Four Simple Steps to Achieve Clarity in Your Speech

Speed, Think, Pause, Record

Communication is an important ingredient required to achieve success in the corporate world. If you cannot communicate well with your team, with your customers, or with your leaders, your hard skills will be in vain.

When I began my career, I was afraid to go into a meeting simply because I was scared of speaking in front of others, especially in front of unfamiliar faces. Many times, I excused myself from meetings opting to express my thoughts through email instead. However, I soon realized that oral communication was sometimes unavoidable.

My main challenge was that I often found it difficult to structure my thoughts in a way the audience would understand. At times, they would get a completely different meaning to what I intended to say. It became clear to me that effective communication required clarity in my speech.

I began studying good speakers to understand how to achieve clarity in the speech. The following are 4 simple ways through which my speech has become much clearer.

1. Speed

Speed on the road kills. And speed in speaking kills the audience’s interest.

Speaking rapidly doesn’t benefit anyone, including yourself. Your thoughts may race ahead of your ability to articulate them, but that doesn’t mean you should push your vocal abilities to keep up.

Get a speed breaker installed in between. Allow your thoughts to park for a moment. Only after you’ve delivered your previous thoughts at the right pace, should you let the next set of ideas flow.

2. Think Before You Speak

When you slow down, you will also get time to think before you speak. Arrange your thoughts before you start talking.

One of the practices could be to arrange your thoughts into bullet points. For example:

There are 3 things we should do to promote innovation in our team.

1. Give our team enough time out of their projects.

2. Give them a place to document their ideas.

3. Assurance of support from our leaders when they fail.

3. Pause

When you are presenting to an audience, remember that you are communicating with them to make them understand.

Always pause to ask if the audience has understood.

I would like to pause here to answer any questions you may have.

Let me know if you want me to clarify anything.

Any thoughts, comments, questions so far?

4. Record your voice

You may have never consciously listened to how your words sound. If you are really serious about making your speech clear, record your speech and replay it to understand how your voice sounds.

You will get to know how you pronounce words, which filler words you use, and how often. You will also get to know how fast or slow are you.

Identify the areas that you want to improve upon.

In summary, being clear in your communication is extremely useful. Talking at the right speed, thinking before you speak, taking pauses, and analyzing your recorded voice can help you add clarity to your speech.

Wish you all the best!