How To Speak Powerfully & Improve Your Communication Skills?
I was watching Ted Talks this afternoon, and I found one extremely useful Ted talk from Julian Treasure about the method of speaking powerfully.
First, he identifies 7 deadly sins of speaking:
1. Gossip
You should never speak ill of somebody behind their back.
2. Judging
You should never judge a person. But, here I am guiding you to not judge people when I myself do the exact same thing. I judge people on the basis of their language, their behaviour etc.
3. Negativity
Always be positive, even when things are not in your favour.
Well, I know what you all must be thinking after reading the above line:
“How can a person think positive when he’s fucked up by a bombard of negative things?”
Actually, I myself don’t know.
But on a serious note, I try doing my best coming out of the problem when I face these situations. I just try my best. Even if I come up with the most stupid solution to the problem, I will try it.
4. Excuses
Don’t blame others for your actions. Don’t say things like “Because of you, I have failed. I did it because you said so….”
5. Complaning
Don’t complain. Don’t complain about the environment, weather or anything else. Learn to face the situation.
6. Exaggerating
Don’t exaggerate things by making small things into big issues.
7. Dogmatism
You know people who think that they’re only the right person in the whole world. They just make their opinions as facts. Plus, they don’t even listen to other people’s opinions.
You should never become one like that.
Then, the speaker introduces us to the acronym “HAIL” that tells us about how we can actually improve our communication skills.
H — Honesty — Be honest
A — Authenticity — Be yourself
I — Integrity — Keep your word
L — Love — Wish others well
And then he tells us about how we can make a powerful speech using our toolbox:
1. Register
Where are you speaking from?
If you’re speaking from your chest, you get a deep voice. If you’re speaking from your throat, that’s your normal voice.
2. Timbre
What’s the quality of your voice?
According to researchers, we prefer rich, smooth and warm voices.
But, no need to worry if you’re not lucky to have this kind of voice. Get a voice coach and you can fix it up.
3. Prosody
Are you changing your tone?
Don’t speak in a monotonous tone. Don’t speak in one tone.
Highlight the important things by a change in your voice. Keep changing your tone as per the material…
4. Pace
What’s your speed?
I can speak really fast to get excited.
But on the contrary, I can speak slowly to emphasize.
5. Volume
How loud are you?
High volume can get people excited, whereas low volume can get you attention.
6. Pitch
Honestly, I didn’t understood this point.
But when I researched a bit, I got to know its Hindi meaning as “Sur”. Musical people can understand, I think.
However, in the end he demonstrates some warm up exercises to do before having an important conversation.
You can watch the whole Ted Talk from here.
Thanks for reading 😊
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