As my very first post, I thought I would give a shout out to a recent example of the power of public speaking. According to several newspaper reports, it seems that the night before their big playoff game against the New England Patriots this past Sunday, the NY Jets asked former Jet Dennis Byrd to address the team. I’m not going to recap all the details here. You can read about them in the Times’s own excellent blog post.
But I would like to point out a couple of observations related to the class I teach on Speech Communication. First, when you read about Byrd’s speech from his perspective, it’s clear he gave a lot of thought to the specific purpose of his speech. He knew his wasn’t supposed to be a classic half-time oration; he didn’t need to get the players to run out of the room whooping and hollering and ready for immediate action. Instead, he aimed, I imagine, for something more thoughtful and focusing to steel the will through a long night and then on the battlefield the next day.
Judging by the eerie silence as he was speaking, he wasn’t sure his message was sinking in. Which brings me to my second observation: oftentimes the feedback you get from the crowd can be misleading. This, I hope, is some comfort to new speakers. Don’t take the audience’s reactions too personally. They could be stuck thinking about something completely unrelated; how sorry they are, say, that they kicked their dog earlier. Or, maybe you’re doing a good job and you’ve actually inspired them to think about how the issue relates to them — but, meanwhile, they’ve stopped listening to the rest of your speech!
Judging by the dominating play of the Jets on the field the next day, it sure seems like Byrd’s words helped. And that is a good introduction to the power of public speaking.