Pace, Poise and Polish -The 3 Ps in Speechmaking
If someone were to ask you how many Ps there are in speechmaking, you’d be forgiven for thinking that there is only one. Strictly speaking, of course, you’d be right. But if you intend to make a speech, you had better remember that there are, in fact, three Ps in speechmaking – Pace, Poise and Polish.
And if you can manage to put all three into your speechmaking, then you’ll be certain of impressing just about any audience that is sitting in front of you.
Pace. This is a ‘make or break’ P, so don’t underestimate it’s importance. If you get this wrong, your audience will either be bored to tears and will be struggling to hide their yawns from you OR they will miss every third word you say as you race to finish your delivery.
Have you ever had the misfortune of listening to a speech made by a slow speaker? If you have, you’ll already appreciate just how tedious a slow delivery can be. Even the most interesting topic will be made boring by a slow drawl and your audience will be itching to scream “Speed it up Buddy – I want to be home by Midnight!”
Delivering your speech too slowly is guaranteed to make even the most generous audience fidgity and irritated.
On the other hand, if your pace is too fast, many people in your audience will simply lose the thread of what you are saying and listening to you will become too much like hard work. Your responsibility is to make the audiences’ task of listening to your speech easy, not difficult and you should be striving to give your audience the luxury of simply relaxing and letting your words seep effortlessly into their minds.
Speak slowly enough for your audience to absorb what you are saying yet fast enough to prevent your delivery from becoming tedious. Learn to vary your pace throughout your presentation so that your delivery remains interesting to those listening to it.
Poise. Most speakers believe that the subject matter of their presentation is all that is important and spend most of their time worrying about the actual construction of their speech. They are happy to spend hours collecting snippets of information, organising it into an acceptible order, selecting an appropriate opening and closing style and making sure that the rhythm and flow of their words is just right.
And of course, all that effort is certainly required to produce an excellent speech. But that’s not the end of it. How you present yourself is just as important as how you present your words.
Run through this checklist immediately before you step out in front of your audience:
1. Is your clothing clean, smart, appropriate and arranged correctly? 2. Is your hair neatly combed? 3. Does your body language convey the right impression?
Always bear in mind that your audience will start forming their opinion of you from the first moment that they see you and long before you have a chance to woo them with your words. Your poise – that is, the visual impression given to the audience – will influence their first impression of you and that is something that you must pay great attention to .
Make sure that your impression is a positive one.
Polish. This is what will make a good speech great! It is also the element that will be of the most help in ridding yourself of any pre-speech nervousness. Proper preparation is the key to most things in life and when speaking in public thorough preparation is nothing less than vital.
Make time to rehearse your speech in front of a mirror, or better still, in front of your family or friends. Make sure that you become very familiar with the content of your speech. Practice until you find the most effective style of delivery and think about the incorporation of suitable gestures. Spend time on anything that you feel needs to be practised until it becomes second nature.
Take time to scrutinise your stage outfit and pay close attention to your posture. Don’t lean, don’t hunch, don’t slouch and don’t allow yourself to display any outward signs of tension. Polish your performance until it shines! You must strive to appear relaxed, confident and in control at all times – even if you don’t feel it.
Pace, Poise and Polish – if you can remember these three Ps in ‘speechmaking’ you can guarantee that your speech will be delivered in such a manner that any audience will be entertained, enraptured and enthralled by your performance.
Filed under: Writing & Speaking