Crisp Verbal Skills

Barack Obama is a master at grabbing and keeping his audience’s attention, which is the number one goal of any public speaker. How does he do it?

1. Talk About the Audience’s Concerns - Start your talk by broadly defining the situation that your listeners face. Then, once you’ve got them nodding their heads in agreement, move on to describe the problems or challenges that are on their minds. Start where the audience is, not where you are. Once you have their attention, you can lead your listeners wherever you want to take them.
2. Keep It Simple - First, fine-tune your core message and chisel away at your topic until you can reduce your presentation to a core message. Once you achieve this, all your complex ideas can march behind it.
3. Anticipate What Your Audience Is Thinking - Obama and his speechwriters are certainly aware of the great line by Goethe, “Every word that is uttered evokes the idea of its opposite.” A presentation that does not deal with this “evoking of opposites” loses the audience’s attention because it fails to address the questions and concerns that come up in people’s minds. So anticipate it. Show your audience that you understand the contrary view better than they do, and explain why your proposal or argument is still superior. Attack your topics this way and you will be in charge of the conversation. This approach will not only grab and hold the attention of your listeners, but it will also help you win people into your camp.
4. Learn to Pause - Obama has mastered the art of pausing. He pauses to let us catch up with him. He pauses to let his words resonate. He pauses, in a sense, to let us rest. Pauses also give the impression of composure and thoughtfulness. An exercise to pause is to "mark up your paragraphs / in this manner / into the shortest possible phrases." First, whisper it, breathing at all the breath marks. Then, speak it in the same way. Do this with a different paragraph every day. Where you pause is up to you; there are no hard and fast rules. But try it. Slowly inhale to the count of three at each breath mark. Speak as though you had plenty of time. "The goal / of this exercise / is to teach your body / to slow down."
5. Master the Body Language of Leadership - Obama’s body language is relaxed and fluid. It does not display tension or fear. He’s calm and assertive — which is exactly what you need to be to get people to comply with your requests. To achieve the body language that’s effective for you, focus on a single attribute — for example, calm — and practice implementing it in the basic motions of your day, from getting dressed in the morning, to leaving your home for work, to greeting your friends and colleagues. Research It will probably feel forced at first, but don’t worry. It will soon become natural, and eventually your body language will communicate the right mix of calm and assertiveness. Practice calmly walking up to the lectern or the front of the room. Arrange your papers calmly. Look out to the audience with a sense of command, with assertiveness. Let the silence hang for a moment, and only then deliver your opening remarks. Calmness begets a sense of authority. Behave as if you are in control, and you will in fact gain control and command attention.
Complete article from www.Bnet.com


Reading List
"Crisp: Communication Skills for Leaders" by Bert Decker

STAR
Situation or Task - Describe the situation that you were in or the task that you needed to accomplish. You must describe a specific event or situation, not a generalized description of what you have done in the past. Be sure to give enough detail for the interviewer to understand from a previous job or relevant event.
Action you took - Describe the action you took and be sure to keep the focus on you. Even if you are discussing a group project or effort, describe what you did -- not the efforts of the team.
Don't tell what you might do, tell what you did.
Results you achieved - What happened? How did the event end? What did you accomplish? What did you learn?