The most powerful speeches are the most simple speeches. If you don’t know to keep your speech simple, then you fail as a public speaker.

Public Speaking is an art form where the audience doesn’t have the liberty to revisit what has been once said by the speaker. If they miss out or fail to comprehend what is said, they are left in the lurch, trying to grapple with the meaning of the statement. In the meantime, the speaker has already moved forward. Essentially even a 10-15 second disconnect would mean that you are effectively losing out on the audience attention. This isn’t the case when it comes to say reading a book/article or watching a cinema. In a book/article you have the freedom to read a paragraph again and again to assimilate the content. Cinema is a visual medium, where the characters and setting help the audience infer the scene, even if they fail to understand the dialogues, which is why we can appreciate movies made in foreign languages as well.

Public Speaking in many ways is the toughest artform, where the only tool you have to communicate and connect with your audience is ‘YOURSELF’- your thoughts, your words and your actions/body language. They all need to be in sync to create the right impact . The only way to do it is to keep it simple.

The most common mistake committed by speakers is that they become self-indulgent and try to showcase their skills before an audience. This leads to using words which are less often used. You may have a great vocabulary, but that doesn’t mean that your audience would follow it. Its perfectly fine to use such words while writing an article. The readers can pause, reach out for a dictionary or google the meaning of the word before proceeding. It helps improve their grammar as well. The same doesn’t apply while delivering a speech!

Let’s understand this with an example:

“A dilatory worker was asked to leave “.

Here the word ‘dilatory’ isn’t a commonly used word. The moment someone hears it, the sub-conscious mind would begin wondering “What does dilatory mean?”. In the meantime, the speaker has already proceeded to the next statement. The word dilatory means ‘wasting time’ or ‘slow to act’.   The same statement could be as simple as “A worker who wasn’t productive and wasting time, was asked to leave”

The other area of concern is with respect to use of excessive body language and stage movement. We all have a natural body language- some are expressive, while others are reserved. It is important to stick to your style. However, I have noticed many speakers exaggerate their delivery to create an impact . This could mean moving around stage and varying their voice without purpose. It often appears theatrical and artificial. All of this is done to “WOW” the audience. In reality it creates a disconnect.

The fundamental principle of speech delivery is that your body language needs to appear natural and your movement on stage should be with purpose.

In summary, in order to deliver a remarkable and effective speech you need to use simple words, keep your body language natural and stage movement purposeful!