How do you know if you are speaking effectively, whether to 1 or 1,000?
As with writing, this is theoretcially easy: you’ve been speaking effectively when your audience understands your message and is moved to act to support your goals.
But there is a long way from theory to practice. What specific steps can you take […]

Remember always that your purpose is to communicate.
Keep it clear
Whatever your topic is, I’ll bet that you are most definitely not speaking to convince someone that you are smart. And likewise you are not giving a briefing or chatting with your boss (this tip applies to both public and private speaking) solely to have performed […]

If you want to learn to communicate effectively with members of your organization you’ve got to study their style. Interacting according to commonly accepted norms with help you build a bridge of trust with your audience that will make them much more receptive to your message.
With that said, rules are meant to be broken.
Break […]

So you’ve researched your audience, and you’ve carefully prepared your argument. You know your topic, and you think you’ve anticipated all the questions. You’re off to a good start, but you are still just getting started. You’ve got to really connect with your audience to be sure your message is getting to them. But how […]

When we were talking about writing, we discussed the permanence of the written word and the particular challenges that durability can pose.
If it’s written (and don’t forget to count email as a “written document”) then it can be archived and referred to later. This raises the bar on being correct.
But spoken communication is different
Spoken communication, […]

All this adapting may have you running short, or long. Running short is usually not a problem provided you cover all your material: it doesn’t impinge on your audience’s schedule of activities following your talk, and it gives you more time for interactions during and after the talk.
But never…
Never run long, and never start late. […]

If you’re going to be a successful public speaker the first thing you need to accomplish is to have your audience pay attention and remember what you say during your talk, speed, presentation, or seminar. To do this you’re going to have to be quick on your toes, and adapt. Here are a couple of […]

For most of us, learning to communicate effectively with the spoken word is a much longer process than learning to write effectively.
Part of the reason for this is that the most effective communicators learn to adapt to, and finally resonate with, the particular audience they are speaking to at the particular time they are […]

When it comes to careers a lot of us spend way too much time on autopilot, letting someone else decide what promotions we should be interested in and what career paths we should take.
I think some people handle their careers this way because they are pleasers at heart, and when they are asked to take […]

When planning any oral interaction—private or public—you must keep in mind that your goal is to communicate with your audience. We talked about this with writing, and the same thing applies to spoken communications.
Say it clearly the first time
In fact, the focus on audiences’ understanding is even more critical with the spoken word than […]