What keeps a lot of very good speakers from every becoming GREAT speakers? It is this belief: “I’m just not comfortable being dramatic the way professional speakers are.” The irony is that these good speakers are quite emotional and, well, dramatic, when then are telling me how much they don’t want to be dramatic in their speeches.
I don’t think that most speakers should strive to be dramatic or theatrical when giving a speech. The real goal should be to come across as “real.” If you are telling an anecdote about a corporate blunder, then your voice, facial expressions and tone should suggest how ridiculous you felt the blunder was.
Most good speakers are quite emphatic when they are having a conversation one-on-one with a friend when discussing issues of importance. They might laugh, frown, or use sarcasm or humor. But the second they give a so-called formal speech, the laugh, the surprise, the shock, the amusement they find towards issues and events is drained away. Instead, the speaker presents information in a straight forward, clam, and steady pace. Sure, the speaker may look comfortable, have good hand gestures and even solid eye contact. But the presentation is too homogeneous and is too consistent.
The solution isn’t for the speaker to go to acting school and become more dramatic. The answer is to be more natural, more real. The speaker needs to relive the moment he or she first told a friend or colleague about an idea. Relive the fun or shock or surprise and then just talk in a conversational manner.
That’s what great speakers do. They usually don’t have acting backgrounds, instead, they just relive real moments in their life when they had interesting conversations with real people. And that’s a lot easier than going to Stella Adler or studying “The Method” for decades.
