I’m thinking of Andy Molinsky’s Global Dexterity when I say this. In today’s global workforce, adjusting one’s accent—or way of speaking—for a specific professional function doesn’t necessarily signal a moment of personal loss. A loss of self or cultural identity. Being understood allows you to share your ideas and area of expertise more effectively in the global workforce.
When I’ve thrown a workshop or delivered a presentation, I always spend a minimum of 15 minutes beforehand doing a run-through. I primarily concentrate on clear enunciation and pacing.
I may not need to focus so much on thought group stress because this speech feature is so engrained in the rhythm of my first language background, namely English. However, I know that concentrating on pitch variation and pausing can help the listener to perceive the language chunks—the thought groups—the information that I’m intending to share, and perhaps highlight, in real-time speech. This helps my dear audience process the information more easily. That’s my ultimate objective when taking the floor in a workshop or presentation. What’s yours?
Any time you need to deliver a message clearly for professional purposes, I first recommend that you self monitor a few of the following fundamentals:
- Mouth movement. Enunciate your key words of information clearly.
- Volume. Speak loud enough from the beginning to end of your sentences.
- Consonants. Articulate the middle and final consonants in your key words of information.
- Syllable stress in words. Include a little pitch variation in the stressed syllables of your key words.
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