The Power Of Passion When Speaking

The number of working women in Japan has topped thirty million, the highest since records were started in nineteen fifty three. The number of women holding a job rose five hundred and thirty thousand for last year. Only fifty five percent of women hold full time jobs, the rest are working part time or are contractors with less stable positions and generally lower wages. A Kyodo News survey of one hundred and twelve companies found fifty seven percent said they are trying to create a working environment more favourable to women.
　
In other news, Japanese women and men retained second and third place respectively, in their rankings for average life expectancy around the world in two thousand and eighteen. The average life expectancy of women in Japan is eighty seven point three two years. For men it is eighty one point two five years. A Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry official commented, “Life expectancy has grown longer as we have seen drops in mortality rates for cerebro vascular disease or strokes and pneumonia amongst women and the rate of cancer for men. Finally Toyota Motor Corporation has developed a self driving mini robot car to transport sports equipment during athletic events such as the Olympic Games next year. It will transport the equipment used for the shot put, javelins, discuss and hammer throw events to return them to the athletes . The robot which can travel at twenty kilometers an hour, has three cameras and a lidar sensor which enable to it to see its surroundings.
　
Formulistic presentations may tick the boxes, but definitely don’t ignite much enthusiasm in the audience. Yes, the key points were covered, the time was consumed, people heard the presentation matching the topic previously promulgated, but so what? When we attend a mediocre or even bad presentation, we are reminded that a great opportunity has gone begging. When it is our turn and we stand in front of an audience, we are representing our personal brand and our firm’s brand. People will evaluate our company on how we perform. So our job is to perform well and really build fans for our business and ourselves.
　
Yes, a written speech is grammatically perfect, but it is often boring because of the flat way in which it is delivered. The reading cadence doesn’t suit the live speaking situation. Have you ever noticed that a flat, deadly boring speech can be followed by a very engaging Q&A session led by the speaker? This is because the speaker is now freed from their self-imposed limitations of reading the speech. They start telling us stories of people to illustrate their points. They pepper us with useful information and data that gives us insights. We see some passion in what they are telling us. We all need to be like this in the main body of the speaking time.
　
Observing a lot of speakers, I have noticed that the things that often go missing most are their passion and commitment for the topic. Additionally, it may be that an already low energy, flat delivery is further hindered by a poor structure. We enter a room full of pre-occupied people, with microscopic attention spans, basically entirely distracted before we even start. We need to grab their attention away from whatever it was they were thinking about before we get up to the podium.
　
An excellent opening needs considerable planning. It must be a battering ram to break through the wall of audience disinterest and skepticism. It must have a powerful hook in there to keep our attention. Remember, this is how we in the audience are trained. Headlines, the opening stanzas of newspaper and magazine articles, book titles, talk shows, the nightly news programming, television dramas, movies, etc., are all carefully designed and scripted to grab and keep our attention. This is what we, as speakers, are competing with – a professional class of smart, well paid, attention monopolizing experts.
　
So our opening has to instantly grab attention. Next we need to lead our flock through the intricacies of our topic, so that they can keep up and understand where we are going. If we have key points, then give them numbers, because we more easily follow number sequences. Just don’t make it too many numbers. Keeping up with the thirty three key points of any topic, delivered in a thirty minute speech, is a nightmare the audience doesn’t need.
　
Wrapping it all up at the end is a critical component too, because this is the speaker’s final impression with the audience. Have you noticed how often the final words of the talk just fade out. The speaker’s voice strength just drops away altogether at the end. What we really want is passion backing up the conclusion. The voice tone should rise to a crescendo. The talk completes with a powerful hypnotic, all embracing call to action. We want everyone, metaphorically, to join us and storm the barricades.
　
Instead we get that limping, low energy fade out, as the ineffective speaker just bumbles their way into Q&A. Typically, they don’t have any strategy to control the flow of Q&A either. Because of this, they lose control of the proceedings. They have committed a fatal mistake and allowed the final question to completely determine the final impression of the talk with the audience. How many times have you heard a question raised which was completely off topic? Unfortunately this happens quite often, so the danger here is that the questioner highjacks our speech. Their topic is the last item ringing in the ears of the audience rather than what we were there to talk about. Do not let that happen! We need two powerful, passionate closes – one for the end of our speech and one for the end of Q&A.
　
Passion for the topic and the audience are requirements. These are not optional extras, useful additions, that we can include or not at our leisure. If we don’t feel passion for our topic and our audience, then we come across as flat, perfunctory, formulistic. In these cases, when the audience leaves the venue, the speaker, topic and their organisation are immediately forgotten. With that type of result, we have to ask, “well just what was the point?”. The residual impression is negative. The listeners feel that their time was wasted and no great value was imparted. They leave determined that if that same speaker ever pops up again in the future, they won’t bother to attend.
　
You may not have world beating speaking technique, structure, openings, closings or control of the Q&A, but you can overcome all of these shortcomings, if you really communicate your passion. We will forgive you small foibles, if we feel you really want to share this vital information with us. We want to know that you are really motivated to help the audience, who have given up their precious time to hear you out. Enthusiasm is contagious. Our audience will forgive a lot of our faults, if they feel our energy, passion and commitment for the topic.
　
Be passionate, enthusiastic, well organised, well structured when you speak. If you do, then your audience will recall both you and your firm with positive regard as truly professional and isn’t that what we want in business?