Three Traits of Impactful Speakers
For thousands of years these attributes have defined great storytellers
Humans have been making public speeches for thousands of years, but until recently the number of folks doing so has remained rather small, in single digits percent wise. Unless you were a politician, business leader or social activist, you were typically out in the audience listening. But much has changed in recent decades.
With venues such as Creative Mornings, the TED Conferences and TEDx events held around the world, as well as storytelling podcasts such as The Moth or The Narrators, and insider storytelling conferences like the Future of StoryTelling and The Power of Storytelling, the cachet of storytelling has never been greater. It’s hip to speak up.
More importantly, speaking / storytelling skills have become fundamental assets for a lot of employees in the commercial or nonprofit sectors. If you can’t tell your story, as well as the stories of your organization, your customers, or your stakeholders, you are at a disadvantage, limiting the ability to be heard. So what makes a speaker impactful?
There are many factors that go into crafting and delivering stories that enlighten and inform, even challenge a listener’s beliefs, but there are three traits forming the basis of public speaking. (p.s. these three traits have been relevant for a few thousand years)
Three Traits Three Ways
Often referred to as the KLT Factor, the world of marketing has long touted the belief that consumers buy products from someone they know, like and trust.
If we traveled to ancient Greece we would hear Aristotle speak about rhetoric, about ethos, pathos and logos (ethics, emotions, and logic) as the key attributes possessed by great speakers and found in moving speeches.
The discipline of business decision making often refers to the combination of head, heart, and gut (intellect, emotion and intuition). Good ideas found here.
As you can see, these parallel ideas point to a speaker’s credibility or trustworthiness, combined with a story’s ability to touch us emotionally, and for the narrative to make sense, to be believable. It’s the combination of all three traits that creates story magic.
To see how it’s done, take a moment to watch Robin Steinberg’s TED2018 Talk which explores the bail system in America – how it operates, where it fails us, and she offers up a solution to the problem.
Robin’s personal story establishes her credibility on the topic, as that’s her profession. She then explains how the system works, or doesn’t at times, and uses the experiences of people who have been victimized by this flawed system to engage an emotional side of the story. We trust her, we come to understand the problem, we can see the damage caused from a human perspective.
As you embark on writing your story, make sure you address each of these three traits.
Will an audience place their faith in you through a bond of credibility and trust?
Will they feel your story in a way they can relate to, allowing them to empathize?
Will their intellectual side be satisfied with the logical side of your proposition?
If one of these factors is missing, their confidence in your message will be too.
I hope that you enjoyed this post. If so, please share your wisdom and insights below. And don’t forget to subscribe. You can also find me on LinkedIn and Twitter, or even drop me a line with any thoughts or questions you may have about storytelling.