Ducktails and other rhetorical pests

In this blog post, you will read about two serious rhetorical and verbal shortcomings, how to avoid them and learn better rhetoric. You will learn why ducktails and garland sets prevent the attention of your audience and what you can do about it. You'll learn five practical tips on how to get your audience's or team's attention time and time again, and how to use your voice to send the right relationship signals.

Listening with obstacles

Do you know this? You want to listen, are interested in the content, but something in the voice, the way you speak, the way you speak prevents you?

It is late morning, the conference has begun at nine o'clock, outside the exclusive hotel near Munich the sun is shining brightly. I'm sitting at a round table at the back of the large lecture room. My lecture on the "Power of the Voice in Business" is the turn after the lunch break, but I have decided to be there from the beginning in order to grasp where the delicate moments in customer communication will lie.

About four hundred employees have been invited, and the two project managers, who had presented their plans for the coming year, are just leaving the stage. Sparse applause.

The lady sitting at the table to my right turns to me and says angrily: "That would be such an exciting topic - but you just can't listen to them!"

First step: Self-knowledge

You may also ask yourself sometimes, "Why doesn't he notice it himself now?" or "Why doesn't anyone tell her that?" or "Why don't they just go learn rhetoric?" Well, as a business voice coach, I almost have to defend the speakers I mentioned. Because speaking falls into the category of "unconscious competences"! We practiced it from childhood. As a result, we talk without thinking much about it. Very few people are aware that speaking is the most elaborately automated habit of our species. Even to speak a single word, breathing, body language and gestures, thoughts, hearing, etc. must cooperate with each other. This only works with a lot of practice and years of repetition. In the end, a habit has emerged, an action routine, an "unconscious competence".

Speaking happens "autopilot-controlled"

We hardly have access to the details of the execution anymore. This is not only what makes change so difficult, but also – as a first step towards improvement – the recognition of shortcomings. Every habit is evaluated as "normal" by the inner "autopilot" – the gut feeling quickly turns it into "right".

From coaching clients I hear again and again sentences like: "Thank you, Mr. Fischbacher, for pointing this out to me so ruthlessly! I didn't realize that! In the course of my life, I have very well dealt with Rhetoric learning and I dealt a lot with presentation techniques – but no one has yet been able to point out the pitfalls of voice and speech technique!

Practical tip:

• Simply record your presentation with your mobile phone at the next opportunity and pay meticulous attention to distracting details. Learn the shortcomings of your Rhetoric know.
• Free consultation: Take the opportunity for an analysis discussion with your coach. Reserve your desired date on https://arno-fischbacher.com/coaching

When the unrest in the hall begins

Back to the lecture hall in Munich. How was it noticeable that the audience did not really pay full attention to the two project managers? Perhaps you have already experienced this when a little unrest arises in the back rows of a large hall. When the noise level in the hall then rises very slowly, the speakers notice it, can't quite hide their irritation and try to win back their audience with commitment, but probably with unsuitable means?

Someone can only improve when the bottleneck is defined. In the case of the two project managers in Munich, I quickly caught the attention-killers. It was the many "ducktails" that caused reluctance to listen: that's what we call the speech melody that is notoriously raised at the end of the sentence, which clearly signals to us as listeners that the next sentence is about to come anyway and that we therefore do not have to react.

Garland Sets

A serious preparation error is the cause, coupled with the nervous tension caused by the large auditorium. And already the speakers accelerated, binding one sentence after the other together with the word "and" and preventing us as listeners from understanding and evaluating the individual exciting thoughts, results and results in their full scope.

This vicious circle has already been created. On the one hand, these widespread linguistic inadequacies ("ducktails" and "and-ties", together also known as "garland sets") cause more and more tension ("speech pressure") in the speaker himself. On the listener's side, this way of speaking prevents active thinking. And if the proverbial penny can't drop, the speech hardly elicits any reactions from the audience. Neither a small nod nor a quiet smile show the speaker that his words have been received.

Practical tips:

• At the beginning of your presentation, refrain from empty phrases, impersonal greetings and "I"-heavy self-introductions.
• Surprise your audience with a clever question that goes straight to the heart of your topic.
  Don't talk to your audience, but with it. Make sure that the word "you" appears in your first sentence and ensures that it is addressed directly.
• Especially important if you want to convey a lot of facts – like the speakers in the example from Munich – your audience can only understand facts and figures from the context.
• Give an example, make a comparison that makes you curious about your facts and figures. Then ask a clever question, which you will then answer yourself with your important information.

Treacherously impersonal voices

Voice creates mood, they say ... or not! In the current example, the voices of the two speakers on stage became more and more impersonal, a little higher, sounded less modulated. I am sure that both sides – actors and listeners – did not consciously perceive this. But it did its effect... because voice has power!

Many of the speaking habits that make life difficult for us as participants and listeners suffer from the disregard for the fourth core attribute of the voice, the relationship statement.

For a better understanding: The four core messages of your voice are those unconscious messages that your voice sends out continuously without you noticing:

• Dominance: Creates attention
• Empathy: Conveys personal sympathy
• Pressure: Shows tension and nervousness
• Relationship quality: Shows whether you're engaging your audience in
  in a role or as an individual

Empathetic relationship voice switches the buying traffic light in the brain to green

Perhaps you are now asking yourself, what makes this fourth signal in particular so important in lectures and presentations, in conversation and on the phone? It switches, figuratively speaking, the traffic light in the "buying brain", in the Limbic brain of man either on red or on green. Your voice unmistakably signals whether you perceive your conversation partners only as a resource for your benefit, i.e. in the role of buyers, as an audience or in their function as employees, etc. ... or as an individual with needs, feelings and values.

Practical tip:

• Mental preparation: Do you address your audience in their role or function (as potential customers, suppliers, etc.) or have you thought about what the personal or social needs of the individual might be?
• Linguistic preparation: Seduce the audience of your presentation into a delicate situation with your first sentence, for which you will later show solutions.
• To do this, use suggestive formulas such as: "Suppose you ...", "Remember..." or "Maybe you've already ..."

Your voice unmistakably signals whether you perceive your conversation partners only as a resource for your benefit, i.e. in the role of buyers, as an audience or in their function as employees, etc. ... or as an individual with needs, feelings and values.

There is another way

One last time back to the conference. As the last speaker before the lunch break, the sales director has entered the stage. Confidently standing in the front in the middle, he talks to his sales team. Dark, full and clear voice, sympathetic tone, although he does not skimp on clear words. He radiates competence, composure, but also determination. He is vocally at peace with himself, allows himself one or the other side blow. He speaks modulated, accentuates some of his statements with clear pauses, which makes a good impression.

It is clear to everyone that this man has stature. His words made an impression and made one or the other employee go to the lunch buffet with a thoughtful face.

The words so often only reach the mind. Only the voice opens the door to the heart! Work on your vocal skills so that your valuable content will also ensure your success through a rousing presentation and a convincing, inspiring voice!

Yours sincerely,

Arno Fischbacher

 

P.S.: I'm happy if you like this post. If so, please share it on one of your networks! Do you have a question or would you like to discuss my thoughts with me? Write a comment! I look forward to hearing your opinion!

---

Read Also:

• Perform confidently, but how?
• What your listening sounds reveal
• Interrupting frequent speakers elegantly and effectively

---

The author:

Arno Fischbacher is a business voice coach and rhetoric expert, speaker and author. He prepares executives and employees of the top companies in Germany and Austria for negotiations, presentations and media appearances. Fischbacher is the author of several books, past president of the German Speakers Association (GSA) Austria, chairman of the European Network of Voice Experts, stimme.at.

If you would like to learn more about specific training opportunities with Arno Fischbacher, make an appointment here free information talk.

---