What are 5 tips for using examples in your speeches?

Whether it's designed to share a brand message with an unfamiliar crowd or to inspire employees during difficult times, a great speech can prove to be a critical tool in a business leader's communication toolkit. 

One of the most important qualities of a great speech is that it’s relatively short.

Consider Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address” and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Both are powerful but brief, clocking in at two minutes and 17 minutes, respectively.

However, a speech’s length is only one factor. A great speech must also captivate the audience, be presented clearly and confidently, and have a well-defined message.

Here are some techniques you can use to deliver a great, memorable speech, whether it's for work or elsewhere.

A speech is primarily about the words, but a performance is so much more. It’s inflection, gesture, tension, resolution, and suspense.

But it doesn't have to be overwhelming, and you don't have to be an Oscar winner to do it well.

Go see a one-person play, and you’ll instantly understand what I mean. Performers work hard at capturing and keeping an audience’s attention, and words are only one tool in their arsenal.

This means after you finish writing a speech, the work isn't done. Make sure to rehearse the speech in front of a few people, the mirror, or a recording device. You'll feel more confident after you've practiced, even if it's just a few times.

When nerves take over, you might naturally want to look at the floor, your slides, your hands, or the back of the room. But remember that you're in a room with humans who want to connect with you and your words.

If you try to make eye contact with people while you deliver your speech, they're more likely to feel personally engaged and gain your trust. Eye contact communicates confidence and authority – two traits key to conveying your point effectively.

The lectern can be a crutch. It’s a physical barrier between you and your audience, and you may want to consider stepping out from behind it. Not only will your movement help create a livelier presentation, but it will help the audience perceive you as more open and accessible. Movement can also help ease your nerves.

To help you stay focused when delivering your speech, map out where you want to be on stage for each key point you want to make. You can record videos of your practice sessions to pick up on subconscious nervous gestures or ticks and work to correct them.

Your body language conveys confidence. Slouching can make you look like you aren't confident. Practice standing up straight, keeping your shoulders back and your head steady. However, don't worry too much because your body will tighten, making you look and feel nervous. Remember to relax.

Additionally, breathing is important for calming your nerves. Slouching leaves less room for your lungs to fully breathe. Even if your speech is short, it’s critical to optimize your breathing habits so you feel better both mentally and physically.

Take deep, calm breaths as much as you need to beforehand. Don't forget to pause and breathe during the speech too. Taking care of yourself is crucial.

The power of storytelling lies in the images that audience members create in their heads as you spin your yarn.

Try not to overload your speech with data points, unless it's primarily a data-driven topic. Listeners will be more likely to remember pertinent anecdotes that inspire compassion, elicit laughter, or simply intrigue them.

Stories – especially brief, relevant ones – are a powerful tool for delivering a great speech. Weaving them into your presentation can transform your listeners into active participants.

When delivering a speech, it’s important to deliberately mix up speaking patterns such as volume, speed, and tone. 

When in doubt, slow down your speech to let your audience catch up – especially if you tend to speak quickly. Remembering to pause can be very helpful in steadying the speech.

If you know you’re naturally a fast talker, build some pauses into your speech. Determine points at which to take a breather, or incorporate statements like “Now think about that for a moment” or “Let that sink in.” It takes an audience more time to process your points than it will take for you to articulate them.

Remember that you're the expert. Give people time to ponder your brilliant message.

If you're asked to give a speech, you're probably already an expert on the subject.

Passion translates to energy and authenticity, which help engage an audience. Emotion pulls the audience in and gets them invested in hearing more. Take them with you on this journey from the start by talking with passion.

If you find you’re not moved by your topic, modify it so it's more relevant to you and your audience. The more relevant it is, the more engaging your speech will be, and the more confident you'll feel delivering it.

As an expert worthy of giving a great speech, you'll likely excel at providing the main content points. But using these techniques can help you get your message across in a compelling and memorable way. Focus on crafting a clear, concise message that’s rife with relevant anecdotes. Practice the performance, adjust any small habits as needed, and remember that you deserve to be up there. Remember to breathe.

A version of this article was originally published on September 08, 2014.

Photo: Getty Images

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1. Make a good set of notes you can follow at a glance, and PRACTICE your presentation.
2. Dress for the occasion and tidy yourself up. Do something about hair that tends to fall into your face. Avoid wearing a hat or cap because it can obscure your face.
3. Arrange the environment to suit your presentation and get rid of distractions; erase needless information from the boards, turn off equipment you’re not going to use, close or open windows, blinds and doors to aid audience visibility, hearing and comfort. Turn on enough light so people can adequately see you, your eyes and your facial expressions.
4. Check the operation of audiovisual equipment before your presentation. Have a backup plan in case it fails.
5. Make sure your notes and other materials are in proper order before you begin.
6. Get rid of any gum or food you might have in your mouth. Don't hold a pen or paper clip or anything else that you might twiddle and distract your listeners.
7. Stand or sit up straight with your weight balanced. Avoid slumping, twisting or leaning on the lectern, table, or computer console. Don't stand in the light from the projector.
8. Make eye contact before you start to speak, as you normally do in beginning a conversation.
9. Don't start with “um” or “OK.”
10.  Talk to your listeners as if you are having a conversation with them.
    • Make plenty of genuine eye-to-eye contact with members of the audience.
    • Avoid merely reading your presentation.
    • Focus on sharing your ideas. Communicate.
11. Use your voice expressively and meaningfully.
    • Minimize the uhs, ums, likes and y’knows.
    • Enunciate words clearly. Don’t mumble or garble them.
    • Speak with appropriate loudness and speed. Consider audience, place and topic.
    • Use variations in speed, inflections, and force to enhance your meaning and hold audience attention. Avoid monotony.
12. Use your body expressively and meaningfully.
    • Look interested in your topic. Show your enthusiasm, sincerity, commitment.
    • Minimize distracting mannerisms and aimlessly shifting weight or moving about.
    • Use gesture and movement naturally to describe things, underscore transitions and emphasize points.

Remember the 3 Es of Effective Delivery: Energy, Eye Contact and Expression!

Experienced speakers use techniques to make them more interesting to listen to and to help them hold the attention of their audience. Try some of the following the next time you give a presentation.

1. Practice, practice, practice

Rehearsal is essential to speaking well. It will help you keep to a time limit and will allow you to try out various techniques in a low-pressure environment. It will also help you to know your material well, which makes it easier to remember and stay on point. Practice standing and speaking so that you get used to delivering a talk before you have to give it to your audience.

2. Speak, don’t read

Don’t simply read your talk, word-for-word, from a paper. This gets pretty boring for listeners. Spoken language is less formal and wordy than written language, so reading makes you sound stiff and will dampen any sense of energy or spontaneity in your performance. Reading from a paper forces you to look down, instead of speaking to the audience. Instead, if you have a ‘script’, turn it into notes that you can talk from, and glance at only occasionally. It’s less important that you capture the text word for word than that you present the main ideas in a natural and relaxed way (this is where rehearsing helps - it not only improves your performance skills, it enables you to better remember what you want to say).

3. Be yourself

Even in a formal speech, allow your personality to come through. When you’re nervous, it’s easy to tense up and become a little awkward or wooden, but make an effort to stay natural. Smile and make eye contact. You will establish better rapport and credibility if you are being yourself, and your audience will listen more if they can see you as genuine, even if it means being a little less technically perfect.

4. Aim for a positive state of mind and a confident attitude

Try to project confidence, even if you don’t feel it. Remind yourself that you can do it, and that the audience want you to succeed. Visualise a positive outcome. Harness your nervous energy and tell yourself that you are excited - that you have interesting, engaging materials to share with the audience. As you walk to the front of the room, carry yourself in a confident manner. Stand straight, look at the group, take a breath, and smile. Concentrate on what you will tell the audience, rather than your degree of nervousness. This will help you forget your nerves and focus on your topic and your listeners, so you’ll be better able to get them engaged in your speech.

5. Use verbal signposting

Giving an indication of what will be coming later in your talk is an effective way of maintaining audience interest. Use transitions to draw your audience a ‘road map’ of your presentation. For example:

“In a moment I’ll provide some interesting examples, but first ...”

“There are four ways of preventing this. Firstly - secondly - thirdly - finally”

You can also link ideas or sections of your presentation to help your audience follow the overall structure:

“ As I mentioned earlier, the first method was unsuccessful ...”

6. Use examples, illustrations and humour

Use examples or verbal illustrations to create interest. Choose them to suit your audience. An example that comes within their experience of the audience can create interest, a humorous remark can ‘break the ice’ and establish rapport, especially early on.

7. Ask questions and invite participation

Asking questions of your audience throughout your talk helps hold their attention and interest. It also develops a connection between you and the group. Asking questions means you are inviting them to participate and drawing them in to a mutual thinking process. For example:

“Who can estimate the number of individuals left permanently injured by road accidents?”

“Can anyone suggest some alternative uses for plastic bubble wrap?”

“Someone’s home is broken into every seven minutes. Can you believe it?”

You can also speak directly to individual audience members, if appropriate. For example:

“I take it from your reaction that you’ve read something similar, Sarah . . .”

8. Be aware of eye contact and body language

Make eye contact with the audience to help establish a connection. Glance at the faces of group members and don’t be afraid to meet people’s eyes, but don’t stare - use the 3-second method. Look straight into the eyes of an audience member for 3 seconds at a time. Aim for direct eye contact with a number of people, and every now and then glance at the whole group while speaking. Eye contact not only establishes a bond, it can help you register your progress. Faces can indicate interest, confusion and boredom, so you can gauge reactions to what is being said.

Body language is also important. Standing, walking or moving about with appropriate hand gesture or facial expression is far preferable to sitting down or standing still with head down and reading from a paper. Use audio-visual aids or props for enhancement if appropriate and necessary.

9. Learn from the Pros

A great way to learn what good speakers do is to watch them give speeches, note what works and what doesn’t, and adopt these examples into your own style. Note which lecturers are particularly interesting - attend class and watch what they do. Watch some TED Talks online. They tend to be high-quality presentations and provide some great examples.

10. Be aware of technique

Pace

Speaking to an audience requires a pace slower than normal conversation. Nervous speakers tend to speed up, so avoid this. Try varying your pace to create different effects. Try: slow measured speech for a point which is serious or needs emphasising speeding up a little to lend excitement or urgency

Pitch

Aim for a comfortable, medium pitch. High-pitched voices can sound harsh, and a high pitch is often due to shallow breathing and nervousness. Deep, steady breathing and a deliberate attempt to lower the pitch will help reduce nerves. Variations in pitch can be effective. For example, pitch could be raised to add emphasis to a question. However, use with care; too frequent use of high pitch can irritate an audience.

Tone

Tone is the vocal quality which expresses feeling. It can lend warmth and sincerity to your voice or reveal how strongly you feel about a topic. This can evoke a similar response from the audience. In academic presentations, a harshly critical or judgemental tone should be avoided.

Volume

Your voice should be loud enough for the listeners in the back rows to hear comfortably. You can also vary volume to make your talk more lively, but avoid shouting.

Pausing

Inexperienced speakers are often afraid to pause; they see pausing as a failure in fluency, but experienced speakers use pauses to good effect. Pausing can focus attention on what has been said or what is about to be said, can also allow the audience to digest information, or can be used to prepare them for a change in ideas.

* Adapted from: Pitman, 1988, Business Communication.