HOW TO READ A

SPEECH AND STILL

BE AN EFFECTIVE
SPEAKER
BY GARY GENARD, PH.D.
 HOW TO READ A SPEECH AND STILL BE AN
EFFECTIVE SPEAKER
BY GARY GENARD, PH.D.

Do your speeches and presentations take wing?

Or do they remain earthbound, kept there by some
heavy-handed delivery of data?

Here's another scenario that will ensure listeners won't

be excited by what you're telling them: any attempt to
'read' a speech. We tend to forget (because we spend
so much time writing then polishing our talking points)
that reading and speaking are entirely different
animals—in terms of both the speaker and audience's Reading a
experience. 
manuscript or notes
You can perfect your manuscript to your heart's is about as far as you
content. But when you step into what I call 'the oral
arena' of public speaking, you might experience what can get from moving
Dorothy Gayle conveyed to her dog Toto when her and activating
house finally landed in The Wizard of Oz: "I've a feeling
we're not in Kansas anymore."  audiences.

Indeed, you're not. Your job now is knowing how to

stay fully focused so audiences have complete
confidence in what you say. That flat-out beats
presenting information without letting the audience
know why it matters to them.

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Do you stINK at reading a speech?

If your answer to that question is 'Yes,' please know that you should stink at it. Reading a
manuscript or notes is about as far as you can get from moving and activating audiences.

A client CEO said this to me recently; and she obviously considered it a serious drawback to her
ability to lead her company: "I'm terrible at reciting a speech." "Well, no wonder," I replied. "That's
not what you're supposed to be doing." Yes, you're sharing information that YOU have written
down. But through your voice and delivery, that bare information has to change into this important
matter that you're sharing with the audience. So, it's vital that you understand why performance
can matter more than content when it comes to great speaking. What's written out isn't all-
important . . . in fact, you can deviate from it as much as you like.

What matters is that you tell listeners, in your own voice, what they need to know. As speaker
[leader, CEO, VP of Sales, etc.] it's your interpretation of the data that's the gold they're seeking.
That will never come through if you're reading a literary document word for word, and making it
sound that way.

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How to Sound Genuine When Working With a Script

If it seems that doing that is impossible, remember this: actors manipulate your emotions (from
fifty feet or more if it's a stage performance!) by reading the script word or word. But of course it
doesn't sound that way. But there are NO substitutions, no asides, no human-interest story that the
performer decides to slip in to make it all more interesting! Since as far as I know, actors don't
possess different genes from non-actors, it's all just a question of learning the skill then getting
better at it.

I sometimes demonstrate this when I'm conducting corporate training. It's always after I get the
question: "But how can I read from my speech realistically and not sound like I'm reading?"

At that point, I ask if anyone in the group has a book with them. I ask that volunteer not to tell me
the title of the book, but to open it up at random and blindly point to any section of the page. Then,
as they keep their finger in the same place, I ask them to bring the book up to me. "Now, I don't
know this book," I tell everyone, "and I obviously haven't seen any of this material before. But I'll
read this page to you now as though I were giving a speech. And I guarantee you that I'll look at
you and relate to you, rather than the page, for at least 80% of the time." Then I deliver the passage
to them as a 'speech,' in the way I just described—achieving much more eye contact with them
rather than the book.

This demonstration often elicits applause (and I admit it is a bit of showing off). But I tell everyone
that there's nothing magic about this: it's just a skill I learned as a performer. If you have a need
for knowing how to achieve presence and charisma when you speak (and you do), then you
should learn it too.

The secret is to grab IDEAS not sentences—key words and phrases—then share them with the
audience. It takes only a second or two to look down, get the next idea, and share that one. There's
a world of difference between having a relationship with listeners like this, versus spending most
of your time staring down at a page while you speak.

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You Can Use Acting Skills to Bring Any Speech to Life

It's said of great actors, that "He or she could read a phone book and it would be fascinating."
Substitute any list of endless data (who can find a phone book these days?) and you get the
same idea: the relationship with the audience matters more than the raw data.

So you don't need to be 'reading' or 'reciting' a speech to make your material come to life. In
fact, if you think that way, what you're saying will never lift off the page. As the same client
who confessed to being terrible at reciting a speech said, later in the same session: "You can
use acting skills to bring anything to life."

"Well, yes! The basic idea for the public speaker who wants to use the world's best
performance skills (i.e., actors' skills) to thrill an audience is the same whatever material you
have before you as a speaker. Like an actor, to bring something to life, you have to live it.

Never try to let your beautifully written notes, outline, manuscript, spreadsheet, graph,
handout, or PowerPoint deck do it for you. Those forms are all flat, and composed in the
past. In the here-and-now of public performance, it's your job to share the blood racing in
your veins with the same substance giving your audience a heartbeat.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Genard, Ph.D., founder of The Genard Method, is an expert in theater-
based public speaking training. As an actor and speech coach, he uses
performance techniques to help executives and leadership teams speak with
confidence and influence. Dr. Genard consults and trains for corporations,
governments, nonprofits, and individuals worldwide. He is the author of the
Amazon best-selling titles How to Give a Speech, Fearless Speaking (named by
Book Authority as “One of the 100 Best Confidence Books of All Time”),
Speaking Virtually, and Speak for Leadership. He publishes the weekly blog
Speak  for Success!

Copyright © 2022 by Gary Genard Ph.D. All rights reserved.