Words Matter
The power of congruence in public speaking
Verbal vs Nonverbal
I recently attended a presentation where the speaker started almost every important statement with the words “I think.” He also used phrases like “kind of” several times throughout his presentation with a “basically” and “obviously” thrown in now and then for good measure. He established a good presence with his body language and tone but his presentation didn’t land well with me. His message fell flat and I wasn’t compelled to do anything when he’d finished. As important as it is to establish a good presence with your nonverbal language, you must combine that with good word choice in order to deliver your message with power.
Albert Mehrabian, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at UCLA, is well known for his research on the relative importance of verbal (words) and non-verbal (tone and body language) messages. This research has been used for decades in communication training. The problem is many people use his research out of context to show the importance of body language and tone in public speaking and imply words don’t matter.
The Data
Mehrabian’s findings show 55% of the impact we have when speaking comes from the visual component of communication. Other research shows 83% of human learning occurs visually…
