Since the last election, we’ve seen an increased respect for the power of rhetoric, thanks to the reputation our current President earned on the campaign trail. Even his enemies concede his power as a speaker. Last night he took off the gloves, and got to his “make-my-day” moment: the upcoming election is going to be a doozy.

The president, as all of us would be, seemed a little short on saliva last night. He had dry mouth syndrome, which means his nerves were acting up. There were, after all, hundreds of people within shouting distance who hate his guts.

But he got some things off his chest. He has tried to gain the respect and cooperation of his own party, and that of his opponents, but so far, it’s been a rough road, and it’s not likely to get smoother.

The process by which public speech moves people to action is complex and mysterious, but it has something to do with lighting up neurons in our brains that want to be lit up. Public speaking is as old as our species, fresh as wet ink on newsprint, and as personal as your private business.

Public speech is personal because while it trumpets big ideas and values, it comes from the mouth of one person and goes deep into your own private intellectual and emotional synapses. You can reject it, or you can open yourself to it, but when it comes from someone you believe in, someone you trust, it’s going to take root in you, and swim in your blood stream.

So let the war of words begin. Game on! Let those who cheer for one leader enjoy their champion landing blows on the ideas and values dear to others. And let all of us, rich and poor, give thanks that it will be a war of words, and not a war of bullets.

And then, after giving thanks for our democracy, let’s hope and pray that it’s a war of reasoned, thoughtful words and not a war of slogans, clichés, and bullet-points.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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A speaking voice that lacks clarity and expression can undermine the success of an otherwise bright and talented individual. And when there is a regional or foreign accent present, the challenge can be even greater.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides voice and speech training for executives and professionals of all stripes who need to have their voice and speech do justice to their knowledge and professional abilities.

The process begins with a diagnosis of the clients’ needs. A curriculum is then developed to address those needs, light homework is provided, and teacher and student meet regularly to address those speech habits that require improvement.

The method emphasizes “the whole voice.” In private and group instruction, clients learn that the voice is a wind instrument. They learn to strengthen the breath stream, open the back of the throat, release the jaw, and expand their verbal expressiveness, so that the speakers’ logic is more evident, and their personal presence more appealing.

The method also helps speakers improve their diction. Physical exercises requiring the student to increase the mobility of the tongue and lips can change the speech and vocal habits of a lifetime. Drills and cold readings challenge the speaker to use greater range in pitch, volume and speed, which can lead to greater confidence and the ability to be more assertive. The physical change can give birth to a psychological change.

Course materials include written exercises, and digital sound files for student practice.

About the instructor

Sharon Wyeth is a veteran voice and speech coach to executives in high tech, pharmaceuticals, professional services, theater and other industries. She is the former head of the Voice Department at Actors and Director’s Lab, then part of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

“My goal is to bring out the best in my clients,” says Sharon, “which means insisting that they speak with confidence, conviction, and clarity without sacrificing what makes them unique.”

She holds a B.A. degree with honors from Harvard University and an M.F.A. with distinction, from Hunter College, City University of New York.

General areas of study:

1. Breath control

2. Clarity of articulation and accent reduction

3. Expressiveness, i.e. pitch, volume, speed, inflection

4. Alignment: an area where qualities of vocal expression are aligned with intention. For example, clients often need to sound “enthusiastic” or communicate “confidence” in their products.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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As she introduces her voice and speech students to breathing techniques that strengthen the voice,  she finds it necessary to differentiate between volume, projection, and intensity—three words that at first glance appear to be synonymous—but upon closer scrutiny have useful  and distinct shades of meaning.

Volume implies loudness, or number of decibels.  However, we’ve all encountered deranged people on the streets who have loud voices.  And any sane person who is consistently loud, no matter the social circumstance, will have difficulty building a trusting relationship with an audience of any size.  So loudness is sometimes necessary for an effective vocal presence, but certainly not sufficient.

Good presentation skills require adequate decibels, but they also need the voice to project to its intended listeners.  This means it must carry the intention to connect  with those it seeks to influence.  It must be suitable for the environment, appropriate for the audience, and couched in a discriminating awareness of the occasion.  It is volume moderated by calibrated intention.

Finally, in addition to volume and projection, a highly effective voice has intensity. Sharon defines intensity as the expression of emotion,  or conviction.   Intensity implies belief, confidence, and intellectual certainty.  Intensity has energy, a sense of urgency and excitement.

The words we use to describe a good speaking voice, one suitable for highly effective presentations and speeches, are similar to those we use to describe music.  As we train the speaking voice to be stronger, we increase its musicality, and thus expand its capacity to hold attention and influence the thoughts and feelings of others.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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Good leaders make good companies, and good leaders are, among other things, good at communicating who they are, what they believe, and who the employees should believe they are.  In the end, the final challenge, the ultimate task of leadership is to confer an identity on those the leader leads.

For instance, did Steve Jobs do this?  Did he confer an identity on a large number of people?  I would say that he did.  If you worked for him and his company, I suspect you carried a little voice inside your head that constantly reminded you that you were an Apple person—an Apple-onian; a little voice that made you feel good about yourself.  And in your social life, at parties, when you met people, you might sweetly keep your place of work a secret, but when asked, you might feel a little flash of triumph as you revealed, “I work for Apple.”   It’s like dropping the H Bomb (the Harvard thing.)  It confers an identity on you, for good or ill.

Shakespeare’s Henry V strives for this result in his St. Crispian’s Day speech, when promising his men that they will forever be remembered and honored if they survive the about-to-happen battle of Agincourt.

This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne’er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs’d they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin’s day.

I am very interested in giving our clients a process for creating, designing, and delivering presentations that ascend the step-ladder of value-creation, moving from the bottom rung of knowledge to the highest rung of identity—which includes the ability to convey values, principles, behaviors, expectations, and all those soft intangibles that shepherd us to excellence.

Knowledge and intelligence are necessary, but not sufficient for leadership.  We need people who are capable of conferring on us an identity that will help us become our best selves.

Some of us can create such an identity for ourselves, but not for others.  Some can do it for others, but not themselves.  And some of us create destructive identities for ourselves and others.  None of us is perfect, which is why we need laws, and leadership, and cultures.  We need shaping to be at our best, and for that, we need people who are more than knowledgeable, more than intelligent.  We need them to tell us stories—about who we really are, and who we can become.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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The simple old-fashioned way to do this is to write, “To answer your question: Yes, I am coming to get the bikes,” or something to that effect.  You have to remind the sender of the previous exchange.

Same thing when you’re updating senior execs on how things are going.  If you don’t remind them about what you said last time they will have no idea what you’re talking about – they’re busy, and have too much to think about.  They need to know the backstory.

So presentation skill #43 is begin with the backstory.  It’s old news to you, but the senior people have been busy since they last saw you.  Take them back to the material they’ve heard before.  They will appreciate the update, and your news of progress will make more sense: you’ll be putting the content into context!

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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I have rarely had mushrooms in my garden, and never a toadstool with an orange stem and a phallic tip topped by a red pimple on its nosecone.

I remain horrified by the sight of it, and worried about the malicious conspiracy transpiring under ground.  What other alien life form is going to come out of the earth under the hydrangeas?

Sharon and I washed our hands after we touched it, but half an hour later, we still had to scratch an alarming epidemic of itches that popped up in unmentionable anatomical places.

An otherwise routine Saturday morning was made famous by this unexpected visitor.  We will talk about it for years…but for all the wrong reasons.

Some people bring toadstools into their presentations and get attention for all the wrong reasons.  They tell jokes that fall flat.  They wear clothes that make them look cheesy.  They talk about themselves too much.  They show off, pontificate, grandstand, ham it up.  They go over the time limit.  They scratch in the wrong places.  They mispronounce key technical or industry terms that they should know.  Or they use their own technical language despite the fact that the audience doesn’t know it.

It’s good to be memorable, but only for the right reasons.  Not for being outrageous, or shocking, or sensational.  Rather, be memorable for your expertise, warmth, and relevance.

Don’t bring toadstools into your talk to get attention.  You will quickly wear out your welcome.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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In this article, Mr.  Westen points out that Obama was elected to the presidency and given control of both houses of Congress to do the will of the people, which was to restore the rule of fair play to the American economy, and abolish the golden rule, which stipulates that he who has the gold makes the rules.

Whether you agree with the majority of the American people is not the point of the Times article, or of this post.  The point is that we humans are designed to absorb information through stories.  We tell ourselves stories about the past (history), stories about what’s going on in the present moment (news and commentary), and stories about the future (setting a course for a more perfect union).  And, according to Mr. Westen, Obama has failed so far to tell any of these stories that he was elected to tell.

Stories have heroes and villians, but due perhaps to his conciliatory disposition, our President does not like to name names and point out culpability.  He prefers a balanced approach and compromise, even though he was elected to clean up Washington.

Arthur Miller, the great American playwright, pointed out that when we elect our presidents, we are electing an archetype, a great father who will provide and protect, a hero who will create safety for us, and lead us into fights against those who mean to do us harm.  In essence, said Miller, we elect a metaphorical killer, someone who is brave enough to step onto a battlefield, whether that be in the halls of Congress, the mountains of Afghanistan, or the bully pulpit of Sunday morning TV, take out our enemies, and come back with their scalps.  Obama got bin Laden, but he has not taken the heads of those he was elected to neultralize (metaphorically!).

The present seems to be swarming with intractable problems.  The future is a frightening blankness fraught with a range of horrific possibilities.  We need and want someone to tell us a story about how we got here, how we can get out of this mess, what the future can be and how we can shape it.

I urge you to read this article.  It is relevant to any speaker who is trying to get an audience to do something.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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Let me think aloud.  If you bolt the public speaking techniques onto your exterior, aren’t you automatically deepened by the process of using them, or at least changed in some way by the effort?

Or, if you approach presenting as a spelunker, someone who sees the task as a process of personal growth and development, do you eventually arrive at the tips and tricks, buried like treasures in the center of your being, only this time they’re growing from the inside, out?

This idea presupposes that the public speaking tips and tricks are somehow fundamental universal principles that are present in all of us, lying dormant deep inside us.

Maybe if you approach the discipline of public speaking as a set of mechanical techniques they remain just that – tools you use – due, perhaps, to your willingness and ability to see them as tools that you put down once the job is done.

But then you are changed by the knowledge that you have a new ability, a greater power to influence others through your persuasive speaking, which could very well be a self-fulfilling prophecy, since your increased sense of power will give you greater confidence, which could speed you up the steep and thorny path to career success.

However, you may use your new-found confidence to speak lies, half-truths, and ideological blather to your audiences, in which case you have improved yourself as a speaker, but not as a person.

So it all comes down to intention.  You can become a better public speaker or presenter through acquiring tips and tricks, or by approaching it with the intention of using your skills for the greater good, but what will determine your personal growth is not your technique, but your purpose.

Which reminds me of this line from T.S. Eliot:

The last temptation is the greatest treason:

To do the right deed for the wrong reason.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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Geoffrey Miller notes that most adults have a vocabulary of about sixty thousand words.  And yet the most frequent one hundred words account for 60 percent of all conversations.  Why do humans bother knowing those extra fifty-six thousand words?

So they can more effectively sort through and impress potential mates, says Miller.  He calculates that if a couple speaks for two hours a day, and utters on average three words a second, and has sex for three months before conceiving a child (which would have been the norm on the prehistoric savanna), then a couple will have exchanged about a million words before conceiving a child.

That’s a lot of words, and plenty of opportunity for one of them to get offended, bored, or annoyed by the other.  It’s also ample enough time to fight, make up, explore and reform.  And it is long enough for them to stay together to raise a child, which is crucial since a single woman in a prehistoric environment could not gather enough calories to support herself and her offspring.

The logic of this is astonishing.  Basically, Miller is saying that we are creatures biologically wired to:

1.  Use language to impress potential mates.

2.  Use the language of potential mates to eliminate them as contenders.

3.  Use language to entertain so that men and women stay together during vulnerable pregnancies and birth.

4.  Use language, therefore, to ensure the survival of the species.

The implications of this are even more astounding.  If language is designed to help us pick partners, exclude those who are unsuitable, and then serve as the glue to create the future, I venture to say that our use of language, in all its forms, is the most important skill we can ever have.

We get jobs based on how we talk–how well we use words to make fine distinctions.  We keep jobs the same way.  And the business cultures we build, and the products and services we create, are generated by words…by the awesome, generative power of language.

Our careers depend on it.  Apparently, our marriages depend on it.  Our children will depend on it.  And the survival of the human race depends on it.

I am language.  My hands are on the wheel.  My foot is on the gas.  There are no brakes.  Where do you want to go?

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.

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The Craft of Scientific Presentations

Michael Alley has taught at Virginia Tech, the University of Texas, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Barcelona.  His book, The Craft of Scientific Presentations, is a significant contribution to the scientific community.  While Michael Alley’s experiments have demonstrated that using sentence headlines and pictures on PowerPoint slides (instead of phrase headlines and bullet points) improves knowledge transfer, other researchers have not been able to duplicate those results.

Perhaps this is because Alley’s experiments are conducted with live speakers in front of live audiences.  Blokzijl and Andeweg have examined the effect of various slide designs in an e-learning environment on both the students’ perceptions of PowerPoint presentations and the degree to which those designs support knowledge transfer.  

Not surprisingly, their findings are different.   The authors found that while students in an e-learning environment have a distinct preference for slides with visual support, the text only slides resulted in higher test scores. 

The authors go on to express their doubts that the results of any controlled e-learning experiments can be directly applied to live presentations due to a number of real-life complicating factors, such as the speaker’s oral delivery, eye contact, and the presence of an audience.

I suspect that our comrades, Blokzijl and Andeweg, are trying to design a perfect PowerPoint presentation that does not require a presenter.  Not sure that’s possible.  It’s kind of like writing a piece of music that doesn’t require a musician.

I have seen a good presenter overcome bad slides many times.  By being highly directive, telling the audience what to look at and what not to look at; by introducing the next slide before leaving the current one, so that the audience is prepared for the next chunk of information; and by engaging the audience in discussion about the items on the screen, I have seen speakers turn a pig pen of PowerPoint into a silky smooth presentation. 

The question is, can good slides overcome a bad presenter?   I don’t know, but I’ve got my doubts. 

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.  Sign up for our presentation tips and learn more about us at http://www.simswyeth.com/.

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The speaker tells the story using a vocabulary accessible to anyone with a similar breadth, though not necessarily depth, of scientific knowledge so that all in attendance can bask in the final, glorious revelation.

This is an attractive fiction.  The ugly truth is that few scientists take the time to describe the situation from which the project emerges, or the particular social or technical problem that remains to be solved, and the consequences of that problem remaining unsolved.

Because of this, many scientific presentations lack drama, and drama is, after all, one of the main reasons why we gather together. 

The talks lack drama because they begin with something procedural, e.g., “I am going to talk a little bit about the following nine things.”  Or they begin with the protocol, the study design, or the objectives of the study. 

This approach is traditional and widely accepted, even expected.  Unfortunately, it gives science a bad name, and turns the average person comatose.  All drama is about the solution of problems, and to forget this fact, especially in science, is a terrible injury to the most important endeavor of the modern era.

Finally, to grasp what most scientists are speaking about, one must learn a new language.  Few speakers that I have heard cease speaking their own language when addressing those who are not familiar with it.  There are multiple reasons for this, some of them quite understandable, but again, the habit of doing so harms the enterprise.

I am a communications consultant.  I learned a long time ago, and I have to learn it over and over again, that if we want to be heard, understood, and remembered, we must speak to our audience in the language of the audience about what the audience cares about.

Sims Wyeth & Co. provides public speaking courses, executive speech coaching, presentation skills training, voice and speech training, speech writing, and courses that address stage fright, body language, presentation strategy, and effective use of PowerPoint, all of which contribute to greater executive presence and personal impact.  Sign up for our presentation tips and learn more about us at http://www.simswyeth.com/.

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I think the key point is buried in our pile of data, like a needle in a haystack, and while we can see it glistening through the stalks, we can’t quite reach it with our mental tweezers, or find the right words that would pull it, like a magnet, out of the confusion.  

Presenting for Results^SM Update:

We have scheduled our 2nd public seminar called Presenting for Results^SM. If you are so inclined, please join us on Nov 18 & 19, 2010, at the Upper Montclair Country Club in Clifton, NJ, which is on Rte. 3 East, just east of the Garden State Parkway.  The program is fun, eye-opening, highly experiential and beneficial to your confidence and career, and thus good for your company as well.  Or let somebody who could benefit know about the program. There is very limited enrollment to keep it practical and interactive.  Click here to learn more.

Sims Wyeth is an executive 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.

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The simple answer is that the new is hard.  Learning to play a musical instrument is hard, as is hitting a golf ball, or hitting a golf ball with a new grip, or getting used to being alone when you’ve been accustomed to being with people, or being with people when you’ve been flying solo for a while.

This is odd when you consider all the recent neuroscience demonstrating the plasticity of the brain.  The research suggests that our gray matter can rearrange itself quite readily.  Patients with damaged areas of the brain can, in some cases, recover lost abilities because another part of the brain steps in to lend a hand.

I assume the brain responds to demands placed on it.  Maybe not right away.  You have to keep knocking on the brain’s door before it will wake up and pay attention.  But when it does, it gets busy figuring out how to meet your request, and puts together the infrastructure that will allow you to do what you’re trying to do.

The same is true of muscles.  You put consistent demands on them, and they get stronger, more efficient.  It’s not easy, but if you push yourself through your own resistance, they respond to the challenge. 

I had to leave my client while he was still in a state of uncertainty, frustration, and diminished capacity.   He was calling on other parts of his brain, and it wasn’t leaping out of bed and rushing to his rescue.  He was in pain. 

Here’s the $64,000 question:  will he continue to try the new approach to his presentation, which I am certain will raise the level of his game?   Or will he give up, and drop back to his default operating system?

The new is hard.  If he’s like most of us, he will take the path of least resistance and stick with the tried and true.  If he’s got an engine in him, he will drive himself into his pain and frustration, and come out on the other side with a sense of self-mastery and a new skill.   He will have made the new familiar, and with the awareness that he is able to persist, he will continue to grow.

At least that’s my hope.  I’m going to send him this post to light a fire in him.

Sims Wyeth is an executive 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.

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What conversations are you avoiding?  Maybe it’s with a good friend you don’t want to hurt.  Maybe it’s with a difficult person and you are concerned about their response.  Or maybe it’s with a family member in your business.

Susan Scott, the author of the book “Fierce Conversations,” tells us that people want to hear the truth, even if it is unpalatable.  There is something within us that responds deeply to people who level with us.

The Seven Principles of Fierce Conversations:

1. Interrogate reality:  Get everything out in the open.  Identify the issue, check for understanding and agreement.
2. Make it real:  What are you pretending not to know?  Authenticity is not something you have; it is something you choose.
3. Be in the moment:  Simply paying attention to someone, really asking, really listening can evoke a wholehearted response.
4. Tackle your toughest challenge today:  Go directly to the source and confront the person, one-to-one, privately.
5. Find a way to say the things that can’t be said:  Bring some of your private thoughts into the conversation without labeling them as truth, only conjecture to be explored together.
6. Take responsibility for your emotional wake:  Deliver your message without the emotional load – blaming, sarcasm, exaggerating, labeling.  Leave every conversation with the other person feeling better than before.
7. Use silence:  Fierce conversations require silence.  Ask a question that expands possibilities, then, wait.

The Three Steps in a Fierce Conversation

Make a clear, concise opening statement:  Name the issue; give examples; describe your emotions; clarify what’s at stake; identify your own contribution to the problem; indicate clearly your wish to resolve the issue; invite the other person to respond.

Inquire into the other person’s view:  Really try to understand their perspective, but don’t be satisfied with defensiveness or surface explanations.  Ask for more, saying “I see things quite differently.”

Resolution:  What have we learned?  Where are we now?  Make an agreement and determine how you will hold each other accountable.

What fierce conversations are you avoiding?  Or what fierce presentation are you avoiding? 

Maybe it’s time for a fierce conversation.  Maybe it’s time for a fierce presentation!  Thank you Susan.

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My daughter is engrossed in the music scene of Brooklyn, hard at work on her new CD.  My parents are unhappy in their new retirement home.   My sister and I are powerless to make them happier.  My Blackberry doesn’t work.  I can’t send emails from my home computer.  My car had a flat tire last Monday.  My lawn is brown.  I never know how much money I’ll make.  Should I continue?

Nevertheless, I am excited about my work.  I have the chance to work with scientists on their scientific presentations, with CEOs on their leadership communication, with consultants on how to move the mountain of client opinion, and with all kinds of people who want to grow and expand their personal and professional horizons.

I have plans for a public seminar, a new book, and I love my office almost as much as I like my home.  My assistant is fabulous.  All this is good.

I just need to learn how to walk the tight rope between things as they are and things as I’d like them to be.  I need to keep my eye on the prize and not look down at the terrifying things I imagine will happen if I misstep. 

I am told that I should live in the present moment, and I try.  But I find myself lost in thought a good deal of time.

Maybe that’s a start.  To find myself lost is to begin to figure out where I am—which is somewhere in thought, somewhere in my head.

I want to be in other people’s heads, not my own.  Which means I have to get busy and do stuff that’s interesting.

Sims Wyeth is an executive 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.

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You may be familiar with the data, which suggests that voice and body language carry much of the message spoken by a presenter, while the actual words used carry much less meaning.

I have spoken to Dr. Mehrabian, who is now retired and dealing in antique musical instruments.  He is powerless to do anything about this misunderstanding of the findings of his research. 

As a professor at Stanford, his research investigated how human beings communicate emotion.  His data do not suggest that the fine distinctions needed for strategic plans, legal arguments or scientific presentations are communicated predominately by voice tone and body language.

His data do suggest that humans communicate emotion primarily through tone of voice and body language, which confirms intuition and/or common sense.   They do not suggest that the entire meaning of your careful and thoroughly prepared presentation is carried by your voice and body. 

 How you feel about your content is important, but it’s not the whole story.  Of course your delivery is important, but it is in service to ideas made of words that delivery earns its value.

Sims Wyeth is an executive 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.

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And yet us speechwriters are often given only a brief time with the speaker to determine what she wants to say.  From that brief meeting, we are expected to extract the message she wants to impart, and the sound, tone, texture, and rhythm of her verbal personality.

So, if you are a speaker, and you are working with a speechwriter in New Jersey or New York, (or anywhere else for that matter) how can you maximize the few minutes you have with your speechwriter?

• Be prepared for the meeting with the speechwriter.  Know the DNA of what you want to say.  You can come up with this DNA by imagining that an audience member is considering coming to hear you, and asks, “What’s your speech about?”  You’ve got less than 30 seconds to tell her.  What do you say?  Your answer should be one sentence long, and should contain the benefit that the listener will derive.  For instance, President Obama might have said about his speech on race relations, “ My speech urges every American to have the difficult conversations about race so that our country can move beyond the historical divisions that have plagued our nation.” 

• Next, in order to help your speechwriter (and yourself), figure out the question to which your information is the answer.  At the heart of what you will say is the information that you have mastered and your own interpretation of its meaning.  But you can’t just dump the info on your listeners.  You’ve got to figure out what emotional concern drives their interest in your topic.  What question would the audience have to have in mind in order to make that information a fascinating, provocative question?  Believe it or not, you have to spend about a third of your speech asking the    question—even more if they are not that familiar with the topic or the issues.  For instance, when trying to raise new rounds of venture capital, a biotech president might have to answer the question, “Why do we have to spend millions of dollars creating a new formulation for the molecule when it already demonstrates efficacy in its current formulation?”

• Finally, give your speechwriter plenty of time to ask questions.  Encourage him/her to get to know you.  Take her out to lunch.  Have a glass of wine with him.  He or she needs to soak up who you are, what you care about, how you think, what you like and dislike, and your personal verbal style. 

Only by inviting your speechwriter into your inner circle will you get what you want and need—a speech that captures not only what you want to say, but how you want to say it.

Sims Wyeth is an executive 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.

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I was willing to forgive one of them.  His UPMs were around 16. I wasn’t so easy on the other guy.  His UPMs were around 12, but they were more disruptive.

I’m not sure why.  Let me blog out loud.

The guy with the higher UPM rate was older, and the Chairman of a company.  He spoke with quiet confidence at a thoughtful pace, taking his time to choose his words carefully.  It was during his thoughtful moments that his UPMs came out.  They were quick and discreet UPMs, like tiny bubbles of sound.

The guy whose UPM rate was about 12 was much younger, in his late 20s, and he spoke quickly.  It could be that his youthful appearance and the rapidity of his speech combined to create an impression of insecurity, which was made worse by the presence of his uhms.

His UPMs seemed to be signals of anxiety, whereas the Chairman’s UPMs seemed to be quirks or eccentricities.  No one could argue that the Chairman had not had a successful career.  He is at the top of his industry, and at the top of his game.

I could say no such thing about the younger guy.  He looked nervous, sounded nervous, and made me nervous about his ability to do the job being asked of him.

Could it be that the Chairman’s credibility could withstand the presence of 16 UPMs, while the younger guy’s relative youth and inexperience made his credibility vulnerable  to the presence of a mere 12?

I think so.  The Chairman would be a better speaker, and a shorter one, if he cleaned up his act.  But the younger guy is going to have to find a sense of ease in front of a crowd, and that will take a whole different set of muscles.

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.

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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.

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Robert Zajonc

He was interested in determining which influenced the other more strongly.  On balance, he came down on the side of emotion.

In one widely reported study, he found that smiling or frowning can alter blood flow to the brain as facial muscles relax or contract.

This in turn affects the parts of the brain that regulate feelings, helping induce happy or sad emotional states.

Could smiling help speakers with stage fright?  I think so.

The Buddha is depicted most often with a slight smile on his face—and he had true inner peace.   Little Orphan Annie knew that, “You’re never fully dressed without a smile,” and now we have the work of a renowned scientist to confirm the fact—on balance, it’s better for us when we smile.

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It is important to have no misspellings on the slides, no inconsistencies between the data displayed and the data verbalized; important to make tenable claims, and demonstrate the sterling methods by which the data were generated; important to argue logically, rationally, objectively, and demonstrate a clear understanding of the difference between fact and opinion.

My brilliant clients do all this.  They work long hours to make sure the content is thorough, precise, and accurate.  They make no turn without stoning any assertion to test its strength and weakness.

Yet they often disregard themselves and how they come across. By education, training, temperament and culture they dwell on the facts.  They know that expertise is necessary for success, and they often act as if it were also sufficient.

It is not sufficient.  It is necessary, but not sufficient.  Audiences also need the facts shaped into a narrative that holds their attention—one that is clear and meaningful, and flows in a manner that appeals to the mind.

And always, under its breath, the audience is muttering, “Do I trust this guy?  Can she make this happen?  Does he have what it takes?  Would I like to have a drink with her?”

It’s never not also the person.

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.

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The gecko is low-key and sensible while his boss, the CEO of Geico, is driven by his irrational exuberance to come up with dumb ideas.  The gecko fights corporate silliness and keeps it simple and quantifiable (“you can save up to 15%.”)

The AFLAC duck is also surrounded by idiots who don’t have the common sense to see that the only solution to their problems is AFLAC.  His outrage (and his limited vocabulary) are comedic and charming.  We want to do business with him.

And Jared is all of us who are concerned about our weight.  He has found the simple solution to the problem, and is now living the good life in the company of celebrities and star athletes.

Gecko, duck and Jared are personifications of a brand.  They demonstrate the benefits of their brands by successfully struggling to overcome obstacles.

You can use the same technique to make your presentations more persuasive.  Your ideas, products, and companies can also be seen as solutions to problems. 

You may not have the creative license or budget to create a mascot and an endless series of ads, but you can think about what obstacles your idea or product must overcome, and then describe how your idea, product, or company struggles to conquer those obstacles.

In this way, you are emulating the best professional persuaders in the world.

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.

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Four-hundred and six years later, what he says remains good advice for presenters too. 

So here’s what happening in the scene.  After he’s told them not to wave their arms around too much, he tells them to loosen up, but also make sure that their gestures relate to what they’re saying.

“Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your

tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this

special observance, that you o’erstep not the modesty of nature”

To be most effective, and to look natural, gestures should come before the key word you’re emphasizing, or in the middle of the word.

Jimmy Carter had trouble with this on one occasion.  He was speaking from the Oval Office to the American people, saying that the economy was “heading up.”  Only after he finished the phrase did he move his arm to point skyward.  It looked as if his mind was not connected to his body.  Or that he had rehearsed a gesture, but forgot to do it, and tacked it on at the end when he remembered.

Finally, Hamlet says to his actors, “Don’t overstep modesty,” or words to that effect.  What does that mean? 

It means that when in front of an audience it’s best to express passion artfully with your voice, rather than with large, emphatic gestures.

President Obama is highly effective at this.  He communicates passion with his voice, even though his body is relaxed and still. The combination communicates power and control.  

To read more about Hamlet as a speech coach, go to executivespeechcoachnj.com.

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.

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Boris teaches Yoga philosophy, and described one aspect of Yoga as the ability to learn how to handle anxious thoughts.

He said that Yoga makes an assumption that there is a natural state of mind in which human beings are free from anxiety.

Boris, who is a wide reader, mentioned a study called the White Bear Study (Schneider and Wegner, 1987, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.)

The paper documented the fact that, “people can, but only for brief periods of time, suppress thoughts of white bears,” Schneider said. “But on removal of suppression instructions, people are typically flooded with the thoughts they were supposed to suppress.”

“These observations suggest that attempted thought suppression has paradoxical effects as a self-control strategy, perhaps even producing the very obsession or preoccupation that it is directed against.”

Consider a person who is fearful of public speaking being encouraged not to think about the terror of facing an audience.  The White Bear Study suggests that thought avoidance, or suppression, is a poor choice for such a person.

Further studies point to the “remarkable health effects” of disclosing a thought rather than suppressing it, and the negative effects of depressed people trying to suppress self-critical thoughts.

It seems we are better off entering  into dialogue with a thought than we are chasing it away.

In fact, concentrated thinking about the negative thought, along with writing down descriptions of what you fear about it, and reading aloud the description, have been proven to be highly effective ways of curing anxiety disorders.

As Boris was careful to point out, these findings are not cure-alls for everyone, but they have worked for many people if the therapy is sustained for a certain length of time.

Stage fright can be a chronic anxiety for even highly successful people.  These methods may prove to be helpful to those seeking to gain mastery over their fear of speaking.

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.

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A lot goes into speaking well. It’s a big topic. But one of the key ingredients is an appealing speaking voice.

Now, I’m NOT saying that President Obama has a PERFECT speaking voice. I’m sure most of us have a quibble here and there.

But compared to John McCain and Sarah Palin, Obama was a Caruso to their PeeWee Herman.

His sound is open and resonant, whereas both McCain and Palin have high-pitched nasal sounds.

Candidate Obama’s enunciation, for the most part, was crisp and professional. I say for the most part because he occasionally lapses into slangy sounds that, I suppose, are meant to make him sound folksy.

McCain and Palin, both impressive people, projected vocal images that were less Presidential. McCain sounded young, his squeaky tenor voice seeming less authoritative than Obama’s.

And Palin’s voice was a serious liability. Her resonance was squarely in the bones of her face and in her nose, and those sounds, coming from a strong-willed woman, are not likely to win the hearts and minds of men.

Vocal Presence is an interesting concept. It suggests that sound itself, independent from substance, can have a decisive effect on a voter’s decision to say, “Yes,” to a candidacy.

I would be interested to learn if in our history the candidate with the deeper, more masculine speaking voice was more likely to be elected.

I know it’s true about the taller candidate. If it were also true about the voice, than we would have known early in the primaries that Barack Obama was the favored candidate.

His voice speaks so loudly that it almost doesn’t matter what he says.

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He speaks effectively to his peers and his direct reports, but said that he has trouble organizing his thoughts when speaking to his boss’s  bosses.

I did not meet him in person, and did not try to figure out what was bothering him over the phone.  I suggested he shop around.  But I am curious.  What’s going on and what can he do about it?

What’s Going On?

Let’s speculate.

1. He’s projecting an image of harsh,  judgmental authority onto the senior leaders, which is causing him to tense up with anxiety.
2. He knows that some senior leaders have a reputation for being tough on presenters–they may use presentations as a stress test for “separating the men from the boys.”
3. He is not taking possession of his own strengths and feels like a child standing before angry parents–in a word, powerless.
4. He knows he is comfortable talking about his accounts, but lacks the ability to speak in broader terms about long-range strategic issues.
5. He can speak about his accounts, but worries about the Q&A.
6. He simply hasn’t spoken to them often enough to get comfortable in their presence.
7. He’s over-reacting.  Everyone is nervous speaking to senior leadership.  There’s much at stake.

What Can He Do about It?

1. First of all, get a basic check-up on his presentation skills–how to organize his information to appeal to his audience, and how to project himself effectively.
2. Rehearse his presentation with simulated real-world pressure.  This means getting people to sit and listen to him stumble through his first efforts.
3. Rehearse enough so that he transfers his knowledge and delivery skills from his cerebral cortex (which is good at learning new stuff) to his cerebellum (which is good at orchestrating lightning fast physical and mental tasks.)
4. Get some support from his immediate boss.  If the company believes in him, they should help him break through this challenge.
5. Get to know some of the senior leaders.  This could be difficult, but who knows what would happen if he called up one or two of them and asked them for some career guidance on how to make the presentation most useful to them.  They might see it as enterprising and thoughtful. 
6. Do some visualizing of the senior leaders as normal, fun-loving folks–people who have his best interests at heart, and who want to see him succeed.
7. Develop his self-esteem and confidence.  Read this article on bnet.com for some insights on how to do this.

It’s hard for many of us to step in front of an unfamiliar audience that we imagine knows more than we do, has more money and education than we do, more power, and in fact, could make or break us (or at least it feels that way.)

This guy was up-front and honest with me, and I respect him for that.  He’s out there trying to solve his problem–to take his skills to another level.  Actually, this is one of those instances when the word “skill” may not be the right word.  This might be more about personal growth.

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