To captivate and hold the attention of a room is probably the closest anyone can get to Jedi Mind Powers. Not only do you engage people with what you’re talking about, but they also engage you. However, people may be tuning you out because what really captivates a room and makes an effective speaker, has changed enormously from what it used to be.

Times Have Changed

We went through a time where business jargon and using industry terms gave you a certain clout with your colleagues. In other words, filling your speech with fancy words used to make everyone think you’re smart. Well, now it makes you sound like you’re trying to be smart and they are tuning you out because honestly, we don’t have the time or patience for it anymore.

Nothing kills formalities quicker than the need for speed, and language hasn’t been spared. Ask many Europeans, especially latin-based speakers how their language has changed over the last several decades. In short, the formalities are gone and the talking is fast. Business isn’t any different.

Effective business conversations are becoming less formal with the desire to get to the point. You see it in day to day conversations, the board room and marketing and advertising. The motto used to be, “Talk smart to sound smart” but now it’s all about dumbing it down so people know what the heck you’re talking about. If they don’t, they tune you out.

This is especially apparent  in thought leadership and overall content marketing. Great leaders that are effective speakers make it great for everyone and not just the educated few. If you imagine that you are always educating, you might just find that you would carve your speech into a steady flow of understanding and not grand-standing. The difference is that people will listen and in business, if you can get people listening, generating profit is right around the corner.

Twitter: The Oxymoron of speaking well teaches us effective speaking

We talk to a lot of business titans that hate Twitter, but nothing teaches effective speaking quicker than the use of Twitter. If you haven’t used Twitter yet, you might want to try it out just to see how wordy your speech really is. With 140 characters you need to get to the point quickly and precisely. It’s often surprising and sometimes comical how much more you can say with the right, easy to understand words. An effective speaker always says more with less and gives the audience time to think and reflect by saying less.

Here’s how to get people to listen:

1. Stop trying to impress people with a spewing volcano of industry words and acronyms. Ask yourself if a 10 year old would understand what you are talking about.
2. Point #1 is especially important in sales.  More professional salespeople crash and burn by over-complicating in the attempt to impress.
3. When you’re in a meeting, ask yourself if what you are about to say is necessary. If so, try to get your point across as clear as if it was visual. You might find that you do a lot more listening, and when you do speak, people actually listen to you.
4. In a business situation, make sure that you remove business speak. There used to be a game called BS Bingo, where you went into a meeting and waited for someone to use some of the classic words that everyone used and then you yelled Bull$h!T Bingo… “Synergy” was always on that list.

In the end, you want to be known as someone who is easy to understand and interesting to listen and speak to, maybe even a thought leader. Thought leadership is simply broadcasting your thoughts to the world through articles, social media and every medium that encourages discussion and interaction.. If you don’t currently practice thought leadership, then you might want to give it a try. Writing and reading a few articles of your own can teach you to become a more effective speaker.

It’s time to develop some mind-bending Jedi powers and start letting people know what you think in a powerful way that is easy to understand. Once you’ve captivated a room with your leadership casting, then the only question that remains is...what you will do with them once you have them?

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