You can build your credibility by building listener belief in the way that actors do: Create and pursue acting objectives. An acting objective is an action that lies underneath the words you speak; and ACTION that you take toward your listeners as you speak. It is a specific, active verb; it expresses what you want to do to your listeners; what you want to make them feel or do.
Choose objectives that are personally appealing and for you to pursue, so that you’ll be motivated and project energy. There are three ingredients for an effective acting objective. Each objective should have the following qualities. It should be
a specific, active verb, Directed toward the listener
personal and appropriate to the spoken message and the listener’s situation.
truthful (not necessarily actual, but believable)
Pursuing an objective gives you energy and focus as you speak, because it is a powerful action to take toward your listeners; a powerful action that lies underneath the words. Listeners pay a lot of attention to the actions underneath the words you speak.
Here are some power verbs that might be useful at acting objectives (think, “I wish to __ my listeners”): welcome them; stir their pride; impress them; honor them; warn them; make them laugh, etc.
Keep your acting objectives private; they should be your secrets. The longer you keep a secret, the more power it holds for you. You want your objective to have power of you; to have power to affect your delivery. Keeping your acting objectives private will strengthen your motivation to speak and galvanize the commitment and passion in your voice and your gestures.
Actors write their acting objectives in the margin of the script, right next to the dialogue. Identifying power verbs as your acting objectives for each beat of your presentation will help you organize your ideas, internalize your message, and prepare you for the next step: pursuing your acting objectives, as if you life depended on it!
Savvy professionals apply acting techniques to help enhance their credibility and gravitas when they speak for business. They know that they need to build belief within the listeners, so they borrow techniques that actors have used for decades. So can you.
Crafted actors spend years perfecting a craft that is designed to build belief. This is why advertisers so often rely upon actors and their craft: they understand that actors’ techniques and performance skills are fundamental to the business of selling any idea, product, or service.
When actors are preparing a role, they make careful choices about what actions to take, to help the audience believe that the make believe situation is real. For actors, it’s all about actions; for actors, actions speak much louder than words.
To prepare, actors create “acting objectives”. These are actions that lie underneath the words – actions they plan to take toward their listeners. This helps actors to be motivated to speak the words that the playwright or screenwriter wrote, and speak them truthfully, authentically, and conversationally.
In rehearsal and performance, actors pursue their acting objectives as if their lives depended on it. This helps the audience believe that the actor and the character are one and the same: that the actor IS the character.
This applies to you when you speak for business for two important reasons:
You want your business listeners to believe something: to believe that you have solutions to their problems, for example. The more rigorously you pursue your actions (your acting objectives), the more completely your audience will believe: believe that you and your message are one and the same; believe that you are your message.
Whenever you are speaking for business, when you make listeners believe, they are very likely to overlook minor shortcomings or mistakes you might make.
Throughout my acting career, and as a professional speaker, I have occasionally neglected to rehearse with the use of acting objectives. Invariably, whenever I have neglected to use this technique, I lost the acting job or failed to engage my business listeners.
Your business speaking/presentations will never be perfect; there will always be something to improve upon and something that you might consider to have been slightly “negative” in your “performance”. Without the use of acting objectives in your preparation, you significantly reduce your ability to make business listeners believe. When that happens, your listeners have little to focus on BUT the negative.
Once you have helped your business listeners believe, you’ve won them over to your side. After that, they will forgive you almost anything!
If you prepare your business presentation by memorizing, you will probably end up sounding “canned” — the quickest way to get prospects, clients, and other business listeners to tune you out. To avoid this problem, do what the best actors do: internalize, don’t memorize.
Most actors try to avoid rote memorization of a script, because memorization has a tendency to block the most important part (and the most connective part) of speaking: our communication actions that lie beneath the words. Effective rehearsal is the rehearsal of communication actions/”objectives” (rather than the words themselves), in order to sound conversational and authentic at every moment.
When I played Amanda in The Glass Menagerie last summer, I was working with a young actor who tried to memorize lines by associating them with his blocking (i.e., where he sat, stood, and moved on stage). The director changed the blocking many times during our rehearsal process: of course, the actor then had difficulty remembering his lines! He was then forced to learn lines with a different strategy: he began to internalize his lines by associating them with his underlying actions/objectives. This allowed him to not only remember his lines perfectly, but to sound conversational, authentic, and believable. His lines and physical behavior created a unified, seamless whole.
Business speakers, whether using notes or not, should internalize (not memorize) your content. You need a strategy to help you become deeply connected to your message, so that listeners will believe that you are fully committed and that you and your message are “one”.
Do the following: divide your notes for a talk into “beats” (individual topics that are smaller than your overall message). For each beat, choose a communication action directed toward the listeners. As you rehearse aloud, focus on the underlying communication action of each beat; keep it at the forefront of your mind, and pursue it energetically.
You will be better able to remember your content fully; you won’t have to worry about “memorizing” anything. Your voice and body language will support your words, turning your content and demeanor into one organic, unified, and seamless message.
When you rehearse this way, you’ll never have to worry about “over-rehearsing”, because your rehearsal will never produce a “canned” delivery. Instead, your rehearsal will help you speak with authenticity and maximum impact.
You can sharpen your mental focus right before an important business conversation or presentation. Here are two simple techniques that will help you feel and look fully present and energized.
You probably know that actors warm up their bodies and voices right before a performance. Well, they also warm up their brains before they go on stage! As a business professional, you can sharpen your mental focus before you speak, in the same way that actors do, right before they go on stage.
Before you enter the room where you’ll be speaking for business, find a private spot, and try the following:
Busy your brain with arithmetic! That’s right: Do arithmetic, starting with small sums. Add numbers like 64 and 27. After a few combinations like this, graduate to larger figures, like 459 and 3897. It really is OK if your answers are not correct; the point of the exercise is to work the brain; to make the effort.
Busy your brain with Jeapardy; just like the game show! Think of any simple category. Speak/whisper all the words you can think of that belong in that category. When your ideas stop flowing relatively easily, change the category and repeat the exercise. Categories like “capital cities of the world” and “languages of the world”, etc., are good ways to begin. The choice of categories is almost endless. Choose categories that are challenging enough to work your brain and that give you a sense of achievement.
Mental gymnastics will energize you and help you feel and look authoritative. They are very useful tools to help you deliver your ideas with confidence and focus!
You can engage your business listeners fully by “taking stage”: capturing their attention and keeping it.
How do professional actors get the audience’s attention and keep them riveted to the action of a play? One answer is that they take stage: they inhabit the space with a “do or die” purpose and an attitude of complete belonging.
Business professionals need to do the same thing, in order to persuade and inspire your business listeners, whether you are speaking one on one, or to a group; whether you are speaking informally, or delivering a PowerPoint presentation.
Here are three techniques to help you take stage –to command your listeners’ attention and keep it:
1. Before you begin, situate yourself in a position of power whenever possible. When you are speaking to a group, that’s usually front and center. Whether you are seated or standing, begin with both feet planted firmly on the ground, and imagine that your legs are tree trunks and that your feet are roots extending deep into the ground. This initial grounding helps you claim the space as your own and gives weight to your movements. It helps you project confidence and authority.
2. If you’re standing, stand away from furniture and resist any temptation to lean for support. If someone offers you a podium when you speak to a group, politely decline it whenever possible, unless you truly need it. You want to eliminate as many physical barriers as possible that might come between you and your audience. If you must use a podium, stand tall and don’t lean on it!
3. If you have handouts for a talk, whenever possible, distribute them after your talk has ended — not before or during the talk. Giving people material to read during your talk encourages them to focus on the written word and encourages them to ignore you! Giving material in advance can send the message that your listeners might just as effectively have read your talk — that they did not need to hear you live and in person!
Take stage to engage your listeners. Better yet, take stage to captivate your business listeners!
You can increase the impact that you have on your business listeners by revealing who YOU are when you speak!
Consider the impact that actors have on their audiences. Many years ago, Marlon Brando said, “Acting is the ancient, instinctive art of representing ourselves to others in a way that reflects how we truly are.”
Successful business speaking also reflects how we truly are. It shows your business listeners what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, and how they might do it better. It also shows them how you, the speaker, truly are. And that means WHO you are.
Convincing actors and persuasive business speakers make their greatest impact through self-revelation.
To play a character convincingly and make the audience believe, actors reveal truths that lie in the deepest places of their own hearts: truths that lie inside every heart. The ability to reveal what is both personal and at the same time universal creates for the audience a transformative experience: when audiences recognize themselves in a character – when they can identify — they can understand more about our human condition, our limitations, and, most importantly, our potential.
This ability to reveal what is personal and at the same time universal is important in business speaking, too. Whether you are giving a power point presentation or talking with a prospect on a sales call, revealing who YOU are is a key ingredient in making a deep connection with your listeners and building their trust.
When you prepare to speak for business, decide what you will reveal about yourself in the following areas:
1. Your personal perspective about your business message
2. Your appreciation of your listeners and your enjoyment in speaking with them
3. True stories from your own life that will help illustrate your message
Be sure that your communication is supported by your vocal delivery, your body language, and every aspect of your demeanor.
Reveal who YOU are when you speak, to build trust and make your greatest impact!
In today’s videoblog, I’ll share the third and final step in my three-part series called “How to Engage Your Listeners by Allowing Your Ideas to Land.”
In my last two videoblogs, I talked about the first two steps in this process: (1) Speak in complete thoughts and (2) pursue your point with energy and focus.
Today, I’ll share step three: Pause briefly after speaking a complete thought, to allow the idea to “land”.
Successful business speakers, like good actors, always consider pacing when they prepare to speak. The tempo of the spoken word has a strong impact on the listener and directly influences the way speakers are perceived. This raises the issue of pausing.
Even the smartest and best listeners need a moment to digest a complete thought. When you are speaking face-to face or on camera, your listeners need time to interpret meaning from a broad palette: a palette that includes your visual as well as vocal delivery. So, pauses are important.
A University of Michigan study revealed that speakers who never paused had the lowest success rate in getting listeners to do what they wanted them to do. The great British actor, John Gielgud, famously said that, when acting Shakespeare, the pauses are the most important moments of the speech! He knew that pauses can be captivating.
Help your business listeners receive the full impact of your message by giving them the gift of time. Pause briefly after each complete thought, to let it “land”. Don’t be in a rush to go on to your next idea. The pause will also give you time to get a reading on your listener’s understanding and engagement level. During the pause, breathe deeply and maintain good eye contact.
Without the pauses, your listeners may feel overwhelmed by an unmanageable amount of input. They may lose some of your meaning; they might even tune you out.
When you give your listeners time to process each thought, you are respecting their needs while you communicate your own conviction that your message is important.
At networking events, do you fail to project the image you desire? Do you find it difficult to turn networking conversations into relationships that lead to sales?
It may be because you are not speaking strategically to project a spirit of cooperation.
Here are some “Networking No-No’s” (behaviors that work against a spirit of cooperation):
• Doing most of the talking and/or interrupting your conversation partner: Instead, find out about the other person. Ask questions, listen actively, and respond with words and body language. Mirror back to the speaker what you have understood him/her to say. Let your conversation partner do most of the talking!
• Trying to sell your products/services: Instead, give before you get. Listen for ways that you can help your conversation partner. Offer introductions, suggestions, information, invitations, volunteering, advice, etc. This increases the likelihood that your listener will want to collaborate and reciprocate!
• Being carelessly “broad” in attempting humor with people you’ve just met: Instead, when using humor, stick to self-deprecating humor. Remember that individual sense of humor (influenced by culture and other complex factors) is a delicate and mysterious phenomenon. If you tell a joke or make a comment in jest that the listener doesn’t understand, misconstrues, or simply does not find funny, your attempt at humor may backfire. When you wish to use humor with a new acquaintance, poke fun at yourself. Most people will appreciate your humility and ability to take yourself lightly.
When networking, be a “smart talker” in the true sense of the word. Project a spirit of cooperation and begin building relationships that lead to sales!
So much business speaking today is ineffective because speakers unnecessarily fear being perceived as “phony”.
When business speaking is lifeless and boring, it is often because the speaker mistakenly believes that using a higher energy level is dependent upon his/her experiencing a certain emotion. When these speakers don’t feel that emotion, they settle for a humdrum demeanor, play it safe, and avoid the kind of energy for speaking that truly engages the listener.
Business speakers should adopt the attitude that actors take: a specific feeling does not have to be present in order for you to behave a certain way. Acting “as if” you feel or think a certain way is the surest way to project the qualities you choose (poise and passion, for example) and increase your persuasive power. Stanislavski (the great Russian director and teacher) called this the “magic if”.
Shakespeare was advising the same thing when he wrote, “Assume a virtue if you have it not.”
Speakers shouldn’t wait for a feeling of happiness before smiling, for example. With the act of smiling, they are acting as if they are happy. (And behavior can certainly induce a feeling). Actions and feelings go together; feelings are not subject to direct command, behavior is subject to direct command. Therefore, behaving a certain way, whether one “feels” that way or not, is paramount. Behavior is king, particularly when the business audience is watching.
Finally, a second quote from Stanislavsky has relevance for your business speaking: “Show me what a person DOES, and I’ll show you who he/she IS”.
Who does your business audience perceive YOU to be? Your speaking behavior holds the key.
Every person connected with the theater knows that an audience must become engaged with the action on stage as soon as possible, in order for that stage effort to be successful. The same is true for your business presentations. You can start by applying three simple strategies at the beginning of each talk.
1. Maintain good eye contact.
Eye contact means “eyeball to eyeball”: not looking at foreheads, to the tops of heads, or looking in the general direction of individuals. Make eye contact with people within audience sections: for example, focus on individuals on the left side of the audience, then the right, then the center – or in any order you choose. Be sure to cover the whole audience territory and remember to include people seated in the back rows. Depending upon the size of your audience/venue, it may be challenging to make eye contact with people who are furthest away from you, but seek out as many eyes as possible. Contrary to common fears, maintaining good eye contact actually helps relax you as a speaker. Seeing people’s eyes will remind you that the audience is, after all, made up of regular folks just like you, and that they do want you to succeed. They are usually hopeful and expectant; they want to believe that they have made a good choice by attending your presentation!
2. Use a conversational tone, vary your pace, and be sure that conviction and passion are visible on your body and audible in your voice.
Most listeners respond favorably when a speaker communicates gratitude and humility, and a conversational tone helps project these qualities in you. It lets your audience know that you are approaching them as an expert who is an equal, not as a professor or pontificator. Speak as you would during a one-on-one conversation, with the slight adjustment of a heightened energy. Take the attitude that you are pleased to be sharing an important secret with your audience; that you are speaking confidentially to each individual listener. Vary your pace, to generate interest and convey enthusiasm. Take time to allow you thoughts to “land”, and occasionally pause for dramatic effect. Audiotape your rehearsals; when you play back the tape, take special note of the moments when you sounded most authentic, most conversational; moments when your voice and YOU were “one”; when your voice is the true YOU. Analyze what you were doing that caused that authentic sound, and strive to replicate that underlying behavior (rather than the sound). Your sound in any given moment is the result of your intention and communication behavior. You can achieve an authentic and effective sound by doing something; pursuing an appropriate objective. The degree of conviction and passion in your voice and gestures is within your control. Gestures and body language should match the intensity of your voice, as well as your content.
3. Ask questions and ask for volunteers.
Involve your audience by asking questions and inviting individuals to come to the platform area to participate in simple tasks/exercises related to your topic. When you pose questions to your audience, people invariably answer them, which immediately makes the responders a part of the presentation. Audiences enjoy this. Ask questions that you know they can answer, and be sure that everything you ask is directly related to the purpose/main idea of your talk. For pure engagement and entertainment value, nothing beats demonstrations by your audience members. Create simple tasks/exercises for individuals or pairs that will illustrate your points. Ask for volunteers from the audience to come to the platform area; if people seem shy at first and no one immediately volunteers, wait. WAIT. Have the courage to tolerate silence or hesitation from the audience, and during the silence, make strong eye contact with a broad smile and open arms. Avoid all temptation to recruit individuals; allow them to volunteer. (During the hundreds of presentation I have made in all industries, I have never faced a situation where we lacked volunteers.) Audiences include those who enjoy receiving attention and will rise to the occasion! Audience members who remain seated become immediately captivated: this is theater, the drama of watching a situation unfold in the here and now, where anything can happen. It is compelling and irresistible because of its immediacy.
When you involve your audience early in your talk in these three ways, you set the stage for the audience to bond with you. The sooner they bond with you, the stronger their connection with you will be. This is true engagement.
