Occasionally I am asked to coach specifically on a leader’s gravitas, how they speak and present information verbally to shift and increase their impact. This Simple Note will give you a simple change that will increase the likelihood of you saying the right thing in the right way and at the right time.
Depending on how you are wired- your behavioural preferences, your emotional state, your stress levels - your conversation will differ. When you are at your best, being centred, mindful and tuned in, your intuition will inform your content and style. At other times you may experience frustration when others don’t get your point quickly enough or miss your important intended nuances.
Pause.
That’s it! The confidence and poise to just pause.
Apart from the obvious physical benefit of giving you a moment to breathe, which also ensures your voice remains balanced with no unwanted pitch or pace changes (as you run out of breathe), there are four significant impacts.
1. It clearly separates your packets of information, and signals something new.
2. It allows information to sink-in, increasing emphasis, enforcing reflection and time for dots to be joined.
3. It creates transition and logical stepping, escalating, extending the range of your points and allows opportunity for tonal change.
4. It elicits the active memories of your listeners- people learn and process information in different ways as they use neurologic to link your previous points. Short term memory only holds for a limited period – the pause allows your listener to cognitively organise your points for themselves and retain all your information.
It is a skill, which needs practice and refining to ensure you raise your communication impact. For example, finding the right pace and pause length whilst resisting overuse. Observe others and their use of the Impact Pause at your events or in the media or even the scripted and rehearsed acted speeches in TV and film. See how gravitas is intended and achieved and develop the confidence for your Impact Pause.
Good luck and keep it simple.
Simon
P. S. The last Simple Note on Self Confidence is now available as a podcast. I will make this the case going forward so please do check them out in this format and let me have your feedback.
P. P. S. "The 'Attitude' Book" is available very, very soon! It is off the printing press and copies will be available in store in the next month - get ready and get reading! Thank you for your continued support.