When people become leaders, they think they have the power to call the shots. And I would say that they don't have power, they have influence. In fact, CEOs are far away from their day-to-day business work, and only through communication can they exert their influence. So, leadership is about influence, influence is achieved through communication, and speech is the core of leadership.
For many entrepreneurs, a presentation is nothing more than standing on the stage and introducing the company's products. Many people do a lot of preparation for public speaking, but the result is often a deserted scene and drowsy listeners.
Speech is an important way to highlight the influence of entrepreneurs, enhance the corporate image, and expand the visibility of enterprises.
The 3V rule
When I ask Chinese what the essence of speech is, they all say it is language, content. In fact, this is just one of the three essential elements of a speech. Regarding speech, we should pay attention to the 3V rule - Visual, Vocal and Verbal, in which vision is body language and hearing is sound. Therefore, the essence of the speech is to balance the relationship between the three Vs. First, it's important to understand the relative importance of these three elements.
Albert Merabine of the University of California, Los Angeles, put forward Merabin's rule, which holds that about 55% of a person's impression on others comes from his or her eyes, expressions, movements, and other image factors, and about 38% of sound elements such as volume, sound quality, speech speed, and rhythm, and 7% depends on the language and content of his conversation.
When I say this to people, especially Chinese, they think I'm crazy. Language and content are only 7%? You must be kidding! It sounds outrageous, but it's true.
If you talk to human brain researchers, they'll tell you: our brains are more focused on processing visual information, and visual information is the most important thing. Next, it's time to process the sound. The brain then processes smells and touch. In a speech, the audience cannot smell or touch, so we can only convey visual information, sound information, and language. Language is one of the most recent human abilities, so there are relatively few parts of the brain used to process language, 55%, 38% and 7%, which correspond to how our brains function.
To give a simple example, one is that I say "nice to meet you" with a blank face, and the other is that I say "nice to meet you" happily, which one would you believe?
Certainly not the first one, but I'm talking about the same thing. If language is the most important thing, you will believe both. Obviously the language is not the most important thing, it is the visual information that tells you whether I really think so.
Seeing this, you may think that language is not important, as long as you use good body language and voice, it will be a wonderful communication. This is certainly not the case. What I'm trying to say is that if you want to get a well-prepared message and content out there and have an effect, you have to make good use of body language and voice so that all three work together.
Be a prominent speaker
The only difference between public speaking or formal communication and everyday communication is communication. Formal communication is one-way, there is no communication. If I'm giving a speech, you're one of the 500 listeners, are you going to listen carefully to every word I say? You can be less engrossed, you can check your email, you can squint for a while, or think about what to eat in the evening.
I was standing and giving a speech to 500 people, and the audience sat with their arms crossed, and there was no feedback. In day-to-day communication, people would give me feedback, make "oh" and "ah" sounds, or interrupt me with a question.
So, if I want to capture the attention of my audience, I have to work very hard. What does that mean? It means that I have to deliver a very simple message, otherwise the listener will think, "Oh, that's what the hell he's trying to say?"
So, how should a speaker build a relationship with an audience?
First, you can talk about the audience to show that you understand them. The listener's biggest concern is that the speaker knows what they're thinking. So, instead of thinking about what you want to express, think about what they want to hear, what they're interested in, and what they care about. That's my first piece of advice, to understand them, to talk about them.
Second, you need to try to get some feedback. You can get feedback through laughter, applause, questions in various ways, but you have to make the audience feel like it's about them, or you'll get stuck in a one-way communication. The secret to good presentation is to make formal speech feel informal, and let one-way communication become two-way interaction that engages the audience.
Here I would like to mention two distinguished speakers. One is Jack Ma. There are three points that I appreciate very much about Jack Ma's communication: first, the expression is very clear. His message was very clear and very simple. Second, be good at storytelling. He is always telling stories, and if you want others to remember your words, use storytelling, don't keep telling facts and information. Third, be humble. I think those three points are fantastic, and for me, he's a speech genius. Of course, his English is also a plus, but that's not the point.
The other is Donald Trump. I'm not a Trump supporter, but I think he's very talented at communicating. He has two things to keep an eye on:
One is to use absolutely simple words. U.S. presidential candidates publish books. Obama's book is titled "The Audacity of Hope." The word "audacity" is too difficult for the public, and I dare say most Americans don't recognize it. "Hope" also sounds abstract. The title of Trump's book is "Lame America," and Americans know what the word "lame" means. He uses very simple, visual words.
The second is to be good at interacting with the audience. He would say, "We're going to build a wall at the border!" and people would shout "Build a wall!" and then he would ask the audience, "Who's going to pay for this wall?" and people would then shout "Mexico!" and he would interact. We mentioned that the biggest problem with formal communication is one-way. He breaks that limitation, he gives people a voice, he makes the audience feel like they have a voice, and that's genius.
Preparation is the most important thing
There are three most important things about presentations: preparation, preparation, preparation. When I talk to Chinese, I often ask them, how do you prepare for a presentation? They start thinking about the message they want to convey. What I'm saying is, please put the information aside, and the first thing, think about the audience first. The second thing is to think about what kind of emotion you want to create. Do you want to be exciting? Do you want people to stop and think? And the third thing is to think about what kind of message you're trying to convey, to build a relationship with your audience. If you start preparing by thinking about the message you wish to convey, you will have far fewer chances of building a relationship with your audience and delivering the right emotions.
Before we give a public speech, we need to harness the power of our smartphones, which is a powerful tool for presentations. Walk into the bathroom, put your phone on the shelf, turn on the recording function, start saying what you want to say, and play back the recording. Think of yourself as a listener and ask yourself what the talk looks like. Think about whether you were interested in the presentation and whether you felt the emotion you were trying to convey. Keep practicing like this until you get the results you want. (Author: Martin Newman/Text Liao Qijing/Interview Collation)