Want to be taken more seriously? Have your ideas listened to? Have people follow you? Then it’s time you learn how to communicate effectively. Just look at Obama down south! Obama went up against racism and prejudice, and whether you are behind his choices, it's easy to see how his relaxed confident demeanour, and strong speaking skills express conviction and surety.

Communication delivers a leader’s knowledge to the people who need to execute the company’s vision. Unfortunately, there’s usually a disproportionate balance between knowledge and the tools to deliver it. In fact, a study done by Psychometrics says, “Only 27.8% [of those surveyed] rated leaders’ communication skills as effective, even though nine out of 10 people see communication as a critical skill.” In the workplace, this leads to frustration and stress.

Optimizing your communications, for a group, a classroom, or a boardroom or a room of a thousand means taking a look at your attitude, vocal pacing, body language, and how you frame your ideas. So what can you do to inspire an audience? 

• Use inquiry rather than inform your listener.
• Use metaphor, anecdotes, and repetition to make your ideas last.
• Create a clear intention of connection, in a chosen quality of leadership.
• Engage through varied use of voice and clear body language.
• Respect your listener as the focus of the event, rather than being self-conscious.

For aspiring leaders, success in public speaking, especially within your company or team does wonder for your professional street cred. A well-written speech can manage the “gossip” in an organization. That’s why the five tips above are so crucial. 

For example, listing facts during a speech or meeting rarely engages an audience. Embedding your facts into a metaphor can illustrate their impact and create context. Metaphors illustrate a mountain’s height in minutes, rather than try to take you there. That’s a long climb. Metaphors capture, surprise, and even shock the audience into attention. And when your ideas are revisited with slight variations, we remember them like we remember a musical theme. When this works, the listener participates, rather than passive absorbing information.

But metaphor and anecdotes alone aren’t enough to build trust in your audience: trust is built primarily through how you deliver your message. Even the most spectacular words, spoken in a monotone, inaudible, or coldly delivered way, can leave the audience tweeting about their boredom. Vocal variety is key. Imagine if Adele had sung Someone Like You in monotone. Would she have sold millions of records? Imagine Adele without her grounded power and vulnerability. Without the repetition and the slight variations in vocal emphasis, Someone Like You could have sounded more like a pre-teen crush. 

The musicality of your voice connects you to your audience. Words alone won’t grab people’s attention. Automated answering systems drive people crazy because of this problem. The inflection and tone of the recordings says, “I am not listening to you.” Your communication needs to include, not exclude. A recent webinar I facilitated had full participation from coast to coast, with no listeners dropping off for a full hour.

Body language also needs to be grounded to connect and manage a room. Adele is simple and grounded in her stance when she sings. She uses clear, evocative gestures. They don’t interfere with her music, but underscore it. It’s a powerful model for becoming a commanding speaker.

Bruce Philip, author of Consumer Republic, and winner of the 2012 National Business Book Awards says, "A lot of us work in businesses in which you can only ever be as good as what you can persuade people to let you do. Humans interpret the signals of credibility long before they even try interpreting the content that's supposed to confer it. I think there are a lot of people you could help out there." 

One of the fastest ways to ground yourself onstage, or when seated, is to literally press your feet into the floor, and engage your glutes when you speak. Open the upper chest and release your shoulders. You may need to do a few shoulder rolls to release some tension. 

Powerful communication requires a genuine curiosity about the listener’s experience.

An audience member does not have to agree with your ideas to respect your ideas. The audience’s experience starts with the attitude you take towards your listeners. Take some time to think about what it would be like to listen to your speech.

Your audiences may have to WORK to pay attention because your fear, stress, indifference, or a false presumption that ‘being likeable’ will be enough to keep them focused. At the cost of putting a meeting together, isn’t it worth looking at how your delivery affects the outcome? 

RIM’s former CEO, Jim Balsille often appeared dismissive to his audiences, with an abrupt sense of his own importance. One could say this dismissive attitude reflected a certain arrogance and rigidity in his thinking. Some suggest it takes two weeks for attitudes at the top to penetrate the front lines of an organization. Balsille’s attitude and leadership may have left RIM’s flank exposed.

What style of leadership do you want to communicate to the room? Is it empathetic, assertive, humorous, or serious? Duncan Hawthorne, CEO of Bruce Nuclear, and Elyse Allan, CEO of GE Canada are both very connected, warm, personable speakers that have great vocal variety and leave you with the impression that they genuinely care for their audience.  

Tape yourself giving a sample talk. Do you find yourself inspired or interested by listening to your own recording? Are you captivated? If not, ask yourself if it’s the materials, the delivery, or a combination of both are to blame. Ask yourself if you can do any of the following: 

• Can I edit the material down? Shorter is almost always better. 
• Can I switch from fact sharing to inquiry by posing statements as questions and then illustrating them through facts?
• Is there a story, metaphor, or anecdote that embeds your facts and numbers in a container? It took you a while to get to the 20,000 foot level. People can grasp the picture of a mountain faster than climbing it. 
• Could you experiment with a few pauses to pull focus when you speak?

Upwards of 25 million meetings happen daily in North America. Millions are spent on meetings every year – in salaries, building costs, and intellectual capital. That’s why you should take them seriously as opportunities to develop and establish your leadership qualities. Remember, ongoing development isn’t an option when it comes to your growth as a future leader.

Mary Michaela Weber is one of Canada’s top communications consultants, known for using wit and a smart sense of strategy.

Her company, Voice Empowerment Inc., brings her background of over 20,000 hours of training to CEOs and Executives in Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies, Ivey League University professors, and up-and-comers across North America and the Caribbean.