Speak like an Orator: How to Impress People with Your Speech

Communication is an essence of interpersonal relations and people need great rhetorical skills to run through everyday life smoothly. This can help you in all types of situations with your coworkers, friends, or family members. If you hone your communication skills, you can use it to gain a lot of benefits throughout life.

For instance, a simple but polite conversation with your colleague can be an excellent icebreaker to help you ask for a small favor. Situations like this one are very common and you should dedicate some time and efforts to exercise your conversation capabilities.

Best ways to improve your rhetoric

Many professionals use the rhetorical tricks successfully in everyday communication. Jack Simmons, who works as a manager at BestDissertation, recently stated: “As it is known, a person’s name is to that person the most important sound. I always use a person’s name whenever it is appropriate, especially when meeting those I don’t see very often. This is a great method to build good relationships with your colleagues.” But there are many more tricks to learn in that regard, so let’s check them out:

• Think twice

You should think twice before opening your mouth to speak. Avoid talking just to take part in the conversation. Have a clear idea of what it is that you want to tell your friends or colleagues and make sure to tell it clearly and precisely.

• Pay attention to body language

The recent analysis determined that more than 90% of communication is non-verbal. As much as it is important to speak logically, it is even more important to express yourself through the convincing body language. Since this element of communication is so quintessential, we will briefly go through its basic features:

• Eye contact: If you really want to make people believe you, you need to maintain direct eye contact. It proves that you are not hiding your thoughts or lying to someone. This feature is crucial for establishing a trustworthy conversation.

• Arm positioning: The way you hold your arms tells a lot about your attitude. If you keep your arms crossed and shoulders bent forward, it will give you the look of a hostile character. You should avoid it by keeping your arms down and relaxed.

• Moves: You should not move around a lot while speaking because it will convince people around you that you are not confident and that you don’t believe your own words. Try to stay steadily in one position with your upper body positioned straight and firmly.

• Look for the signals

Follow the signals that participants in the conversation are sending you. If they look around and yawn, you should change the subject immediately. But if you see that they are leaning forward with their eyes open wide, rest assured that they want to hear more from you.

• Show interest

Communication is a two-way process, which means that it is necessary to express your thoughts but also to hear what other people have to say. Don’t be so rude to act like the conversation is over once you say everything you wanted to.

• Reach consensus

Psychologists proved that it’s much easier to strengthen someone’s attitude than to change it. Keep this in mind while discussing issues with your colleagues or friends. Try to reach a consensus that will satisfy both sides. Make it a win-win situation instead of the verbal war.

• Be honest

The best orators based their speeches on great erudition, broad vocabulary, and honesty. When you really speak your mind, it is easy to stay self-confident and relaxed, which reduces the chance that you’ll get confused and mess up your speech.

• Practice

People are not born with outstanding conversation skills. They actually exercise a lot and practice all of the elements that we mentioned here. There are many ways to train, develop, and improve rhetorical capabilities so don’t be too lazy to get engaged and exercise.

The don’ts of rhetoric

Besides all those things that you should do if you want to master communication and impress people with your speech, there are also some things that you need to avoid. Take a look at some of the most important don’ts in this regard:

• Don’t interrupt: This is one of the biggest sins you can do. By interrupting, you offend people and eliminate the possibility to reach consensus.

• Don’t text while someone is speaking: If you write an SMS message in the middle of the conversation, it will prove that you neglect people and don’t care about their opinions.

• Don’t gossip: Gossiping is one of the things you should avoid at work or among your acquaintances because it undermines your credibility.

• Don’t act as if you know it all: Nobody’s perfect and you should never pretend to know everything. Listen to what other people want to say with due respect, don’t show off.

• Don’t address only one person: If you talk to the group of people, don’t just look at one of them constantly. Pay attention to all members of the group and establish eye contact with everybody.

• Don’t talk about tricky business: Avoid politics, gender issues, or questions about personal finances. Save these topics for your closest friends but don’t talk about it with your colleagues or acquaintances if not necessary.

Conclusion

Individuals who develop strong communication skills usually build successful careers and overcome everyday obstacles easily. If you want to follow their example, learn our suggestions and try to put them into practice. It takes some time to accept them all but it will definitely pay off soon. Let us know what you think about it in comments and share with us if you face a situation in which those skills prove to be helpful.