How to speak slower by Andrew Lightheart If you want to make a fast, huge leap in your credibility as a speaker, the

most significant change you can make in your presentation style is to speak slower. Speaking slower makes you seem more fluent, more knowledgeable, more senior, mor e interesting plus it allows you to feel in control whilst you re speaking. And no, speaking slower doesn t make you boring, and, no, I don t care if you speak fast because you re Chinese/Vietnamese/Latin/New Yorker/from the North/the South/you r mother s son, and, no, speaking slower doesn t make you seem like you don t know wha t you re talking about. Learning to talk slower is the major thing I work on with every speaker I meet. As far as I can see, until a presenter is able to speak slowly nothing else I ca n recommend will make the any difference to your listeners. So how the hell do you learn to slow down? Well, apart from getting me to teach you in person, this is how you do it on you r own 1. Calibration is key I like being a learner. I m learning a bunch of things at the moment. Chief amongst them, I m learning to identify bird calls and I m (finally) learning t o draw, so that when we re travelling around the place teaching, I can sketch some of what we see. If you want your brain/mind to change something, it really helps if you make it a priority, if you start noticing it. So, last night, for example, I went into the garden, sat on the bench, and just listened to the bird song I could hear. I can t yet identify which bird is which, but I can notice the difference between o ne type of bird and that s another. As I m learning to draw, I m learning to look at the world like a person who draws. I notice the clouds at the wedding we went to on the fort on Saturday, the textu re. I notice the reflection of the flower and the sky in the faucet by my Granny s sink. I notice, as I m cycling along a tree-lined path, just how small things see m when they are farther away I m not talking about actually working on identifying which bird is which or actua lly having a pencil in my hand, though, obviously, I do both of those things at other times. The first step to a new skill is calibration. Noticing this new field of interes t, what are the differences, where are the contrasts? If you want to get better at slowing down, same thing. Notice slow pace. As you listen to talk radio, which people speak slower than ot hers? In meetings, notice who has the slowest pace. Also, notice in conversation , when do people slow down (there is a pattern there to be seen ) See if you can become a connoisseur of slow pace. The more you can notice it, th e easier it will be when you get around to changing yours.

(If you want to supercharge this process, not only notice when people slow down, but also what is the effect on you of others slowing down? Does slow pace grab your attention? Does it calm you? Does it change your idea of what they re like as a person? This is how you build better instincts as a communicator ) 2. Explore the difference in energy level and pace One of the misconceptions about talking slower is that it will make you boring. In fact, slow pace makes you more interesting, but low energy can bore people. So, what you need to do is to properly separate in your mind the difference betw een slow pace and energy level. An easy way of doing this is to go to a website that has a bunch of presentation s. TED or Poptech are two worth checking out. Have a look at a bunch of talks. Start with about ten. Start listening but in a different way than you might be used to. Start listening to the speaker for how slow they speak. You need only listen to a couple of minutes at the start of each one. If you find a good slow speaker, s pend a bit more time just soaking in the effect of their pace. Also notice their energy level. (Energy level means volume, facial expression, ze of gestures ) See if you can calibrate: (a) Slow pace and raised energy (b) Slow pace and low energy (c) Fast pace and raised energy (d) Fast pace and low energy Which one affects you the most positively? What is your first impression of each style? Again, there are realisations to be had as you begin to differentiate between pa ce and energy. It s one of the hidden secrets of speaking, I reckon. 3. How do I know I m speaking slowly enough? Speaking slower tip #1 think: slow = clear si

Sometimes it can be difficult to get a feel for talking slower . I find it can help to think about it as: speaking clearer. Enunciate your words clearer, and with more space around them. Ta-daa! You re speaking slower. Speaking slower tip #2 think consciousness

You know you re speaking slowly enough when you can hear each word you re saying as you re saying it. I ll say that again You know you re speaking slowly enough when you can hear each word you re saying as you re saying it.

It s all about getting conscious. Once I realised this, my whole experience of pre senting changed. My experience is that you can see teners. You also begin to experience iousness to your words, it s u go along, and make choices ange to begin with, but once the words leaving you and arriving with your lis

time differently as you speak. Once you bring consc like you have all the time in the world to edit as yo about the direction of your session. It s kind of str you get it, it s magic.

For the committed: record yourself Ok. If listening to a recording of yourself fills you with dread, skip to the ne xt step. Listening to yourself can be harrowing without support, so, look, it s no t essential. However, if you re up for a bit of light experimentation, here s what you do. Think of something that happened to you recently that got you annoyed, that made you laugh, that got you thinking Get your voice recorder out. Does not have to be fancy rding function on my smartphone. I just use the voice reco

Start telling the story. Imagine you re telling it to your partner/close friend. After a minute or so, start slowing your pace. Remember: What this means is sayi ng your words clearer, with more space around them. After another minute of so, slow down even more. Slow down until you can hear th e words you re saying as you re saying them. If you run out of things to say, just k eep talking, but S.L.O.W.L.Y. It s going to feel weird. But what we re doing here is calibration. Your pace-of-spe ech gauge is way off currently, so we re resetting it. Then: listen to yourself. (Now, the first few seconds of listening to yourself are strange, to say the lea st. Your recorded voice sounds different to how you expect for all sorts of reas ons, but you re going to have to just get over that for now. I ll write more about t his one day ) Concentrate solely on your pace and the effect of your pace. (This is why you wo rked on listening to other speakers first.) What happens when you slow down? What impact does that slow pace have? When you really felt like you were speaking stupidly slowly, what does it really sound li ke? Wait a day or two, then rinse and repeat. Lots to learn. Speaking slower tip #3 : Calibrate to the familiarity of the group This is a tip from Stuart, the coach on our programmes. He says that you slow yo ur pace in proportion to how close-to-home your listeners are.

~ If it s your close family/friends, you speak close to your normal rate. ~ If it s your close co-workers, a bit slower. ~ If it s people outside that circle who know you less, a bit slower still. ~ If you begin to move outside of the people from your department, your company , your country, you slow down much much more. This is a pretty good rule of thumb, as it takes into account all kinds of facto rs connected with comprehension of your topic/accent/speech patterns, etc Warning don t start with people who know you

One caveat: don t start slowing down your pace in ordinary conversation, especiall y with your family, friends and close co-workers. They are very used to your pac e and will notice immediately. It just makes you sound weird to them, and it s ann oying. Save ordinary conversation for observing, and the slow pace for presentat ions. (This warning comes from personal experience.) *** Slow pace is magical. After nine years of working with people on their public speaking skills, my appr eciation for it just gets deeper. When you learn to slow down, you ll find that it unlocks all sorts of aspects of speaking that you didn t even know were there. I would truly LOVE for you to let me know how you get on with this, and please, ask questions. Ref:http://cobaltcommunication.com/speakslower/