Human voice is the instrument we all play that the most powerful sound in the world. Although, people talk what they want and when they want, others may not listen to them. I was lucky enough to find and watch following TED talk speech which explained me why is that happened and how can I get someone’s full attention into my speech. “Julian Treasure” has delivered an amazing speech at TED Talk on the topic “How to speak so that people want to listen”.

I got acknowledged about seven deadly sins of speaking while listening to Julian’s speech.

1. Gossip — All of us are loving Gossips. It’s speaking ill of somebody who’s not present. This is not a nice habit.
2. Judging — It is hard to listen to a speech of someone, if you know they’ll be judging by them.
3. Negativity — In his talk, Julian recalls a conversation with his mother. ‘My mother, in the last years of her life, became very negative, and it’s hard to listen. I remember one day, I said to her, “It’s October 1 today,” and she said, “I know, isn’t it dreadful?”’
4. Complaining — This is an another form of negativity. Julian mentioned complaining as a viral misery. We complain about the weather, sport, about politics, about everything.
5. Excuses — It is really hard to listen someone who just pass the responsibility on to everybody else and don’t take responsibility for their actions.
6. Lying — Embroidery and exaggeration can quickly turn to lies. And we don’t want to listen to people who are lying.
7. Dogmatism — Too many people tend to mix up facts with their opinions, and it’s hard to listen to someone who is sharing his idea as if it was the only truth.

How to Speak So That People Want to Listen

Besides what to avoid, Julian shares some golden nuggets on how to speak attractively.

He was suggesting that there are four really powerful cornerstones, foundations, that we can stand on if we want our speech to be powerful and to make change in the world.

• Honesty. Being true in what you say. Communicating clearly.
• Authenticity. Being yourself. “Standing in your own truth.”
• Integrity. Being true to your word. Doing what you say.
• Love. Wish people well.

As how much important what we say, also how we speak matters tremendously.

• Register — We can change our voice depending on where we speak from.
• Timbre — Timber defines how your voice feels.
• Prosody — Treasure describes prosody, similar to tonality and rhythm, as the vessel of meaning in any conversation.
• Speed — We can become excited when we say something quickly, or we can slow down to emphasize a statement.
• Pauses — When holding a speech, but also during meaningful conversations, we try to avoid silence.
• Volume — How loud or silent we say something, of course, also changes our message.

Finally Julian showed me what would the world be like if we were speaking powerfully to people who were listening consciously in environments which were actually fit for purpose.

I really recommend this TED Talk to watch everyone who is fond of public speaking and who is willing to make any speech at any place and who is to face for an interview.