A few years back I had a student in one of my college public speaking courses who presented me with a unique coaching challenge. In over 15 years of teaching college communication classes, I’ve seen about every kind of speaking style and presentation anxiety out there. But this was something new.
This student was extremely shy, rarely speaking up in class discussions or interacting with her classmates. However, when it was time for her to deliver her speech, it was like she became someone else. She was loud and animated and expressive—really, really expressive. It was like someone flipped a switch at the beginning of the speech and then again at the end of it.
I struggled with how to give her feedback. Expression in public speaking is a good thing, right? Well, yes. Until it feels forced and inauthentic.
Acting Versus Speaking
Think for just a moment about how many elements public speaking shares with stage acting—a performer, an audience, a stage of some kind, a script, a story, a beginning and ending, and the list goes on. It’s helpful here to remember that while presentations have much in common with theater, they belong to the field of rhetoric, a term which can get pretty murky. In an article for the Encyclopedia of Communication Theory, Karen A. Foss reminds us that, “many scholars of rhetoric use the terms rhetoric and communication interchangeably; both terms can refer to the process and product of a human symbolic interaction.”
So problems creep in when the audience feels like the speaker is playing a part. We don’t want actors. We want speakers who communicate in ways that are more similar to how they might converse with us one-on-one.
Speaker Credibility
All speakers should aim to be credible, but what does that mean? The idea of speaker credibility dates back to the time of Aristotle in his notion of ethos, which concerns the relative power speakers hold to persuade via their character. Communication experts tell us that speaker credibility is made up of two components: expertise and trustworthiness. While using too much or too little expression probably won’t affect how competent you are, it will affect how much your audience trusts you.
When who you are before or after the presentation doesn’t match who you are during the presentation, warning bells start sounding for the audience. Then they begin to distrust not just what you say, but who you are because it seems inauthentic. This is why politicians sometimes get a bad rap.
Being Expressive and Authentic
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t emote or be expressive if it doesn’t come naturally to you. If you tend to be monotone or unexpressive in your communication, that’s something you need to work on. You should turn that “dial” up in small increments. And you should aim to do so not just when you present, but any time you communicate. While working to be more expressive, you should still maintain a speaking style that is comfortable for you and consistent with who you are.
I tell my students that they should aim for a style that is more like elevated conversation than robotic perfection. Research well. Use the best words. Organize great content. Use vocal variety. Emote with your face. Use body language to back up what you say. Practice over and over. Yes, yes, yes! But be warm and flexible, too. We listen to speakers we trust and identify with. And perfection is a barrier, not a magnet. Rhetoric gets a bad rap when speakers (well-intentioned though they may be) play the part of a public speaker instead of being a public speaker.
So my feedback to my student ended up going something like this…
When you get up to speak, it’s like we are seeing a different person from the quiet student who attends class the rest of the time. I love to see you express yourself with passion, but it feels a little forced and confusing for your audience since we only see that passion in the few minutes when you speak. If your identity is more consistent, your ideas will have more weight. I’d love to see you bring some of that emotion and excitement into our classroom discussions and your everyday communication. Also, I’d love to see you reduce some of your expression while you are speaking to level that is more comfortable for you and more consistent with your communication style when you aren’t speaking in front of an audience. If you can find the balance, your audience will be better able to identify with you and your ideas.
Need help with your next big presentation? Our team is ready to help you develop, design, and deliver with confidence. Contact us now.
