Peter is a  Master communicator with clear abilities in effective speaking and communication fully commensurate with the positions and roles that he undertook. As you can see below I went to see him speak.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The book is described as Mandelson’s;  “personal story of a life played out in the backroom, and then on the frontline, of the Labour party.”

I went to see Peter Mandelson at an event in London run by The Times newspaper and Foyles which took the form of an interview on stage by Times columnist James Harding.

Putting aside the politics, and even the personal issues covered, it was a MasterClass in how to have an audience eating out of your hand and contained lessons in speaking and communication for us all.

It is said that when you want to know how to do something you simply need to find someone who is good at it and role model or copy them.

So what did Peter do, how did he do it, and what can you learn from him regarding speaking to an audience and dealing with interviewer and audience questions?

The Speaking Well advocates 7 paths to Speaking Well and all 7 of these paths where strongly in evidence as Peter answered James’s questions and those of the audience.

Here is how Peter addressed 2 of the 7 Paths to Speaking Well, Path 5 (Body & Movement) and Path 7 (Did you Communicate?).

Path 5 - His chair was facing the left hand side of the audience which would have made it easy for him to just focus on this half of the audience. However, he took time to deliberately look to the right side of the audience, often holding his gaze there.

Audiences are more responsive to, and have a tendency believe someone who connects with them using eye contact, which is part of The Speaking Well’s ‘Body & Movement’ Path. Peter clearly connected with all sides of the audience.

Peter also has the knack of making it seem that he is looking directly at you, therefore drawing you in to what he is saying. I’ve only seen this on a few occasions before and was quite an achievement with an audience that numbered in the many hundreds.

Path 7 – So, did Peter communicate?

To put this same question in another way;

Did the audience understand his message and get his point?

I think most people there would have been more sympathetic to his views after listening to him speak but there was something else as well, something really, really, really, really important. Look I’ve used four ‘reallys’, so you know this point must be important.

Peter established a need in the audience that would only be satisfied if they knew more about what was going on behind the scenes of British politics, if they were privy to the inside story, so to speak.

This need would only be fulfilled when you read and of course bought his book.

The lesson is that as a speaker you can establish a need, a want, and a desire in your audience that they then have a deep wish  to fulfil.  If you then explain to your audience how it is you that can fulfil that need they will be eating out of your hand.

So, yes definitely, Peter communicated and got his points across very well and this all this leads to another question for you!

You need to be a better more confident and effective speaker and communicator, but how?

You need to use all 7 Paths to Speaking Well to be truely good at effective speaking and presenting.

It’s simple to do this; just join us at The Speaking Well, and we will show you how you can become a great and confident speaker .

Hey, I’ve built the need and told you how I can make it happen for you. May be I also learned something from Peter Mandelson.

Speak to you soon;

Alan McMahon

Having a high visual content in your presentations has a huge and positive impact on how well your audiance receive and understand your message.

If you can combine this visual content with a story then your points will be remembered long after you have given your presentation.

All this was reinforced for me when once upon a time ……….. 

Well, this morning actually ………. I was invited to a breakfast seminar by a colleague and friend from the construction industry and the first thing I’d like to say is that the bacon buttie that I had there was a fine example of this culinary mainstay of the British digestive system.

The seminar was focused on a very technical subject, that being the contractual ability of builders to ask their clients for extra time to carry out their works. For those with no connection to the construction industry, please don’t fall asleep, and for those that do have a connection please don’t fall asleep either for this seminar, which was packed full of useful information, had something to teach all of us who are interested in how to best communicate when speaking to an audience.

My friend used both a PowerPoint presentation and a Flip Chart to get his points across.

The difference in how the two methods were used provided a great pointer in how to very powerfully get your message across in presentations.

The PowerPoint presentation was ‘wordy’ with lots of points being made.

If there’s a lot of text on the screen, people will try to read and listen at the same time – and don’t succeed in doing either very well. Equally if the print is too small to read, your audience can find it difficult to follow.

The contrast between my friend’s the use of PowerPoint and the use of the Flip Chart was enormous.

On the Flip Chart my friend had put a simple drawing of a house that he used to illustrate some very detailed points. He then presented two simple bar charts that were visually clear and very easy to follow.

Adding to the high impact of these visual presentations my friend told a story that brilliantly made his message clear to us all.

I and everyone else at the seminar were glued to our seats and to his every word.

And so, what are the communication lessons for us all?

Your audience are much more likely to understand and accept your message when you introduce as much of a visual element as possible when using power-point, or any form of presentation method for that matter.

Your presentation or speech may be work related and very technical, but the thing to bear in mind is that people love stories and will remain interested in what you have to say if you tell one.

Perhaps most importantly, your message will be much more likely to be clear and remembered long after your presentation when you use stories to make your point.

If you can combine visual impact with a story then so much the better and your message will be remembered.

Some of you may be thinking that you can’t tell stories when presentations are for technical matters. Maybe that is true for some aspects of your presentation, but is it really true for all of it?

I will never forget the picture and the story of the house and of course I will not forget that great bacon buttie.

And so the seminar ended and everyone lived happily ever after ………….

The Speaking Well advocates taking particular Paths to achieve speaking success. One these Paths is focused on enabling the audience to clearly identify the purpose of your speech, talk or presentation. 

 In fact there is a really important question to ask with respect to the purpose of your speaking which is:

Did the talk, presentation or speech communicate?

To put this same question in another way;

Did the audience understand your message; did they get your point?

This is what you must be clear about. If not then you need to take action to address the point.

So, if you need to ask another question, then ask;

How could I improve?

What action should you take? Well, we can’t always see the wood for the trees with regard to our own speaking and therefore the thing thing to do is ask for feedback from others.

What did they like and what do they think could be improved next time to make your talk, presentation or speech even better and your message clearer.

A brilliant place to get this personal feedback is at your local Toastmasters Club. Toastmaster International Club members give great feedback to each other in the form of Speech Evaluations. There are very few other places that I know of where you will get this type of very helpful direct input to help you improve.

Go back over this Blog and the Paths again and again to help you continually improve your speaking. The Paths are commented on and expanded upon in this Blog and you can also download the free material on the many aspects of speaking and presentation.

Remember that The Speaking Well is here to help you improve your spoken communication in all its forms. To help you improve your speaking whether this is for speeches, talks or presentations please do use the information that you find here and also find and join your local Toastmasters International Club.

If you do both these things they will have a huge impact on your ability to speak and present to an audiance, whether this is on a one to one basis, more than one or to a large audiance.

Another of ‘The Speaking Well’ paths to speaking well is focused on voice and how can you draw your voice from The Speaking Well?

I have set out in this Blog article some of the secrets of using your voice to express yourself that will really make the difference to your speeches, talks and presentations in all those important work situations, social settings as well as at your local Toastmasters Club.

1) Amplified conversation

The vast majority of speaking to an audience is not acting and it is not oratory it is simply having a conversation with your audience rather than with one or two people.

You already have the skill of speaking in a conversation and if you think of speaking to an audience as having a conversation with them, then there are not a lot of additional speaking skills to learn, are there?

Think of speaking to an audience as simply having an amplified conversation. A conversation with the volume turned up a bit.

All you need to do is speak in a conversational way and just be yourself, be natural. It’s not acting and it’s not oratory, you do not need to be Shakespeare, Churchill and Obama rolled into one.

2) Be clear

When speaking in a conversational way to an audience the main thing you have to be is to be clear. If you are clear you will be understood.

To be clear all you have to do is turn the volume up on your conversational voice so that you can be heard comfortably by your audience.

If you are someone who speaks quickly you will be understood as long as you pause appropriately to let your audience absorb what you have said. You do not need to artificially slow your speaking to be clear, just pause.

3) Express yourself

Expressing yourself is not about having to give a performance; it is about being yourself.

Being yourself gives you the freedom to draw your own voice from The Speaking Well, not someone else’s voice.

Expression and vocal variety is much more about how you are as a personality than having to artificially perform like an actor or great orator.

If you are nervous or have a quiet personality then the last thing you may want to give is a ‘performance’. Having an expectation in your mind that you have to perform is likely to be stressful and make you more nervous or uncomfortable.

voice, audience,speeches, talks, presentations, amplified conversation,work, toastmasters club, express yourself,You do not need to perform, all you have to do is speak as you would in a conversation; just be your natural self. Forget performing.

If you are confident or naturally more expressive person you can chose to ‘perform’ to the audience. It is up to you.

Whatever type of person you are, you can bring energy, emotion and enthusiasm into your speaking, just as you would if you were in a conversation.

This is the secret to expressing yourself to an audience. Be yourself!

Summary

1) Think of speaking as an amplified conversation with an audience, not acting or oratory. Be natural, be yourself.

2) You already have the skill of speaking in a conversation.

3) Be clear, which means be loud enough to be heard comfortably.

4) Talking quickly is fine if you pause to let your audience absorb what you say.

5) Express yourself by being your natural self, you do not need to perform to the audience, only if you want to

6) Use energy, emotion, and enthusiasm just as you would in a conversation

For public speaking people very often spend a great deal of time ‘learning’ what they should do and should not do with their bodies, including moving around the stage, and making gestures. 

It is worth noting that once you do have the confidence to speak, how you use your body and how you move your body largely take care of themselves.

Even if you are nervous there are some simple things you can do to project confidence and become more confident.

A great deal of time can be spent focusing on body and movement, particularly on speaking courses and of course as part of the manual speeches that you will find at your local Toastmasters Club.

In fact in the first manual of speeches that you do at Toastmasters Clubs there is a particular speech whose primary aim is to help you with your body language. This is speech number 5 from the Competent Communicator manual entitled – ‘Your body Speaks’.

By following a few simple steps, even if you feel nervous your audience will not know. Here is what to do.

How you stand -

Whether you chose to move and use your arms to convey your points or chose not to move around, and are more comfortable standing in one position, both are fine.

If you are nervous we recommend that you stand in one place and with good posture everyone will think you are confident, you don’t have to move around the stage.

Good posture is simply standing upright in a position that is comfortable for you. If in standing in one place you choose to use your arms to help you make a point through gestures and you are comfortable doing it then do so.

Eye contact -

Eye contact is an important part of using the body in communicating with an audience. If you have eye contact then you create a bond between you and your listeners and people will want to hear what you have to say and will believe that you are confident.

The Speaking Well uses the Memory Mapping technique to help you maintain eye contact with the audience and is one of the techniques to help you with your confidence. See elsewhere in this Blog for more details of the Memory Mapping technique.

A Memory Map enables you to know what it is you want to say either by a quick glance at the Map or by visualising the Map.

Because you know what you want to say you can then maintain eye contact with the audience.

Knowing what you want to say will in itself give a boost to your confidence, further enabling you to keep eye contact.

If you are nervous simply stand so you are comfortable, visualise your Map whilst looking at the audience, or look at the audience and quickly glance at the Map as required to help you to remember what to say.

As you know what you want to say, you will appear more confident and you will become more confident.

Movement -

If you are nervous in front of an audience the things to concentrate on are the techniques to get yourself in a state where you feel more confident and not worry about being precise in how you use your body and how you move.

You can look confident by just standing, and you can look confident and converse with an audience without moving.

You can also choose to move as much as you want. Do what you feel comfortable with as opposed to feeling that you have to move about and use gestures.

So  a focus of  The Speaking Well is helping you to gain your confidence and with that will come use of body and movement in getting your point across.Confidence is the key, and good use of your body and movement will naturally flow from this in a way that is comfortable for you.

The subject of confidence and how you can achieve this is also dealt with in detail elsewhere in this Blog.

Please remember this one tip. Even when nervous, you can appear to be confident by simply standing with good posture and looking at your audience.

Idiosyncrasies -

When speaking before an audience people sometimes have idiosyncrasies that they do not have when speaking one to one or with friends. Such things would be hand clasping, adjusting their tie, rubbing their noses etc.

All these things happen when people are nervous and simply disappear when they are confident. Don’t concentrate too much on them as they will disappear as you gain in confidence.

Finally -

Please remember that once you have the confidence to speak, how you use and move your body will largely take care of itself. The things to focus on are therefore the confidence building techniques including Memory Mapping.

Even if you are nervous if you use the techniques recommended the audience will not know.

Summary

1) Once you have the confidence to speak, how you use your body and how you move your body will largely take care of itself

2) In fact by following a few simple steps, even if you feel nervous the audience will not know

3) If you stand in one place and with good posture, everyone will think you are confident, whether you are or are not

4) Eye contact creates a bond with your audience and creates an image of confidence. You can use Memory Mapping to help you do this

5) You can choose to move as much as you want, but you do not have to. Do what is comfortable and feels right

There are two simple things to remember in this regard which if you apply them can turn you into a great speaker.

As you saw in my previous Blog the first of these was the recommendation to use short words, short sentences, and  short paragraphs – to keep it simple.

So, the second thing is to;

Appeal to the senses and fire the imagination!

To really get your point across you need to use words that appeal to the senses.

If you can use words that enable your audience to see, hear, feel, perhaps even to smell and taste what you want them to understand then they will understand your message.

How will you know that you are appealing to the senses?

Because you are able to fire their imaginations and create images in their minds!

As an example of this, using the word ‘fire’ produces an image in the mind so you can see it. You can even hear the fire crackling, feel its warmth, and perhaps even smell it.

Metaphors and similes appeal to the way the mind works because you are presenting your message directly to the senses creating images in the mind as you do so.

Because people love metaphors and similes they can really ‘drive home’ your message.

The words ‘drive home’ are of course a metaphor for making your message clear and said in such a way as to emphasise the point by creating an image in the mind.

Another example;

“She was a lioness on the stage presenting her report to her audience”

The image of the lioness creates a picture of someone in command presenting the report.

A simile of a similar situation would be;

“He was like a lion on the stage presenting his report”

An interesting use of metaphors is the use of story telling. You can use a story to create powerful images in the mind that get your point across.

Audiences also love and want stories and anecdotes.

Anecdotes are like mini stories or incidents that you can use to present and illustrate points within your talk. Personal anecdotes are even better as these make the audience identify and directly relate to you. They get the audience on your side personally.

If you can bring humour into your speeches through your word choice and particularly with metaphor, simile, stories and anecdotes then this will get the audience even more on your side.

That’s it and it is quite simple really!

In summary to get your point across to your audiance when giving a speech, talk, or presentation,; 

1) Use Short words, short sentences, short paragraphs – keep it simple

2) Appeal to the senses and fire the imagination

Good luck with your speeches and speaking.

If you have been following this Blog you will probably be aware that at The Speaking Well we advocate 7 particular Paths to Speaking Well. 

When taken the paths lead to a vast improvement in your ability to speak in all environments including in your Work, on social occasions and at your Toastmasters or speaking clubs. One of these paths is focused on your word and language choice.

There are two simple things to remember with regard to word and language choice which if you apply them can help turn you into a great speaker.

This Blog entry summarises the first of these below and my very next Blog entry will focus on the second.

So, the first point is this:

Use Short words, short sentences, short paragraphs – keep it simple

Short words, short sentences, short paragraphs are much easier for an audience to follow than long ones. Using long ones can lose your audience and they will not understand your point.

If you find yourself using words that have many syllables this will be harder for your audience to follow so, though tempting, avoid trying to sound ‘clever’ through using words with many syllables, use short words instead.

For example, we could say:

“We can encapsulate the idea by the following …….”

Or

“We can sum up the idea by the following ………”

In the first option the word ‘encapsulate’ has four syllables whereas in the second option the words ‘sum up’ have only two.

The first option is long winded and in trying to be ‘too clever’ we will easily make a presentation much more difficult to follow.

The second option uses shorter words and is very easy to follow. Your audience will understand what you are saying.

So; use short words, short sentences, and short paragraphs to easily get the message and point across to your audience. Simple!

The next Blog entry will summarise the second part of this path and will explain why you need to appeal to the senses.

Another of  the recommended Paths to Speaking Well is focused on energy, vitality, and enthusiasm in order to give your audience the impression that you are a confident speaker . 

A focus on this Path will help you to be a confident speaker. This Path is really important in both work situations and social settings as well as at your local Toastmaster Club.

If you take the advice on offer in this Blog and in the attached reports you will become a more confident, more compelling speaker as your energy and enthusiasm are released and in addition, the audience for your talk or presentation will believe that you are confident.

In fact anxiety and fear give you an energy that you can turn into confidence when you speak. How can you do this?

Well, the first thing in finding out how is to understand why many people feel nervous when they speak.

The structure and the writing part of speaking, the words to be used, are the part of speaking and presenting that most people spend all their time agonizing over, especially someone who feels nervous. Very often it is those that care the most that feel the most nervous.

“What if I forget what to say?”, “I’ll never remember everything!”, and,”what order should I say it?” are the things you often hear people say.

The great thing is that if you know what it is that you want to deliver this slight nervousness can be a great source of strength adding to that high impact energy and enthusiasm.

Preparation beforehand is an important part of speaking but being overly concerned with getting the words exactly ‘right’ can lead you to looking too much at notes or can results in the speech being delivered in an over-rehearsed way. What you need is to have something which enables you to focus on your delivery, energy, and enthusiasm.

Clearly, if it’s easy to remember what you want to say, then you will not be chasing the words and will be less nervous, you will be be in control, and you will have more confidence. Knowing what you’re going to say will leave you free to concentrate on that high impact energy and enthusiasm; and so the question is;

How can I know what to say?

The answer is the ‘Memory Mapping’ technique.

This technique will give you the structure of your speech providing you with the ability to know both your core message and your content when speaking.

When you are delivering your talk or presentation the Map enables you to very quickly glance down and see what you want to say, the location for each part of your talk is clear on the Map and is therefore clear for when you speak. Alternatively the Map can be visualised.

The Map locations for what you want to say will become fixed in your mind thereby increasing your confidence when delivering your talk or presentation.

By using Memory Maps you will know what to say and the order in which you want to say it and your confidence in delivering a talk, presentation or speech will grow and grow.

Other parts of this Blog and the free reports explain Memory Mapping in detail, please go to these and learn all about how Memory Maps can transform your speaking.

If you follow our advice you are much more likely to become a more confident, more compelling speaker; your energy and enthusiasm will be released as you know what you want to say and when to say it.

And what’s really important is that your audience whether this is at work, in your community or at your local Toastmasters Club will see, hear, and believe that you are a confident speaker.

In any talk, presentation, or speech you need to clearly identify your purpose. This is true whether your speech is to be given at work, in your community, or at your local Toastmasters Club.

The Speaking Well advocates 7 particular paths to speaking, one of which is enabling the audience to clearly identify your purpose.

This idea is easy to understand if you can answer these questions about your purpose;

What is your message?

and

What is your point?

If you can answer these questions clearly then your audience will know your purpose.

A successful talk or presentation needs to be precise and simple so that its purpose is understood.

When you are writing, you can communicate lots of ideas on paper and the reader has a chance to go back over anything that they do not follow at the time of reading.

When you are speaking there is no chance for the listener to go back over your material. To communicate then and there, your message or point must be simple and clear.

The irony is that a complicated talk with lots of preparation means that an audience finds it difficult to follow, whereas a simple, repeated message requiring far less preparation, allows an audience to understand what you have to say.

World speaking champion Lance Miller states that ‘30% of your presentation is the message.’

When delivering a presentation, if the purpose is to relate a number of points, then to communicate them effectively you need to communicate them in the simplest and most coherent way you can.

So, when preparing for that speech at work, in the community, or at Toastmasters, do be sure that you answer the questions:

What is my message?

and

What is my point?

Remember, the simpler and clearer your message or point is, the easier it will be to follow. Your audience will then understand the purpose your talk or presentation.

At The Speaking Well we advocate 7 particular Paths to speaking success. 

One of these Paths is focused on how you organise your speech and the importance of time when speaking.

If your talk, presentation or speech is well organised it will be:

Easier to follow
Easier to understand
Easier to remember

The format for most methods of creating a speech is to consider the talk under the following headings:

Beginning or opening
Middle – main points with supporting material
End – conclusion

At the ‘The Speaking Well’ we consider that with most methods of preparing a talk, the more time, effort and research you put in, the more you try and cram into your talk, the more often you run out of time or put yourself under time pressure. This causes problems in presenting your talk and can affect your confidence.

So what is the key to your preparation?

TIME is the key.

You need to organise the content of your talk, presentation or speech from the point of view of time.

When you stand up and speak in public, time becomes precious.
A group of people have come together to listen to you and you have an allotted amount of time to speak.

So the organisation needs to be carried out from the perspective of the time you have available to give your talk. Do you have 1 minute, 6 minutes, 15 minutes, one hour?

Getting the timing right can be a difficult and time-consuming process with the talk rehearsed over and over again, honing the words to fit the allotted time.

However, Memory Mapping, which you may have learned about elsewhere in this Blog, solves the time problem in a very simple clear way.

For example, take a six minute talk.

Below is a Memory Map to be used to give a talk about Memory Mapping. You can see that the Memory Map has six main locations.

Each of the six main locations can be used to speak for one minute. So if you speak for one minute at locations 1 to 6 then your talk will last for 6 minutes.

At each of the six main locations you can see that there are three locations for sub-points.

Location 1 has locations for sub-points a, b and c that we call 1a, 1b and 1c. So at each main location there are four places for putting what you want to say; for example at the first location we have 1, 1a, 1b and 1c, four separate places.

In this Map the subject being talked about at location 1 is A4 paper. Subpoint 1A has the word –  ’Words’ , Subpoint 1B refers to the ‘number 6′  in reference to thier being 6 main locations on a Memory Map and subpoint 1C has the words – ‘Books’, ‘Stories’, and ‘Talks’ to reming the person giving the presentation to expalin the Memory Maps are great for explaining the content of books and stories and for giving talks. 

60 seconds divided by 4 = 15 seconds. This means you have 15 seconds to speak at each place within each main location.

This means that you could put together a six minute speech with each point taking around 15 seconds, at locations 1, 1a, 1b, 1c, 2, 2a, 2b, 2c and so on all the way up to locations 6, 6a, 6b and finally 6c.

You can have templates for talks of other speaking times, for example 1 minute, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, an hour.

Whatever the overall timing you can learn your talk or presentation in short segments of time. 

This makes it very easy to know what you want to speak about and for how long.

Most systems of putting a talk or presentation together show you the theory based on a beginning, middle and end but you have to put the timing, structure and order into practice.

The Speaking Well and the Memory Map shows you practical techniques that provide a clear time, structure and order in which to put your speech or presentation together. You just have to slot in the content for what you want to say.

One speaking opportunity where time is massively important is at Toastmasters, each speech having a narrow range of time in which to complete it. If you are a Toastmaster or have a speech to do where time is important we strongly recommend that you prepare your next speech using a Memory Map and see just how easy it is to organise your speech and speak within time.