Public Speaking Fight Moves Topics:
Public Speaking Fight Moves: How to Speak so People Listen
Discover how to develop a speaking voice that commands attention and showcases everything amazing about you. Join communications expert Jenny Riddle for this interactive workshop.
The way you speak is the key to how others perceive you.
Does your voice make you sound worried, timid, uncertain, boring? Have you been accused of having vocal fry or of sounding shrill? Do you often go hoarse or have trouble speaking loudly enough?
Many of us settle for voices that don’t reflect the very best of who we are. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
In this hands-on workshop, we’ll do exercises and practice strategies to help make you sound like the expert you are.
Public Speaking Fight Moves to Speak Up and Stand Out in Male-Dominated Industries:
(Check out my article in Forbes Magazine: Three Public Speaking Fight Moves to Speak Up in Male-Dominated Industries) https://www.forbes.com/sites/ellevate/2021/12/31/three-public-speaking-fight-moves-for-millennial-women-in-male-dominated-industries/?sh=2541ed8276fc
Use your voice to combat gender bias and advance your career. In this interactive workshop, led by communications expert, Jenny Riddle, we’ll explore how women can be ready in the moment to speak up and out.
I still remember the night three businessmen propositioned me.
I was in graduate school, playing piano bar on the weekends.
Three thirty-somethings sat around the baby grand where I played and waited for my break:
“We have this friend who’s always complaining that no attractive women ever apply at his company. We’ll give you a hundred dollars if you’ll pretend to apply for a job there and go interview for him.”
Did I speak up and say, “That’s really sexist?”
No. I went.
I was focused on the hundred bucks. And I was flattered.
Thirty years later, I’ve come along way from that naive 23-year-old. And so has the world.
Or…has it?
Recall the slur leveled at U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio Cortez this past July on the steps of our nation’s Capitol by one male Republican Senator who openly called her an F-ing B!$ch.
We can use the example of AOC on the floor of Congress for so eloquently calling out that senator’s sexist behavior and for demonstrating her talent as a persuasive speaker and legislator.
She was prepared.
But many women are not.
Like AOC, women in male-dominated industries need to be ready in the moment to use their voices to combat gender bias and to advance their careers.
In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore specific strategies to hone your public speaking fight moves to speak up and stand out.
Public Speaking Fight Move #1: Plan and rehearse questions and statements in advance that express discomfort but also that ask the person to re-think what he/she just said.
Stay calm but be direct. Be succinct and specific.
Sample statements:
“When you made that statement, this is what I heard. It may not be the way you intended it, but this is what I heard.”
The following samples are from HBR article “Your Boss Made a Biased Remark. Should You Confront Them?” By Aneeta Rattan:
“What specifically did you mean by that because I’m not sure I got it.”
“That could be taken the wrong way—can you explain what you meant?”
“That’s not okay by me, and I respect you enough to let you know.”
“I hope you understand now the negative impact your words had on me.”
“I hope you’ll reconsider your assumptions on this issue.”
“Can I as you not to say that around me again?”
How to handle interruptions:
Keep on talking and physically lean in.
Public Speaking Fight Move #2: Grow your confidence one uncomfortable speaking situation at a time.
Think about your tone of voice, facial expressions, and body language:
Put on your game face, slow down, temper your tone.
Before entering, think about one thing over which you have control.
Think about what you bring to the table that’s valuable and take pride in that.
Engage with the people around you.
Act like you belong.
Public Speaking Fight Move #3: Enlist the help of male colleagues with the two-second rule:
The following is from the book Good Guys by David Smith and Brad Johnson:
To combat the paralysis that sets in mere seconds after another man delivers a sexist comment or demeaning joke, have some ready responses cued up in advance:
“Did you really mean to say that?”
“We don’t do that here.”
“That wasn’t funny.”
Good resource books:
Wolfpack by Abby Wambach
Feminist Fight Club by Jessica Bennett
Treating People Well by Lea Berman and Jeremy Bernard
Pretty Bitches edited by Lizzie Skurnick