Articulate Speaking

Had a meeting yesterday in which I had to deliver my conclusion on whether a client should move into the Scandinavian market. I was against, while another consultant who was set to benefit from any such move was in favour. Knowing I had the better arguments but unable to fully convince our client, it came down to an inability to out articulate Mr.Consultants ardour...
Effective articulation is to knowledge as an engine is to petrol.

The Articulate Executive in Action

"If you are reasonably good at what you do, clearly articulate your ideas to all audiences, and know how to deliver your message so that people remember it and act on it, you can call yourself a leader," declares the author.

"Add integrity, courage, commitment, and vision, and you can call yourself a worthy leader."

You may think you're managing. But if you're merely managing, without articulating your vision, the inevitable consequence is "a strong bias toward the middle," or mediocrity. That's "the first step toward losing the game," cautions Toogood.

"High octane for the fast track," is CVA, or communications value added.

"If a leader with good business sense and a great idea or a solid sense of direction can talk the talk, that company will prosper."

Seven principles of CVA, include the diktat,

never bore such as, by making your presentation sink into "a stifling cloud of white noise that effectively turns everybody off."

More than before "always leave people with more when they walk out than when they walked in."

What you know "Importantly, speak only about what you know, tell stories, and be ready!Don't sound uninformed, out of your depth"

Then comes the POWER formula to help you step on the gas:

Punch, One theme, Window, Ear, and Retention. `

Punch - is achieved by strong statement that comes right at the start, rhetorical question, quotes, projection into the future, humour and so on.

One Theme - Stick to `one' message, though you may discuss it in many ways.

Window - is about `specific examples, illustrations, and anecdotes to provide proof'.

Ear - You lose the `ear', if you don't stay conversational and begin `speechifying.'

Retention - requires you to summarise key points, looping back to beginning, or asking audience to do something specific.

Not being competent with language is the 50 per cent problem' because, with such a liability, "you're not likely to connect, no matter how smart you are."

The answer to the quandary is "to look, act, and sound like a leader in all your communications."

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The Lost Art of the Great Speech: How to Write One; How to Deliver It

Dowis devotes several chapters to rhetorical devices that can lift a speech from the respectable to the eloquent. To illustrate how rhetoric can immortalize ideas, he uses the following quotations from speeches by famous Americans:

We pause to ask what our country has done for each of us and to ask ourselves what we can do for our country in return.
--Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, May 30, 1884

In the great fulfillment, we must have a citizenship less concerned with what the government can do for it and more anxious about what it can do for the nation.
--Warren G. Harding, Republican national convention, June 7, 1916

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country.
--John F. Kennedy, Inaugural Address, January 20, 1961

Here are some suggestions from for making your speech successful.

1. Recognize the advantages of using a written speech: It helps to ensure that you will not ramble, that you will meet your time constraints, and that you will include important points with smooth transitions between them.

2. Limit your speech to a few main points. "The more ideas you pack into your speech, the less attention any single idea will get."

3. To achieve a sense of balance that is pleasing to the ear -- and often memorable -- express related thoughts in a group of three with each element of the triad having the same grammatical form and perhaps having repeated sounds.

4. Use simple, concrete, direct language: vivid nouns and strong verbs.

5. Keep your tone conversational with personal references, when they are appropriate, and contractions.

6. If you use humor, use it sparingly, and be sure that it relates to the point you are making. Do not use humor that could possibly offend anyone in your audience.

7. Mark the final copy of your speech for delivery, not for publication. Double space it with large type, short lines, and unbroken phrases. Use only the upper half of an 8 1/2- by 11-inch sheet so that it will be easier for you to look from your script to your audience.

8. Use pauses for dramatic effect, for emphasis, and as a transition. Think of pauses as the oral equivalent of punctuation marks and typographical devices. If a comma represents a short pause, a new heading warrants a long one. If your pauses seem too long, they are probably about right.

9. After you have practiced delivering your speech, record it -- on videotape if possible. Examine all aspects of your speech, including body language, for ways to improve your delivery.

10. Prepare an audio tape of your speech after you have practiced your delivery. Listen to it at least once a day to become more familiar with your speech.