaker’s name properly. If you’re not sure, ask.

8.  Do not end by saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, please join me in welcoming Sam White to the podium,” (at which point Sam rises to his feet), “a man who not only is an expert on horticulture, but also knows a thing or two about marketing in the garment business,” (Sam hesitates at the edge of the stage), “and also has an eight handicap. Why, I remember the time Sam hit a hole in one over at Silver Lake,” (Sam sits down), “He was hitting a 5-iron off the 10^th tee…” (Sam waits patiently for you to stop, while the audience suspects that you would rather be the speaker and are jealous of the attention that Sam will be getting.)

9.  In other words, begin, be brief, be seated, and end your speech of introduction by saying the speaker’s name loud and clear.

Wait for him to arrive at the lectern. Shake his hand. Smile. Then go and sit down.

Sims Wyeth is a private speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in executive speech coaching and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.

Bad Accoustics Distract From Speaker’s Message

I recently attended an event in a school auditorium where I listened to three speeches. While the hall itself was elegant, the acoustics made it difficult to hear the speakers.

What could have been done to make the speeches more accessible to the audience? Here are some suggestions on proper accoustics setup for public speaking:

1. Reduce the echo in the room. For this, I suppose one would have to hire an expert in acoustics.
2. Get a better public address system, with more speakers in more places, with a sound engineer constantly adjusting the quality of the sound to make the most of the voice doing the speaking.

3. Teach those doing the speaking how to speak into a microphone so that their vowels and consonants will be heard. This can be taught by a private speech coach.

Part of this is voice projection, which comes from breath control. Part of it is enunciation, which comes from training the muscles of the tongue and lips to shape each sound like an Olympic figure skater. And part of this is simply learning to stand still and find the proper distance between mouth and microphone.

I was impressed with each of the speakers, but I had to work like a mule to hear what they had to say.