Presentations, Speeches, and Talks: Getting the Gift of the Gab

By Adrian Furnham

If the very words “Ladies and gentlemen, unaccustomed as I am…” bring you out in a cold sweat, just breathe deeply into a paper bag and take heed of Adrian Furnham’s impeccably delivered advice for those faced with the ordeal of speaking in public.

Business people often have to give lots of talks and interviews. They may have to address the shareholders’ meeting and the annual conference. They have to talk to their department regularly and may have to attend and talk at many conferences. Some do podcasts to their staff on a regular basis. The talented and confident ones do TED talks. Hence the popularity of presentation skills courses.

Further, being an “inspirational speaker” may generate a very lucrative income. Corporate conferences in exotic locations, after-dinner yarns with famous people present, and high-powered international groups – all want lively speakers. At minimally £10k a talk, plus expenses, it can be a very nice little earner. Top speakers can command over £100k for a simple talk, some five times that. It is the preferred money-spinner of retired politicians.

Speech-making is often pure theatre.

Public speaking is a skill. Speakers need to know P-words – pitch, poetry, pause, and pace. They need to understand metaphor and repetition. They also need the C words – confidence, cadence, conviction, and colour. Speech-making is visible thought. It is performance, and the performer often needs to be inebriated with zeal and exuberance.

Speech-making is often pure theatre. The orator has to be at once proud and humble, powerful and powerless. The talk needs to be both visceral and intellectual. Most of all, it needs to be personal and emotional, exclamatory and climactic. Great oratory is usually poetry. The writer must understand alliteration and imagery. It is important to use and understand symbolism and meter. No wonder so many great speech-makers are often classically trained.

The message goes from the heart to the head and – note – vice versa. Speakers need exploit the “Rule of Three”. They need to use alliterations and pronounce the difficult words clearly.

Many speakers, particularly politicians, practise their gestures, their eye contact, and all their movements. Many “psych” themselves up before a great speech so that they come across well.

Television has changed oratory and made it more difficult. Close-ups mean that every small eye movement, every drop of sweat, every wrinkle is seen and commented upon. The orator is in up-close, intimate, feet away from you. Further, sound bites dictate the ultra-importance of catchphrases. Speeches are often rehearsed and timed – the gestures, the voice, and the pauses. Some speakers revise up to the last moment.

Sometimes the audience has “plants” who clap, yelp, and holler at the right time with euphoric, orchestrated hand-clapping. The cameras know when the speaker moves; gestures have been synchronised with speech. Cuts to the crowd are pre-planned by the camera crew.

The paradox is that authenticity and naturalness cannot easily be taught. Speeches have to be clear, simple, and genuine but that is often the problem. It takes a lot of effort to be natural!

Good speeches can, and often should, be spellbinding, mesmeric, hypnotic. Hitler knew the secret of oratory before scriptwriters and make-up artists. He wasn’t young, but nor were Churchill and Mandela when their greatest and most memorable speeches were given. Youth is energy, hope, the future. Youth is passion, optimism, and idealism. Hence the importance of pace of speaking and moving.

Great speeches are about journeys. They need to capture a sense of destiny and destination. They create tension by specifying a challenging problem but then they offer a solution. They must inspire trust. Many speakers make recognisable gestures like “hand on heart” or “praying hands”.

Great speeches are about journeys. They need to capture a sense of destiny and destination.

Many researchers have studied great orators and, indeed, great speeches. Equally, famous people who have to give many speeches and who are poor orators are often teased for their inadequacies. Because speaking to great crowds is often highly anxiety-provoking, the non-verbal behaviours contrast with the verbal behaviours. This includes sweating, self-touching (particularly around the mouth), and clearly faked and rehearsed smiles. Indeed, anxiety management is one of the most important tasks for business and other speakers.

Presentation techniques

Giving a presentation is one of the most daunting prospects for many. According to some often-quoted popular research, a large percentage of UK citizens would rather have their leg cut off than speak in public. Public speaking is inherently different from social conversations. There is no turn-taking, often no verbal feedback, and no safety net. You feel vulnerable, tense, and lonely standing in front of a malicious audience. One starts to wonder how these other people do it so well (or not, as the case might be).

There are two components to a successful presentation: the content of the speech, and its delivery. It is both what you have got to say and how you say it that matters. Acting skills might not be as necessary in order to report your company’s third-quarter performance figures. But they do help, if for no other reason than to gather confidence and lose inhibitions. On the other hand, it is words that paint pictures, not gestures or facial expressions, so make sure you’ve got ideas worth listening to.

Public speaking and presentation-giving is a monologue, well-practised, often manically rehearsed and logically organised. Because one party of the communication process (the audience) has to keep silent for prolonged periods of time, the other party has to ensure that it keeps the interaction engaging or attention-worthy.

Types of speakers

Many businesses employ motivational speakers. Many countries have organisations (speakers bureaux) with dozens of speakers “on their books”. They tend to be academics, media stars, politicians, and successful business people (entrepreneurs) who get handsomely paid for relatively short after-dinner or conference speeches. In one sense, there is nothing new about the concept of a motivational speaker. Our parents had Billy Graham, Lord Soper, and, of course, Churchill. Such speakers were nearly always found in religious, political, or military contexts. They had the ability to uplift the heart, to perk up the dispirited, to energise the weary, and to convert the indecisive.

More importantly is, how do motivational speakers actually perform and what can we learn from them?

There are versions of the genre: the manic evangelist, the sincere believer, the serious comic. They are curiously very different in style but similar in content. The manic evangelist is really an American export. They require lots of audience participation. One is required to jump, clap, scream, sing, and perform other crypto-cheerleader activities in the course of the day. Their speech is often musical and full of rhythm. The sincere believer is the street-corner preacher who tells his moving tale with timing, passion, and anecdote. The serious comic is a night club act that is full of riotous humour but interspersed with the serious message, which may be delivered in a quite different tone.

Of course, there are other types. The studious professor does not always go down too well. Nor does the braggardly entrepreneur or the past-sell-by-date sports personality. TV presenters can keep going years after retirement because they are recognised by the public, who believe they know them personally.

Content and style of talks

To “deconstruct” a talk is an interesting challenge. There are similar metaphors and techniques in all motivational talks. There is a lot of “I believe” talk and repetition. Phrases that somehow “taste good” are often repeated; for example, “Talent is not enough”, or the very famous “Ask not what your country can do for you …”, and “I have a dream …”.

But most of all, one notices the metaphors in the story. People seem best attuned to stories, called case studies in business schools. From early childhood, we learn about this world and its rules through stories that have structure, believable characters, and often a moral. The first is the journey or, often, the race. This emphasises both the past and the future. It is about having goals, and the journey to reaching them.

All good stories have structure: beginning, middle, and end. They can contain puzzles and dilemmas. But they need resolution – ideally a victory for the truth, the right, and the virtuous.

The stories are also, of necessity, about fortitude, tenacity, and endurance in the face of setback. What is inspiring is how the obstacle was overcome, how the failure turned into success, how the lesson to overcome the disappointment was the key factor. It’s the solution to the problem of evil in theology: evil is there to teach us a lesson.

Another theme is the fall of the proud, how cockiness and egotism led to failure. There is a lot of talk about the best / worst experience of one’s life and how one learned life’s lessons that later enabled one to be a success. Parents and friends sometimes appear in the talk. This is the social support / teamwork bit that managers like their staff to hear. There is reference to synergy, interdependence, and the necessity of give and take in teams.

Nearly all stories have happy endings. They have to be upbeat, positive, moral tales. They are full of homilies, heartwarming stories of “little people” whose simplicity, essential goodness, and wisdom won the day. They call for acting, to let the voice, the gesture, and the posture match the themes in the story.

In the case of motivational talks, they are deeply anti-fatalist in the sense that we make our destiny. We make our beds and we lie in them. We are, and can be, captains of our fate and masters of our ship. And at the heart of everything is the C-word uttered so often everywhere nowadays: change or, better, progress. The theme is how, if you change your goals, change your strategy, change your lifestyle, change your foolish ways, you too can win an Olympic gold medal, become the top salesman, etc. Life is not a dress rehearsal. Unlike with Marks and Spencer, you can’t get a refund. With only the talent you have, enthusiasm, determination and a good team, you can win big.

Great orators never ignore “pitch, pace, and pause”. Hit the right notes, vary speed, pause for effect. Learn rhetorical devices, such as the power of repetition, the magic number three, the influence of body language to punctuate and emphasise. Get the pace and timing right, tickle the heart strings with stories of joy and sadness. and have a happy ending … and you too could be a motivational speaker.

Speech-giving and emotions

Giving speeches and presentations is stressful for most people. It is the most common of all phobias. People vary in their reaction to the prospect of public speaking. It ranges from the “buzz”, nervousness, anxiety, all up to utter panic. However, often the tension is good. It is known that experienced presenters would deliberately recreate the conditions of apprehension before and during the performance (for example, Enoch Powell would not visit the toilet before giving speeches).

Physiologically, public speaking is related to rising blood pressure, increased heartbeat, and sweating. Adrenalin rushes through the body. Muscles in the neck and chest constrict, sometimes affecting the voice and causing it to tremble. Relaxing breathing exercises should take the tension away and, generally, taking a few deep breaths should also do the job.

Emotions influence speech rate. Some “belt through it” to get it over with. Speed of delivery is also very important. To communicate effectively, you need to slow down substantially, from the conversational rate of 170-180 words per minute to 120-130. Although that might feel too slow in the beginning, it makes your message digestible to your listeners.

To keep your audience going, you need to alternate between tones, swing the notes, and switch tempo.

Fear of the audience is usually (but not always) irrational. It stems from the phobia of being ridiculed or intimidated by the audience, thus creating a “me against them” confrontational attitude. Generally, however, listeners do not want you to make a fool of yourself in front of them so they can laugh.

Good public speaking needs to be melodic, like singing. Our brain seems “wired” in the way that any novel stimulus, auditory, visual or kinesthetic, gradually dissolves in the surrounding noise some time after the initial exposure. Thus, motionless, monotonous speech loses the audience’s attention very fast. To keep your audience going, you need to alternate between tones, swing the notes, and switch tempo. In other words, you need to conduct your speech as if you are telling a story or singing a song, building up the suspense and intriguing the listener. To do that, exaggerate your pitch and create an exciting sequence.

The more senior you become in business, the more often you have to talk in public to both friends and foes, colleagues and shareholders, the local and international media. It has been said that a company owner or a shareholder could, by their performance alone, influence the share price. A conspicuously calm, clear, and confident speaker can allay the fears of investors. Equally, a bumbling, nervous, rattled speaker can lose the trust of everybody.

Body language of the speaker

The presenter has to be engaging and entertaining, they have to both lead and be led by the audience. Gestures, movements, facial expressions, and eye gaze patterns are the most common non-verbal signals during speeches. Non-verbal signs in speech-making and presentations can be broadly divided in two categories: affirmative and negative. Affirmative gestures emphasise, stress, and highlight the verbal message; they engage the audience and keep it focused and interested. Negative signs are those associated with tension, anxiety, and nervousness; they are distracting, unnecessary, and generally best avoided at all times.

Positive body language signs are either explanatory or evaluative. Explanatory gestures clarify the meaning of what is being said, accentuate viewpoints, and call attention to the message. They can also serve the purpose of sustaining audience’s attention or help the speaker elucidate their verbal communication. Evaluative gestures and facial expressions comprise those types of non-verbal cues that are exhibited by the audience. Public speaking is a credibility exercise; it takes both guts and ability. It is an art and a science, a performance and a lecture.

Max Atkinson, academic, author, and researcher, who was an expert researcher in public speaking, suggests some non-verbal tips:

One has to display open body language signals. This projects both the confidence of the speaker and the trustworthiness of the message. Folded arms and the associated closed, hunched posture will influence the quality and the projection of your voice and articulation by making your chest constrict. It makes sound projection more problematic. Open posture is also said to communicate the honesty and sincerity of both the speaker and their communication.

One of the first things a speaker has to learn is to open up and be less rigid on stage. Stand up straight, legs apart, head up. Use clear gestures and always make eye contact.

The public tends to interpret a folded-arms gesture as defensiveness, comfort, missing armrests, and feeling cold. Consequently, Atkinson advises not folding your arms during speech, be it an interview or a talk. However, that is because of the widely spread belief propagated by the mass media and the like that it signals defensiveness and hostility, not because it actually does. Just keep your arms open and you are much more likely to create a favourable impression.

Anxious non-verbal body language not only distracts the speaker from the delivery, but also diverts the audience from attending to the message. Again, such speakers are judged as lacking ability and, for that reason, cannot keep their audience’s attention. Non-verbal cues that communicate anxiety are fiddling with objects or hair, nervous pacing, “white knuckle syndrome” (clenching fists or gripping objects too hard), and self-touching.

Some gestures can be a potential distractor, while others are good to capture and sustain attention, such as sudden pointing, a sharp raise of the arm, etc. Think Elon Musk and the Nazi salute. They show excitement and energy, and break the routine. On the other hand, repetitive movements – swinging, swaying, pacing up and down – can be annoying.

While gestures are natural to conversation and can be used for various reasons, conscious inhibition of movements is likely to interfere with the flow of speech. If you would like to either use or not use a particular gesture or facial expression while speaking in public, you could try practising speaking in front of the mirror. This would allow you to learn when you use this particular gesture and how undesirable it is. It is good to seek the opinion of close, truthful friends. Rehearse the speech with the movements until the new pattern becomes literally second nature. Otherwise, allow the original gesture to be as it is, as conscious monitoring would only impair your performance.

The bigger the audience is, the more you should exaggerate the gesticulation. Theatre actors know well about the power of dramatisation of one’s message. The same clearly goes for voice; the larger the room and the more people listening, the louder the volume should be.

So …

Whether it is giving the “best man” speech, pepping up your staff, facing the shareholders, or giving a big conference speech, you need to learn the art of public speaking. Some people are “naturals”, most are not. But it is pretty impossible to do well in business without having to do talks, interviews, and presentations. However good you are at business, if you can’t persuade and charm others by your rhetoric, you will never reach the top.

Choose your hero and analyse their text and performance. Sign up for a drama course. Get honest feedback from “critical friends”. And practise, practise, practise.

About the Author

Adrian Furnham enjoys public speaking. He has spoken at events for up to 15,000 people in different countries from Azerbaijan to Uganda. In doing so, he exploits his sub-clinical histrionic personality disorder and has very exotic and sometimes well-paid holidays through conference speaking. He currently lectures at BI: Norwegian Business School.

REFERENCES

• Atkinson, M. (1984) Our Masters’ Voices: the Language and Body Language of Politics. Routledge.

• Atkinson, M. (2004). Lend Me Your Ears: All You Need to Know About Making Speeches and Presentations. London: Vermilion

• Atkinson, M. (2008). Speech-Making and Presentation Made Easy, London: Vermilion.

• Cairns, C. (2019). Public Speaking Without Fear: How to Overcome Anxiety and Present with Confidence (1^st ed.).

  Publishers Press.

• DeWaele, J-M., & Furnham, A. (2025). “Facing Argus: Personality and Public Speaking Anxiety”.

• Furnham, A., & Petrova, E. (2011). Body Language at Work. London: Routledge

• Tewari, M. (2022). Ten Ways To Master Public Speaking and Effective Communication (1^st ed.). New York Notion Press