A speaker that I admire

Hello all Medium visitors! My name is Tiffany Chung and I am a junior at UC Berkeley studying CS. This story is for the tech entrepreneurship class that I am taking this semester as I embark on my journey to become a better leader.

The Prompt:

Post a 300-word piece on a person you admire as a public speaker/communicator. What do you admire about that person’s communication style/structure? What impact does it have on you as a listener? What are the factors of good communication for you?

The Response:

A speaker that I admire is Julian Treasure. Julian is a top-rated international speaker and who has given the very popular “How to speak so people want to listen” Ted Talk. As I listen to this Ted Talk, some things that admire about his communication style is/are

1. Tempo + uses spaces: As a speaker, Julian takes his time and doesn’t rush through his segments. He was comfortable using silence as a tool in his speech, for impact and to enable his listeners to feel the weight of his words. Moreover, at times in his speech, he quickens his pace or slows his pace to keep the audience interested in what he has to say.
2. Different Tones/ Registers: Julian touched on this as an important subject for speakers as well. By using different tones (not monotone), Julian engaged the audience and kept what he had to say interesting. Also, he used a deeper register which kind of, in a way, pulled me in to what he was saying as well.
3. Body Language: Julian used just the right amount of body language where he wasn’t standing still, but he also wasn’t flailing his arms and legs everywhere. He used his body language to emphasize points within his speech and exuded a confident manner quite naturally.
4. Audience Engagement: At the very end of his talk, Julian had the audience participate in some warmup exercises for public speaking. I thought that this was a nice way to make his talk and experience for the audience where they could actively engage and contribute to this talk. By creating this active, shared, and engaged experience among the audience, the crowd is sure to remember this talk for longer than if it were more “lecture” style.

What impact does it have on me? Well, in comparison to my video lectures that I watch for my computer science courses, Julian’s talk kept me engaged for the entirety of his segment. Now, although it wasn’t long (around 10 minutes), I felt myself almost hang onto each word he was saying. Actually actively listening to what he said. I feel like many other times when I listen to podcasts, movies, etc. I am listening word by word, not quite paying attention to the sentences as they connect to each other and the meaning of what is being said, but this talk pulled me in. I felt like I had something important to gain from listening to this talk, even though I had never really paid too much attention to this topic before — and that’s the magic of his way of speaking. Julian has a wonderful ability to communicate and connect with his audience, helping them gain a whole new experience and perspective.