Speaking in a Mask

Today I taught an online workshop about public speaking. I was asked a question I get over and over: how can I communicate better while wearing a mask? To answer this question, I like to cite Cara Hale Alter, founder of SpeechSkills. Here are her three recommended tips. (You can also watch them in this short video.)

Tip #1 - Talk louder than normal. Masks muffle our voices, so project! Speak up!

Tip #2 - Increase verbal acknowledgements. Alter notes that people can’t see you smile under a mask, so use words like “please” and “thank you” more frequently. I’d also add that body language and hand gestures can help fill in gaps. Make eye contact, nod your head, or give the ‘ol thumbs up.

Tip #3 - Share more verbal affirmation. In other words, confirm that you’re actually listening. Alter suggests saying phrases like, “I see your point.” Again, body language and hand gestures can help.

To be clear, you don’t need to over exaggerate or be melodramatic. Be yourself but remember to use all your delivery tools. For example, does your posture suggest you are alert and paying attention? Is there a hand gesture that will confirm you heard what was said?

We all know that speaking in a mask can be tough. With just a little effort, you can overcome this physical barrier and maybe even become a more effective communicator.

Please reach out with your suggestions to be more effective when wearing a mask! You can reach me at rose@rosespeechwriter.com.

Why We Do The Zoom Wave

Over the past 14 months, millions of people working online have created a new norm to end a video meeting. I’m talking about that awkward, overly-exaggerated wave we do before signing off: the Zoom wave.

Elizabeth Chuck, a reporter for NBC News, recently asked body language experts about this phenomenon. Here were her top findings on WHY we do the Zoom wave:

1) Clicking that little button to “leave” a meeting feels abrupt, sometimes even rude. Like me, you too have likely received this email after a video meeting, “Sorry I ended the meeting so quickly. Didn’t mean to sign off like that!” By contrast, waving is an unambiguous signal that we all agree … this meeting is now over.

2) We wave because we’re hungry for social connection. After a year-plus of social distancing during covid, we want to end a meeting in a positive, polite way that strengthens relationships (however possible n in a world that’s become increasingly virtual!).

Chuck’s article goes on to explore why the Zoom wave feels exaggerated or child-like. The answer is simple: we only have that tiny video box. No one can see hand gestures down by our keyboard, so we raise them high enough to be captured in the frame. This is especially true when we’re in a ‘speaker’ setting (using a video box about 1 inch x 1 inch).

When not using a Zoom wave, I recommend using the bottom third of your screen for hand gestures. (Here’s a terrific example.) Keeping hands low in the frame prevents them from blocking our face. It also makes them appear natural, while still being visible. For more on hand gestures, check out this short article from the Washington Post. (It’s from 2015 but it covers the fundamentals extremely well!)

To read more about Chuck’s findings, click here. Otherwise, please reach out if you’d like become a more charismatic, compelling public speaker.

Zoom Fatigue (& What To Do About It)

Over the past 14 months, millions of people have begun working from home due to COVID-19. The most common complaint I hear — and can relate to — is the difficulty of attending endless hours of online meetings.

In Feb 2021, Stanford Professor Jeremy Bailenson studied the psychological implications of online platforms. He found four specific causes of “Zoom Fatigue.” (This term, by the way, applies to Microsoft Teams and other online, video platforms.)

Below I’ve listed Bailenson’s 4 findings and his proposed solution for each. I’ve also added a few of my own tips.

1) Finding: “Excessive amounts of close-up eye contact is highly intense.” Solution: Don’t use the “full screen” option for Zoom; in other words, make the video windows smaller to reduce the impact of being stared at constantly. Other options: if you use two monitors, drag the Zoom window to a secondary monitor, so that it’s out of your direct line of sight.

2) Finding: “Seeing yourself during video chats constantly in real-time is fatiguing.” Solution: When appropriate, right click your photo and select “hide self-view” button. Other options: set up more phone calls! I’m now much more deliberate about which calls require video and which don’t.

3) Finding: “Video chats dramatically reduce our usual mobility.” Solution: Set up an external camera farther away from the screen so you have more freedom to move. Other options: Use a standing desk. This allows you to have better hand gestures and move to illustrate a point. It’s also far less restricting than sitting (and better for your body!).

4) Finding: “The cognitive load is much higher in video chats.” Solution: Turn off your camera and go into “listen only” mode. Other options: Create group norms around meetings (especially recurring, internal ones) where it’s acceptable to have video off unless you’re directly involved in the conversation.

To learn more about Bailenson’s study of Zoom Fatigue, I encourage you to read this helpful summary of his work. Next time you’re presenting, remember the #1 rule of public speaking: think about your audience and the many video meetings they already waded through that day.

Online Presentations: Place Camera at Eye Level

When you place your camera at eye level, good things happen! (1) You talk directly to people (not “down” to them). (2) You can use natural hand gestures in the bottom 1/3 of the screen. (3) Your body language underscores your message. (Upright posture says, “I’m present! I’m listening!” Slouching or leaning back deep in your chair says, “This is my 6th Zoom today … I don’t really want to be here.”

Last week I watched a webinar hosted by a professor at Harvard Business School. She was sharing some ground-breaking research and I was eager to learn about her findings. The material she presented was exceptional and she was clearly a rising star on the faculty.

There was only one problem: how she delivered the material. As I explain in this short video clip, her camera lens was too high. She peered up at us, the audience, from the bottom of her screen. It reminded me of being back in kindergarten at Birch Meadow Elementary School. Imagine me, a scrawny little thing, staring up at my teacher’s big desk — a wooden behemoth stacked even higher with papers and a globe. Walking up to that desk felt intimidating.

The Harvard prof reminded me of staring up at an authority figure. Only in this case, she was looking up at us, the audience. We were peering down on her from above. She’d flipped the script, inverting the position of teacher/student or expert/audience. The result? It felt like she was asking our permission to speak rather than commanding our attention. The placement of her camera had undermined her credibility.

Societal norms explain why.

In western culture, authority figures often physically and literally loom above us. Judges sit high on a platform. (Think the Supreme Court.) Speakers deliver remarks from a stage to an audience seated below. In Congressional hearings, elected officials sit high up in chairs beaming down on the individual testifying on the Senate floor below.

Another common mistake with camera placement is the opposite of what we’ve been talking about: people peering down at their audience. Here’s a short video example of staring down at your device. Let’s face it: no one wants to be looked down upon.

C-suiters who make this mistake further accentuate the existing power imbalance between them and their employees. Said differently, leaders should convince people to embrace their big new idea through evidence and persuasion – never by towering over them, or worse, intimidating them.

When your body language and words don’t match, what happens? People believe your body language.  A CEO can talk endlessly about encouraging workers to speak up but, if he talks down to people, he likely won’t elicit much by way of grassroots innovation.

The Take-Away

The ideal placement of your camera is eye level. Look straight ahead at the camera lens itself. Don’t just glance in the general direction of your monitor or laptop. If your camera lens isn’t at eye level, it’s easy to fix it. (Seriously, there’s no need to buy a fancy, expensive tripod.)

• If the lens is too low, prop it up with a few books or a sturdy box.

• If the lens is too high, simply stand up or move it to another location.

Once you place your camera correctly, your head and body should be in the center of the screen. This will help reduce distractions for your audience and keep your message on center stage. I’d also recommend standing about an arm’s length away from your device. (Think formal cocktail party.) This will create enough space between your device and your body to use more effective hand gestures, which should show up naturally in the bottom third of the picture frame.

All told, moving your camera to eye level will pay off handsomely in your next online presentation. You’ll not only look more polished and in command of your content. You’ll come across as a more credible speaker who talks “to” and “with” people instead of down to them.

To Memorize or Not to Memorize? That is the Question.

I’d like to feature a terrific blog by my friend and colleague, Teresa Zumwald. It caught my attention because several of my clients (like hers) have been asking whether they should memorize their speech or not. The answer is no. Instead, internalize it using these helpful tips by Teresa.

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Teresa’s Blog

Recently I helped several members of a C-suite prepare speeches for a national virtual conference. All of them wanted to know more about how to be confident when public speaking.

By far the ones who put in all the hard work ahead of time to internalize their speeches – and did not worry one minute about the need to memorize their speeches – came across much more engaging, authentic and real.

How do we know? Everyone told them so.

What is the difference between internalizing a speech and memorizing it?

And which is better if you are someone who wants to know how to be confident when public speaking?

Let’s go back to school

Think back to grade school when you were in social studies class.

Remember how painful it was to sit down after school and spend hours trying to memorize and repeat (and then memorize and repeat) dozens of different facts and figures about all those wars, battles and skirmishes in world history?

Ugh.

I remember forcing myself to know and spit back to the teacher the dates, places and names of officers and generals, heroes and enemies; recount the twists and turns of every conflict imaginable; and recall the reasons why all these people were fighting each other in the first place.

Sound familiar?

If you crammed for a day or two before the test, you might have been lucky enough to keep everything inside your head just long enough to eke out a passing grade.

For the time being, you might have known all these things.

But you certainly did not understand any of them.

Engineer and inventor Charles F. Kettering of Dayton, Ohio, explained this well when he said:

“There is a great difference between knowing a thing and understanding it. You can know a lot and not really understand anything.”

Engaging your head, heart and gut in the game

I see this phenomenon at play whenever I watch and listen to a leader practice his or her keynote speech for the first time.

The first run-through we do together is always rocky.

On the face of it, the speaker knows what the speech is all about. After all, we’ve worked together on the creative concept, the outline, the content and the script for at least several weeks, if not months together.

But despite that:

I can tell every time during the first run-through that this same speaker does not really understand the speech at all until he or she does the hard work required to internalize it.

Internalizing a speech is best if you want to know the secret behind how to be confident when public speaking.

So how do you internalize a speech?

You say it out loud – time after time after time – until your speech gets embedded in your head, heart and gut.

When it happens, you know it:

• Inside your head is the structure of your speech: the beginning, middle and end. You know every transition. And as you continue, you know exactly what’s coming next.

• Inside your heart is every key word, every key phrase, every key line of your speech. You say what you mean and mean what you say, and you do it with the right emotion. So your audience believes you.

• Inside your gut is the courage to share the story of your speech. You trust yourself. You are excited and unafraid.

Observations about a speaker who internalized her speech

One of those keynote speakers I coached recently ahead of that national virtual conference did an over-the-top job of internalizing her speech.

She was adamant about learning how to be confident when public speaking. So she did a lot of hard work on her own, polished up all the rough edges during our coaching session and ultimately delivered a phenomenal performance.

I studied the recording of her speech. Here’s what I observed:

Her speech was inside her head

• She paused in all the right places and emphasized all the right words.

• Phrases and lines flowed comfortably from one to the next. No part of her speech ran together.

• After introducing a key point, she paused to let it sink in. She did not race on to deliver the next line.

• She used vocal variety throughout, from start to finish, and never came off like a robot.

• When she made three points in a row, we could follow. We never got lost.

• She breathed.

• Her voice went up when she asked a question, and her voice went down when she was firm with a point.

Her speech was inside her heart

• She started off bold and nailed her first line with vigor.

• She smiled as she recounted a long-ago memory.

• She conveyed empathy to arouse emotion whenever it made sense.

• When a point she was making was either concerning or frustrating, her voice and her face showed the same.

• When she repeated a word for emphasis, it worked every time.

• She spoke with conviction. So she was believable.

• She articulated every word and enunciated with intention. Nothing she said was inaudible.

Her speech was inside her gut

• In her opening thumbnail, she was smiling, confident and looking at every member of her virtual audience.

• Her body language – including head nods and hand gestures, and facial expressions like smiles, eye squints, eye shuts and eyebrow movements – matched every word and every key point exactly.

• Nothing felt awkward. Everything felt natural.

• She used conversational language.

• She never ran out of energy.

 This is what it looks like and sounds like when you internalize a speech.

When you put in the hard work to really understand it.

And not just simply know it.

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Thank you, Teresa. If you’re interested learning more about this technique or working with her, feel free to reach out to Zumwald and Company.