be brief, be brilliant, be gone

“Be brief, be brilliant, be gone,” is oft-quoted and less frequently followed. The quote is often attributable to President Woodrow Wilson; however, several other luminaries have spoken to the theme. Here are a few of my favorites:

• “Be sincere; be brief; be seated.” Franklin D. Roosevelt.
• “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” Winston Churchill
• “Grasp the subject, the words will follow.” Cato The Elder
• “Speak clearly, if you speak at all; carve every word before you let it fall.” Oliver Wendell Holmes

 

All of these quotes sound the same theme: 1) be strategic in your communication – ask what is the goal to be achieved? 2) be intentional – once the goal is determined select the words that will allow you to achieve that goal; 3) be impactful – be economic with your word choice since less is more; and, 4) leave the listener with the impact you intended.

Diana Peterson-More

"“Be Brief, Be Brilliant, Be Gone:” Maximizing Communication." Diana Peterson-More Blog. December 11, 2019

uptalk

Uptalk will give the impression that you are unsure. 

As a leader, you want to be aware of your uptalk and work on reducing it. How you sound will determine if people believe you or not. As a leader, you want to sound certain, sure, and assertive in good times and in bad times. Your people rely on your certainty for their sense of confidence.

Uptalk is not all bad, and you do not want to eliminate it. You want to just reduce it to a level where it does not impact your credibility.

Peter Khoury

"3 Ways To Reduce Uptalk To Boost Your Credibility As A Leader", Magnetic Speaking. Accessed December 7, 2021

frame it correctly

Many of the best talks have a narrative structure that loosely follows a detective story. The speaker starts out by presenting a problem and then describes the search for a solution. There’s an “aha” moment, and the audience’s perspective shifts in a meaningful way.

If a talk fails, it’s almost always because the speaker didn’t frame it correctly, misjudged the audience’s level of interest, or neglected to tell a story. Even if the topic is important, random pontification without narrative is always deeply unsatisfying. There’s no progression, and you don’t feel that you’re learning.

Chris Anderson

"How to Give a Killer Presentation: Lessons from TED," Harvard Business Review. June 2013

well-placed pauses

Research suggests that most conversational speech consists of short (0.20 seconds), medium (0.60 seconds), and long (over 1 second) pauses. Great public speakers often pause for two to three seconds or even longer. Our phonetic data shows that the average speaker only uses 3.5 pauses per minute, and that’s not enough.

This is understandable. Pauses aren’t easy to embrace. For many speakers, even the briefest pause can feel like an interminable silence. That’s because we tend to think faster than we speak. According to our research, the average professional speaks at a rate of 150 words per minute. Yet, according to research from Missouri University, we think at 400 words per minute (and depending on who you ask, the rate may be as high as 1,500 words per minute).

Because of this discrepancy, when you’re giving a speech, your perception of time is often distorted, and what feels like an eternity in your mind is actually a few short seconds for the audience.

Despite how they may feel at first, well-placed pauses make you sound calm and collected... Strategically placed silence can build suspense, emphasize a point, or give the audience time to absorb a key insight.

Noah Zandan

How to Stop Saying “Um,” “Ah,” and “You Know” Harvard Business Review. Aug. 1, 2018

addressing popular audiences

It is simplicity that makes the uneducated more effective than the educated when addressing popular audiences.

Aristotle 

Rhetoric.4th century B.C.

a decent public speaker

It’s really not that difficult to be a decent public speaker. Just make sure you do these things:

1. Tell some honest, inspiring stories, preferably your own.
2. Begin and end with one simple message that makes sense.
3. Show pictures or nothing, but skip all text and bullet points.
4. Offer plenty of takeaways; stuff they can do tomorrow.
5. Make people laugh, a lot.

As long as your talk satisfies these acceptance criteria, nobody will care that there’s glue and duct tape all over it.

Jurgen Appelo

"How to Turn a Bad Presentation Into a Good One." NOOP.NL | The Creative Networker. 3/25/2015