Yesterday I was listening to a CD from Jim Key, who was the 2003 World Champion of Public Speaking. He was asking the question “are you a student of public speaking?”
This made me think. When I listen to my clients speak I’m listening to how they use their voice and watching to see if they are using gestures etc. When I’m at a Toastmaster meeting and evaluating a speech, I am looking at what someone has done well and what they can do to improve, but was I actually looking at what worked and trying to figure out why it worked well – if someone was giving a motivational speech, was I motivated. If someone was giving a humorous speech, did I laugh. Was I actually breaking the speech apart and looking at why the speech worked or didn’t work and if it worked, why did it work, was it the words they had used, was it the timing, was it the emotion. I came to the realisation that I wasn’t a student but a listener.
This was a great eye opener, here I was, watching all of these speeches and I wasn’t looking to see why things had worked and could I incorporate something similar into my speeches. I have decided to change the way I participate when I watch someone else give a speech so that I can grow even further myself.
So my question to you is “Are you a student of speaking?”
Definately something to think about
Keep speaking – Carrol
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