Voice, pace, pauses and body language

How you say something shapes whether people hear it. The good news is that delivery is a set of small, learnable habits, and some of the most famous 'rules' about body language are myths you can safely ignore.

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Volume and clarity

• The University of Toronto's Engineering Communication Program says to speak loudly enough that the person farthest away can hear you comfortably. Low volume is the more common problem.
• Listeners who strain to hear you lose focus on your message (University of Toronto).
• Florida Atlantic University's Speaking Center suggests using a microphone in large rooms and matching your volume to the size of the room.
• Check the pronunciation of names and technical words in advance, and write phonetic spellings in your notes (FAU).
• Articulate: finish the ends of words and avoid running them together. A short warm-up, such as reading a paragraph aloud slowly, can help you settle into clear speech.

Pace and the power of the pause

• Nervous speakers tend to speak faster. Both the University of Toronto and FAU advise slowing down, and FAU suggests that fast talkers practise speaking slower than feels natural.
• Natural speech includes pauses, and pauses add meaning (University of Toronto). Pause after your main message, before a key number and before your conclusion.
• A speaker quoted in Toastmaster magazine notes that a pause that feels long to the speaker is probably short to the audience.
• Wellesley College adds that pauses give the audience time to absorb what you have just said.
• Vary your pitch and tone. The University of Toronto warns against a flat 'reading' rhythm, even when you are working from notes.

Cutting filler words

• Filler words are sounds such as 'um', 'ah' and 'you know' used to fill silence. Toastmaster magazine notes they are often invisible to the speaker but not to the listener.
• Speakers quoted in Toastmaster magazine point to causes such as not being fully prepared and treating a talk as a one-way performance instead of a conversation.
• Fixes: accept pauses, remind yourself that nobody will interrupt you while you have the floor, and know your material well.
• Toastmasters suggests a practice game: a partner reads out topics, you speak on each for two minutes, working up to five, while they count your fillers.
• Do not aim for perfection. FAU notes that some vocalised pauses are acceptable. The goal is fewer, not zero.

Eyes, posture and gestures

• The University of Toronto suggests holding eye contact with individuals for about four to five seconds rather than quick glances, and watching their reactions to decide whether to expand on a point.
• FAU notes that eye contact is especially valued in dominant US cultures. Norms differ around the world, including in the GCC, so be respectful: scanning sections of the room works in almost any setting.
• Stand upright. The University of Toronto notes that slouching looks casual, while leaning forward with your hands on the desk can seem aggressive.
• Practise gestures so they feel natural and support your words. Avoid distracting habits such as jingling coins or rattling keys (University of Toronto), or wringing your hands (Wellesley).
• Wellesley suggests leaving fidget jewellery at home and tying back hair if you tend to play with it.
• If you move, move with purpose so you pay attention to the whole audience (University of Toronto), and do not stand in front of the screen.

Two myths to drop

• Myth: '93 percent of communication is non-verbal.' This comes from two studies by Albert Mehrabian in which people judged a woman's attitude from single words such as 'thanks', 'maybe' or 'terrible' said in different tones of voice, and then compared tone of voice with facial expressions.
• As a Radboud University Donders Institute blog explains, the studies only looked at the communication of attitudes, and only where different signals (words, tone and facial expression) contradicted each other, so the 55-38-7 split (face, tone, words) cannot be a general rule for all communication. Your words matter too.
• Myth: standing in a 'power pose' changes your hormones and makes you more willing to take risks, as a 2010 study by Carney, Cuddy and Yap reported. Fortune reported in 2016 that Dana Carney, a co-author of the original 2010 study, said she does not believe 'power pose' effects are real.
• Fortune also reported that a larger 2015 replication (by Ranehill and colleagues), with about four times as many participants, found no hormonal or behavioural effects.
• What does help is the boring stuff: knowing your content, breathing, slowing down and practising out loud.