Emphasis, the great speaker’s skill. Proper emphasis helps an audience remember those things that the speaker thinks will be most useful to them out of everything h/she says. Every line that you say will have words that carry the meaning of that sentence or phrase. The stress that you place on those words will change the meaning of that sentence. Say the following words out loud-
I Love you. I Love you. I love you.
And notice how the meaning changes as you do. And for business presenters, remember that the audience can only remember a very small portion of what you say. Humans are made to remember the general and designed to forget the specific- it’s a proven, scientific fact. And emphasis is an important skill because it’s a key measure of being understood by your audience. Emphasis helps them separate the meat from the fat, the supporting evidence from the real point, what you mean from all that you say. Your emphasis can be made textually, verbally and non-verbally. Watch any great speaker and see how they do it.
So here are a few tips that combine the text, voice and physical techniques of emphasis to help you be remembered.
- Introduce a key point by saying- “this is one of the 3 things you should remember…” and say why…
- Switch off the slide- walk towards the group and say “…this is so important I want you all to write it down…”- then say what you want to say and wait while they write it down.
- STOP- Look at the most senior person in the room, walk towards her and say – “this is the thing that will make all the difference to you…” whatever it is you want to say…
- Prepare a blank slide and build the words SO WHAT? To appear on cue. Or write the words, saying nothing, on a flip chart or white board. “ It’s the question that’s on everyone’s lips… and here’s the answer… If you do these three things you will achieve what you want to achieve…’
- At the climax of your presentation say ‘You can forget everything else I’ve told you today if you remember this one key fact…”
Monotonous voices, tend to lack emphasis. That’s what makes them monotonous. And rather than changing your voice (hard) I recommend studying the text and identifying those key words, and practising adding a little more emphasis to the delivery (Easy).
For more on the art of emphasis, focus and developing real flair as a speakers see here.
