Effective communication is a crucial skill for anyone aspiring to lead.

Tansi.

In today’s competitive landscape, effective communication is a crucial skill for anyone aspiring to lead. Whether addressing a room full of colleagues or delivering a presentation to clients, the way you communicate can greatly influence how your message is received and perceived. In this article, we’ll explore some key strategies for speaking like a leader and commanding attention with your words.

Embrace Your Nerves

First and foremost, it’s important to acknowledge that feeling nervous before speaking in public is entirely normal. Many successful leaders experience butterflies in their stomach before taking the stage. Instead of trying to suppress these feelings, embrace them as a sign that you care about delivering a compelling message. Use that nervous energy to your advantage, channeling it into passion and enthusiasm for your topic.

Craft Compelling Stories

One of the most powerful ways to captivate an audience is through storytelling. Humans are wired to respond to narratives, so consider incorporating personal anecdotes or relevant case studies into your presentations. By framing your key points within a compelling narrative structure, you’ll not only capture your audience’s attention but also make your message more memorable and impactful.

Speak From Your Power Center

When delivering a presentation, pay attention to your body language and vocal delivery. Stand tall with your shoulders back, projecting confidence and authority. Instead of speaking from your belly, where nervous energy often resides, aim to speak from your chest or “power center.” This will help you project your voice more effectively and convey a sense of conviction in your message.

Use Your Hands Purposefully

Hand gestures can be a powerful tool for emphasizing key points and engaging your audience. However, it’s important to use them purposefully and avoid excessive or distracting movements. Keep your gestures between the bottom of your ribcage and your collarbone, using open-palm gestures to convey warmth and openness. Remember, your hands should complement your words, not detract from them.

Maintain Eye Contact (Strategically)

While maintaining eye contact with your audience is important for building rapport and connection, it’s not necessary to lock eyes with every individual in the room. Instead, adopt a technique known as “hovering,” where you look just above your audience’s heads while speaking. This allows you to address the entire room while avoiding distractions or negative influences that may throw you off course.

Develop Your Own Style

Finally, remember that effective communication is not about trying to mimic someone else’s style—it’s about finding your own voice and delivery style that feels authentic to you. Experiment with different techniques and approaches to see what resonates most with your audience. Over time, you’ll develop your own unique communication style that reflects your personality and values as a leader.

Mastering the art of leadership communication is a journey that requires practice, patience, and self-awareness. By embracing your nerves, crafting compelling stories, speaking from your power center, using your hands purposefully, maintaining strategic eye contact, and developing your own style, you can speak and communicate like the leader you were born to become. So, the next time you step up to speak, do so with confidence and conviction, knowing that your words have the power to inspire, influence, and lead others to action.

Chances are in the past you’ve probably heard people speak and you assumed subconsciously, “This person really must know what they’re talking about. That person must be really smart and so on.”

We all have people that we look up to that are very good at communicating and speaking, but what makes them more smarter than the other person? It’s their ability to communicate with their words.

I want to share with you some tips, some strategies so that you can speak and communicate like the leader that you were born to become.

Now, I shared with you in a previous recording about, I was once that very shy, timid kid growing up.

In fact, the root cause came from my upbringing.

As a child growing up in my community, it was very unheard of for a very talkative child to be around elders and knowledge keepers and so on.
We were always told to be quiet, to give them respect, and so anytime we were misbehaving or chatting and so on, we would get lectured.

As a kid, when I was around elders, around ceremonies, I wasn’t allowed to be talkative.

When you grow up like that and now you get into the mainstream, you start to unknowingly become a very quiet person.

When I got into school, I struggled speaking in front of my peers.

I would shake the paper, I would tremble, I would stutter.

That was very common for me because I had a lot of nerves now.

Now, when we got into high school, it was the same thing.

It didn’t really get better, but sports allowed me to have a gateway to express myself.

When I got into the speaking field, one of the most challenging things for myself was to get up on a stage and to present even in front of a room of 20 people for 10 minutes.

I was terrified.

I didn’t know how to do it.

I didn’t know what to start with.

I want to share with you one of the quickest ways to get up and create influence with people.

The first thing I want to share with you is that it is extremely normal to feel nervous.

We want to normalize that anxious feeling that all of us have when we get asked to get up and do a speech in front of someone, that is a normal feeling.

It’s normal to have butterflies.

It’s normal to have that nerves and jitters and so on.

We want to switch that into using that as an asset.

I’ll give you an example.

You probably grew up in school…

You can remember a teacher growing up that maybe was very monotone.

They had every presentation, every class was very boring and you wanted to go to sleep because that teacher was probably very monotone, very boring because they didn’t have those nerves, the anxiety, they didn’t have the stage fright.

Now, when people have nerves, they have the anxiety.

It makes them more interesting when they get up to speak.

Like now, I have a little bit of nerves.

I have to use that to make me more engaging to people, so we want to make that a positive.

If you have those feelings, that’s a good thing.

It’s going to make you more interesting.

The goal is we want to slow down your tempo because if we get up on a stage and we start speaking really quickly, it’s hard to slow our pace down.

I was there.

The goal is we get up there, we ground ourselves, and then we go as effective as we can in that moment, so nerves are normal.

Nerves are normal.

Another thing I’ll share with you is that it’s important that when you’re getting into your first speeches that you’re doing in front of your company, in front of your peers and so on, I always tell people to write down one to three bulletin points of what you’re trying to address in that meeting, in that engagement, in that conference, and so on.

One to three, just make it one sentence, one line of what it is that you’re trying to address, and I want you to start thinking about scenarios or stories to illustrate each point that you’re sharing.

I started out this master class.

Chances are you’ve heard me in a previous keynote.

Most of that was a story.

This is how human beings learn, through storytelling.

If I came and said facts, figures, you’d probably be yawning right now.

If you tell a story for the key points that you’re trying to address to your audience, they will listen to you.

People don’t ever want to miss out on a story.

It’s just like being a kid again, they do the lean in.

They want to listen to every word that you’re saying, especially if there’s controversy, if there’s climaxes, if there’s ups and downs, there’s emotions involved, all the senses are involved.

They start to listen.

They start to believe.

They start to develop a scenario playing out in their head.

They can wash that movie.

They start to use that creative mind that all of us have.

When you’re up there and you’re reading, you put that on a podium or you put that on a place for your notes, those key points that you’re trying to address.

One thing I tell people, and this is again, it’s going to not work for everyone, but it works for me.

When I get up on a stage or when I stand up and I’m trying to address people, I don’t look at people in the eye.

The reason for this is that maybe there’s someone in the crowd that maybe has been mean to you or been very negative towards you and maybe doesn’t want the best for you, and if you lock eyes with them, it’s going to throw you off.

I hover just above their heads and I’ll look around and I’ll talk to people.

They’re not going to notice that I’m not looking at them in the eye.
This is how you speak with impact.

You look around like you’re talking to people and you hover just above their heads so you’re not locking eyes all the time.

Another thing that I’ll share with you is that the power of our hands is important.

You’ll often notice that I use my hands a lot when I speak.

You’ll often notice that I don’t speak like this too much.

If I speak like this too much, what I’m doing is, it’s like I’m shushing you away.

That body language is important, so you want to use your hands like this, palms up.

They call this the beggar’s palm pose.

When you do it like this, you are being inviting to people with your body language.

People don’t realize that when you use your hands up, you are creating a safe space through words, through a presentation for people to receive what you’re sharing.
Another thing I’ll share with you is the power of your voice, where your power voice comes from.

Now, I’m sitting down right now, and it also works when we’re sitting down and standing up.

I talk about those nerves.

We start to feel nervous when we get up to do a presentation.

Those nerves come from our belly, our belly, our butterflies originate there, and oftentimes when someone is not confident with themselves, they get up to do a presentation, they will speak from the energy of their belly, where those nerves come from.

I want to share with you example here.

I’m going to channel that energy down here to my belly button area, and I’ll speak from that energy from where that energy comes from.
Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

I hope you’re doing great.

This is Kendal speaking right now.

I’m a little nervous.

It’s my first time being with you all today, and I hope that you can notice I’m having a hard time presenting right now.

That’s from down here.

Now we’re going to shift into here right in the middle of our chest.

Hello, ladies and gentlemen.

I hope you’re doing amazing.

This is Kendal speaking from the power center.

This is where I want you to focus your speech and your communication where you’re trying to come from right here, and I want you to roll your shoulders back when you present.

This is where this power voice is going to come from, and this is how you’re going to use voice inflection.

It’s going to be like a melody of how you use that voice to influence, to persuade in a positive way.

If I go down here, I’m not going to be able to use that cadence in my voice.

It’s just going to be jittery.

It’s not going to have impact.

As leaders, we have to work on our communication skills.

In order for people to understand what we’re saying, we have to be confident in our own voice.

The more confident you are in your own voice, the more the receiver believes in what you’re saying.

That’s why it’s very important that we take time to work on this area, our communication style.

We work with what works for us.

I could tell you in the past when I got into the speaking field, I would watch speakers and be like, “That person sounds really cool.” And I would try to speak like them, but it wasn’t my style.

As time goes on, and as you practice this, you’ll start to develop your own style on how people will listen to you and you grow upon that.

You grow upon your own gifts and so on.

Another thing I’ll share with you is that when you’re using your hands, you want to try to keep it by the bottom of your ribcage to your collarbone.

Try to keep it between there.

When you try to go too far out, your hands are all over, people will take their energy off of your message and they will just focus on whatever act you’re trying to do with your hands.

This comes from nerves.

We’re going all over the place.

We can’t stand still.

It’s nerves, but we want to channel that into power pose.

We want to put our feet wider together, wider than our shoulder-length, just a little bit out, a power pose.

If our feet are too close together, it’s hard for us to balance, and then it’s easy to stay nervous.

When our feet are more grounded and we’re sticking our chest out a little bit, we’re speaking from here, and we are using our hands like this, people are going to have more belief into what we say.

Ladies and gentlemen, these are areas that I’m sharing with you that will help you to speak and communicate like an effective leader, to the leader that you were born to become.

hiy hiy