A few weeks ago, I was a guest on the Great Speech Podcast, hosted by the humorous, engaging Kolarele Sonaike. Kolarele, or Kola for short, is a UK-trained, practising barrister with over twenty years of experience convincing tough British judges to decide in favour of his clients. He’s also the founder of the public speaking-training outfit: The Great Speech Consultancy. Kola loves to talk about communication so launching his podcast a few months ago was a no-brainer.
He began the show by asking me about my back-story – how I became involved in communications, after which he wanted to know about my recommendations on effective business writing. Next was the interesting segment – examples I could give of other great Nigerian communicators (since I declined to comment on the communication abilities of Nigerian political figures). I named three exceptional Nigerian speakers and stated why I chose them. The session ended with his typical ‘quick-fire round’ where he rapidly asked 10 questions that I had to answer without ‘over-thinking’. Our session ended shy of 45 minutes but could have gone on for hours. All podcasts should be that engaging.
Although Kola’s sessions are fun – from the funky intro music to the off-the-cuff style of interviewing or his monologues, don’t be fooled by the entertaining format. All episodes are packed with great value.
Afterwards, as is my custom, I reflected on the podcast. Below are the key insights shared about effective communication.
1) Communicate clearly in business writing
Kola wanted me to quickly clarify what was referred to as ‘business writing’. I explained that business writing is usually the form we use in the business context when writing emails, memos, reports, contracts, letters, etc. It’s also different from creative and technical writing in terms of the style and structure used.
One way to view business writing is to note that the focus should be on prioritising one or more aspects of your business/company. Thus, you write business content for precise goals or outcomes.
When asked to give some tips on writing convincingly, I stressed three rules:
a) Know your audience/recipient so that you can tailor your communication to be relevant to their needs. This makes them receptive to supporting you.
b) Use the three beacons of simplicity, brevity, and clarity to create content that is more persuasive.
c) Proofread and edit ruthlessly to produce clean, powerful documents that will advance your cause.
When you consider these three rules of effective business writing, your pieces will become concise, clear, and compelling. They will also help you achieve your goals or bring you closer to completing objectives. Without these guidelines, you will be communicating, albeit ineffectively.
It’s one thing to craft a document that’s saturated with the minutiae, written in a long-winded manner and is tedious to read – that’s the default format in the business context. But the ability to ‘assemble’ a piece, which has components that are relevant to your goals, and which lists a clear call-to-action that trigger results – that’s a skill that would differentiate you from the pack.
Learn to do the latter.
2) Speak persuasively to move hearts and prod action
Kola shared some interesting insights on communication concerns. In his work as a public speaking trainer and consultant, he meets people of different nationalities. He noticed that the fear of public speaking tended to top the most frequent communication concerns in the West. He wanted to know what my experience has been with Nigerian professionals.
I told him I found the trend rather surprising. If I were asked five years ago about the biggest communication challenge of Nigerian professionals, I would easily have listed the fear of public speaking. However, in my current work as a communications coach and trainer, I receive more enquiries about business writing than on other forms of communication. I gave one plausible reason for this development: Nigerian professionals travel more; they attend more networking events, and they collaborate more often in teams and with foreigners. This development, over time, has increased the number of speaking engagements, presentations and pitches Nigerian professionals, entrepreneurs and business people routinely give.
So Nigerian professionals are now speaking more often. But based on what I‘ve observed, are we speaking more effectively? Are our spoken words driving change, amplifying businesses or accelerating our careers?
That was a ‘light bulb’ moment.
There’s a difference between standing up to speak with ease and speaking powerfully to move hearts and change minds.
And that difference lies in the delivery.
To boost your delivery, you should do two things consistently:
a) Learn to tell stories. Realise that humans are emotional beings who first make decisions based on emotions before justifying those decisions with logic. Neuroscience also reveals that stories ‘sync’ the listener’s brain with the storyteller’s so that both experience the same emotions. In this state, you can ‘coax’ your audience to support your ideas.
b) Use nonverbal communication such as smiling, variation in tone, movements, ‘open’ gestures, eye contact, etc. to generate trust and boost credibility.
Also, record your speaking engagements wherever feasible and review your performance afterwards. This is the quickest method to note your speaking errors, nonverbal tics, and other tidbits that you can improve.
Remember that your content without your presence is simply data. And data alone will not help you influence people.
3) Learn from powerful speakers to hone your skills
Learning from experts in your field and even outside your network is an effective way to ‘train’ your brain to recognise great speaking. By noticing how they use nonverbal cues to connect with their audiences or how they command a room, you’d get ideas on what to adopt. Test what resonates with you but don’t try to morph into your model speakers because, at your best, you’d never be them. Instead, choose some techniques that you find interesting and tweak them to suit your style and delivery. When Kola asked if I could name great Nigerian communicators, I highlighted the three below. Listen to them speak; watch their videos and be inspired. But know that these speakers have honed their skills over the years.
a) Ibukun Awosika
In a blog post on the need for female professionals to speak up to advance their careers, I briefly analysed the speech this executive gave a few months ago. As the chairlady of the board of First Bank of Nigeria, one of Nigeria’s oldest and largest banks, this incredibly confident speaker is well respected in her circles.
Watch how she delivers a powerful, moving speech at the Nigerian Governors’ Forum induction ceremony for returning and incoming governors in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Note her nonverbal cues in particular – how she uses her deep tone and gestures to convey authority. Her body language also powers her delivery. The result was a standing ovation from the governors and all present.
b) Tony O. Elumelu
As the chairman of UBA Bank, and Heirs Holdings, this speaker is also the founder of the Tony Elumelu Foundation – Africa’s largest philanthropic organisation dedicated to promoting African entrepreneurship on the continent. Every year, thousands of African entrepreneurs converge on Nigeria to participate in mentoring programmes and pitch competitions where they receive seed capital for their businesses. Elumelu is highly respected businessman who regularly gives speeches at international events.
One good example of a commendable speech is his 2016 talk at the BpiFrance Inno Generation Event.
On stage, he used simple language, movement, and a comfortable poise to deliver an interesting talk, despite the distracting activities of tech people at the back of the stage.
c) Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
This impressive speaker is actually an award-winning novelist known for masterpieces including ‘Americanah’ and ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’. She has numerous speeches in her portfolio, and impressive commencement addresses delivered at Yale, Harvard, and Wellesley College. Adichie ‘s TED talk (with over 19 million views): ‘The Danger of a Single Story’, is a lesson in enthralling storytelling.
Despite referring to notes periodically and standing behind a lectern, she uses a rich tone, humour, warm smiles and eye contact at specific moments to connect with the audience.
She’s unapologetically herself; she’s comfortable in her own skin, and communicates with purpose.
She’s one to watch and never to tire of.
Conclusion
So you think you can communicate effectively? Think again!
Knowing your material (as a minimum) is not enough; you must connect with your audience.
Connecting is not enough; you must convert with your delivery.
If you rely on your gift of the gab without sharpening your skills, you’d soon lose your influence when faced with newer, more critical audiences, unless you evolve.
In the same vein, if you’d always been a good writer and have now become complacent, be careful. The skills that had worked for you for years won’t translate to consistent results today – unless you also learn how to write persuasively for millennials and Generation Z disruptors.
The only way to become a brilliant communicator in speech and writing is to remain flexible to changing trends and to develop a habit of continuously honing your skills.
You owe it to your future self to become the best version you can be.
And now, over to you?
How can you become an effective communicator?
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N.B: First image is courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net. Second image is courtesy of Master Isolated Images via freedigitalphotos.net. Third image is courtesy of Stuart Miles via freedigitalphotos.net. First video is courtesy of Channels TV. Second video is courtesy of Tony O. Elumelu. Last video is courtesy of TED.