THE TRUTH ABOUT PUBLIC SPEAKING

It’s election time, so of course we’re hearing a lot of speeches, some good, some not so good. To be sure, effective speechmaking is hard work. Unfortunately, the effort is often underestimated because of two popular misconceptions that can lead speakers astray.

Misconception # 1: Public speaking success derives not from what you say, but from how you say it. Yes, the content of any speech is enhanced, if not brought to life, by its delivery. Sometimes the speaker’s delivery is so good it alters the audience’s perception of content, which can be seen as stronger than it actually is. This commonly happens when the audience lacks the expertise to adequately analyze and assess what the speaker says. In these cases, delivery dwarfs the importance of content because it is all that the audience is capable of judging. A credible delivery = a credible speaker = a credible message.

But if delivery were always all-powerful and all-transcending, you would accept whatever any eloquent speaker said despite what you knew to be false. You would be swayed by the glib friend who naively lectures about a sport you coached and your friend never played; you would buy into the smooth-talking gas station attendant/part-time mechanic who wants to replace your “defective” transmission, the one your factory-trained mechanic mom just rebuilt; you would say yes to every dynamic salesperson hawking every product you never needed and never wanted. These examples and countless other, everyday experiences affirm that it is ultimately what you say—the perceived worth of your message—that matters most to most audiences.

The impact of a speaker who offers nothing more than an impressive delivery will be short-lived because delivery alone does not have staying power. What we ultimately remember about any great speech is its content, albeit masterfully delivered. We recall the words, not just the delivery, when Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”; when John F. Kennedy implored, “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for our country”; and when Martin Luther King Jr. imagined, “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Misconception  # 2 Public speaking success derives from speaking from the heart.

Speakers should, of course, be invested in what they have to say, expressing themselves with conviction because they believe in the importance of their message. Sincere speakers always speak from the heart. The call to speak from the heart, however, usually describes something quite different: namely, speaking without preparation and practice. This notion falsely assumes that preparation and practice will somehow dilute the authenticity of the speaker’s message. Speakers, so goes the thinking, should trust in the magic of the moment to yield spontaneous eloquence. This fantasy dismisses the importance of public speaking education, training, and experience.

The fantasy has long been promoted by entertainment media, which continually equates spontaneous speaking performance with authenticity (i.e., what is unprepared is what is truly trustworthy) and continually champions how easy it is to be fluent, coherent, and breathtakingly eloquent when you simply choose to tell the truth and be yourself. The fantasy makes for good drama with happy endings, as long as the audience suspends disbelief and remembers that the eloquence is completely scripted and then practiced and presented by professional actors. It bears little resemblance to what happens when real-world people attempt to give speeches without preparing and practicing.

Wanting to be seen as having grace under pressure, some real-world speakers fuel this fantasy by giving the impression they are speaking off-the-cuff when just the opposite is true. Their brilliant, seemingly unprepared performance is designed to make them appear genuine, humble (“I didn’t prepare an acceptance speech because I never presumed I would win”), and remarkably articulate even at a moment’s notice. But these speakers did prepare and practice, usually often and well in advance.

Then there are the speakers who hold up their supposedly prepared text before announcing, “I had planned on giving this prepared speech, which I spent a lot of time on, but now I realize it would be so much better if I just talked to you,” as if talking is never planned and so much better than speaking! What follows is a prepared speech, beautifully written and delivered as if it were an impromptu speech inspired by divine intervention.

Speaking from the heart does not require impromptu performance; preparation and conviction are not mutually exclusive. In fact, quite the opposite is true: preparation often leads you to fully realize what you want to say, which then helps you to sharpen your message and showcase  your passion. Conversely, if conviction alone were all one ever needed to succeed, the passionate halfwit would be king.