Put your Phone Down📲
Why No One's Listening to Your Speech
Have you noticed how edgy you get without your phone? (If you’re one of those people who can leave it at home when you go on holiday I salute you.) My devices have become an extension of my sense of self, if not actually extra body parts. Evolution is working on that as I write I’m sure.
When something is so central to our lives what impact is it having on your speaking?
A lot I’d say. It’s my belief that our phones are taking us out of our bodies and into our heads. And that has a big effect on how we show up when we speak.
Watch most people checking their phone and you will see them subtly holding their breath. They stick their head forward, their shoulders rise. They become less human somehow, more a head on a stick. It reminds me of what Ken Robinson (RIP) said about academics dancing in his great TED talk.
I say this out of affection for them: there's something curious about professors. In my experience -- not all of them, but typically -- they live in their heads. They live up there and slightly to one side. They're disembodied, you know, in a kind of literal way. They look upon their body as a form of transport for their heads. It's a way of getting their head to meetings. If you want real evidence of out-of-body experiences, by the way, get yourself along to a residential conference of senior academics and pop into the discotheque on the final night and there, you will see it. Grown men and women writhing uncontrollably, off the beat. Waiting until it ends, so they can go home and write a paper about it.
Don’t be a head on a stick as a speaker. No matter how brainy, or how attached to your devices you are, make it your mission to get into your body as a speaker. Speaking is a physical act as much as an intellectual one (the ancients knew this training their athletes and their orators on the same field). When we get stuck in our heads in device heavy days and then step out in front of an audience we don’t do ourselves or our audiences justice. Being out of body as a speaker makes you tense on stage, arms fixed, voice fast and flat - all the emotion and life squeezed out of you.
The antidote is simple - get back into your body. In particular focus on hips, ribs, spine. The psoas muscles connect your lower and upper torso and have a huge impact on your voice and breath as a result.
When we sit the psoas grips and our voice tightens. Moving freely releases the hold and opens up the voice. Your cat, your dog knows what to do about this - when they get up after rest they stretch freely through their spine, and pelvis. We can learn from that as speakers…
If you’re at home standing up for a stretch, dancing round the house, doing some yoga, (even hoovering if that floats your boat) will get you back into your body quickly and improve your virtual speaking immensely. If you’re at work or travelling to speak find time to go for a quick walk, take that lunchtime exercise class or do some stretches in your hotel room.
Turn your devices off, or at least put them on airplane mode. Come back to the body's pace. Tune in (think of how your cat or dog stretches when they’ve been still for a while). Taking a moment to take yourself back into your awareness of your body has a big impact. When you walk/ log into that meeting, or presentation you won't be in your head. You won't be going at email warp speed. You'll be going at human speed. You’ll have presence. You’ll connect human to human. And that changes everything.
Will you turn your phone off?
Have a great weekend!
Caroline x