9 out 10 of my clients tell me, “Cynthia, I think I have a monotone voice during my presentations that puts my audience into sleep.” Surprisingly, even my most bubbling client told me she has a monotone voice! I was so confused at the fact that 90% of the presenters think they are monotone! After going through my clients’ presentations, I realized it is not monotone that puts the audience into sleep.
People often blame the failure of their connection with the audience and the failure of their presentation to a monotone voice. They think if they adopt a more colorful voice they’ll sure be able to connect with the audience. From my experience of coaching my clients, monotone is a problem, but it’s not “the” problem. It is not monotone that makes the speaker and the audience disconnected, it is not monotone that makes the presentation boring, and it is not monotone that puts the audience into sleep. Unstructured presentation, boring content and emotionless delivery are the problem.
Every presentation has three elements, structure, content and delivery. All three elements must be crafted in a way that helps engage and connect with your audience, and eventually add value to your audience. Even though I coach people on developing a more impactful and colorful voice, voice alone cannot achieve the result. Even if you have the ups and downs, loudness and softness, fast-pace and slow-pace in your voice, but if the speech content and structure fall flat, your presentation will still be perceived as boring and you’ll sound weird and inauthentic if you put too much effort on manipulating your pitch, volume and rate. The solution is to re-examine every element of your presentation (structure, content and delivery) and make sure it meets the 3Cs objectives: Clarity, Curiosity and Connection.
Clarity
The first thing you need to focus on is that you must be crystal clear about the message you want to get across. Whenever you prepare a presentation or a speech, ask yourself: “What do I want the audience to know, to do, or to feel?” Can you state your message in one sentence? If not, chances are that you are not clear about the message yourself.
Develop a clear and engaging structure. A thoughtfully crafted speech will take your audience on a journey with you and show them the clear path, instead of you traveling alone or having your audience lost in the middle of a journey. It could be a structure of a three-point format, a “tell a story, make a point” format, or problem-solution format.
Deliver with clarity. Moving around on the stage aimlessly will only bring confusion and distraction to your audience. Give each spot of your stage a meaning, be it different points, different objects, or different chronological orders in your speech. Create clarity when you move.
Curiosity
Craig Valentine, the 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking, said, “A great speaker must also be a great teaser.” What he meant is that speakers must create curiosity in the audience’s mind throughout the speech, having the audience keep asking for more.
Start with an attention-gripping opening. You’ve probably heard that if you can’t grab the audience’s attention in the first 7 seconds, you’ll lose them. How many presentations have you seen that start with “Good morning. I’m excited to be here”? Those weak and expected openings do not make the audience curious to know more about the presentation at all. The audience’s reaction is likely to be, “Here goes another one of those presentations.” Instead, start strong and unexpected. It could be a provocative question, an interesting statistic or a little-known fact. Whatever opening you may have, have the audience be curious and think “What’s next?”
Keep “teasing” the audience throughout. A major reason that most presentations are boring is that speakers fail to keep the audience curious throughout the entire presentation. As Craig Valentine said, “The audience does not just have one question – what’s in it for me. New questions arise as they go along with your presentation.” Therefore, speakers must be aware of what the audience is thinking at all times. This will surely deepen your connection with your audience and keep them stay engaged.
Connection
Have you seen speakers who have the kind of “speaker voice” as if they are performing a drama on the stage? Did you feel any connection with them? Patricia Fripp, Hall of Fame Keynote Speaker, said, “Speaking is not a conversation, but it must be conversational.” Speaking is not a monologue, but a dialogue. As speakers and presenters, we need to converse with the audience’s mind all the time, far more than simply conveying the message. As I told my clients when they were presenting to me “Talk to me as a guest in your living room”, practice and present your presentation in that way. You are sure to lose that “speaker voice”, establish better connection and get your message across.
Speakers who try to manipulate their volume, pitch and tones never come across as real and authentic. The real power of a great speech comes from the emotion instilled in the speaker. Think about Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream”. I bet Dr. King never told himself, “Here, I need to raise my voice; here, I need to shout.” It was the passion in him that made his speech shook the country. Consider the emotion needed for your speech and your voice and body language will follow.
Speaking is never about you as the speaker. If you put your audience as the priority, make your presentation clear for them to follow along, keep them curious to stay along and connect with them to have action to act upon, you’ll never have to worry about the problem of monotone.
