E-Tips

Passion

Several years ago in a San Jose Mercury article, Tom Peters said, "Frankly, most laws of speechmaking-keep your hands out of your pockets, don't say 'uh,' lead off with a zinger-are garbage. But there is one golden rule: stick to topics you deeply care about and don't keep your passion buttoned inside your vest."

When we ask people in our programs to describe with one word the voices of most business presenters, the word is "monotone." Most of us seem unwilling or unable to get worked up about our topics, to take a stand.

One of the most enjoyable and instructional parts of our programs is when we ask people to read a well-known text and deliver it with extreme passion. In a word, to scream as loud as they can. Things like, "But as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" We also ask the audience to shout words of encouragement to the speaker, "Oh yeah!" "Right on!" "Tell it like it is!" The energy transfers to later talks.

This kind of vocal energy does not detract from your credibility as many fear, it adds to it. An article in The Journal of Research in Personality noted, "The dimension of credibility most apt to be affected by the sound of our voice is competence. Competence seems to be enhanced by considerable variation in pitch and volume"

So the next time you rehearse your upcoming presentation, do it with strong conviction in your voice. You may just lose the monotone and gain some credibility.