The standard of public speaking has been rising fast, propelled by the rise of internet video and TED in particular. This matters because public speaking is a key skill for entrepreneurs. They need to be very effective salesmen, and selling depends on speaking.
Evolution of media makes speaking more important. Print journalism pays less now, so journalists are shifting their business models to conferences, which require public speaking. The most successful ones are becoming mini-celebrities. And conferences naturally generate video content. Entrepreneurs frequently speak to conferences, to customer meetings, to employees, or to investors. They need to be able to communicate, to convince, and to call these groups to act.
I’m tempted to say that TED has raised the bar for public speaking in business, but that’s probably a reach. I do think it’s fair to say that TED has brought forth a group of talented speakers on business and other topics, motivated them to give great speeches, and shown these speakers to the world via its mastery of the ascendant media of conferences and web video. Here’s a a set of TED talks on business topics curated by Inc. Magazine and a collection of some of the most popular overall.
TED has created a speech format that pushes presenters to do the basics very well. Ted talks are relatively short: the spec is 18 minutes. Speakers stand on stage, usually without using a stick, laser pointer, podium, or other keep-your-hands-out-of-trouble prop. They have radio mics (the cool ones that extend from under one ear) so they can move naturally. Slides are projected above and behind the speaker, so it’s very awkward to talk to the slides.
Here is a personal-favorite example of a TED talk: Bill Gross (the founder of IdeaLab) talking about what makes start-ups successful.
When I watch TED talks, I see certain techniques consistently. Most important, the speakers keep themselves front and center. They know that it is the credibility, energy, and authenticity of the speaker that persuades, not the data or the slides. They are telling a story that is heartfelt, often personal.
They use their whole bodies to communicate (some more than others, but the best do this significantly). They move, turn, and gesture, like an actor, to support their story. It takes a lot of confidence to be so expressive and natural in front of an audience and camera, but it’s something most of us do quite easily in private. And they regularly look out into the audience, creating the impression of eye contact.
The TED presenters keep their slides simple: one main idea per slide (not 100 words of bullets), relatively simple graphs, often a picture background for the slide that conveys an underlying emotional message.
The graphics support a story that the presenter is telling. Often presenters talk for 30 or 60 seconds with no graphic on the screen, a graphic appears when needed to illustrate a point, and then back to speech mode. The presenter paces the talk, not the graphics [i.e., there are no pauses for “next slide, please”]. Contrast this to what happens too often in business presentations: the charts tell the story, and the person is there to explain the charts. [That way, if the audience doesn’t like the message, they should be mad at the charts, not the person, right? Just kidding, or maybe not.]
TED talks are frequently quite personal, and they are almost always engaging. The presenters usually tell some kind of a story about themselves: to show the authenticity of their message and engage the audience emotionally. This requires courage and finesse. The last talk in the "most popular overall" collection is a strong and moving example of this.
None of this is new, of course. I heard most of these ideas at presentation training as a young consultant 30 years ago. TED is challenging a wide range of people to actually develop and display these skills, which few institutions have done before. And speaking skills are more important than ever.
A lot of entrepreneurs are learning to speak this way. You compete with some of them for customers, partners, employees, and/or funding. It’s probably time to give your speaking skills a tune-up and put more effort into your speeches. TED offers a set of eight talks to get you started.
Note: I have no business relationship with TED.
