The inspiration for business presentation success can come from anywhere.
Hamlet, for instance. Hamlet is the Prince of Denmark in Shakespeare’s play called Hamlet, written around 1603.
In the play, Hamlet retains a troop of actors to stage a play he’s written, and gives them coaching on how to speak their lines. Four-hundred and eleven years later, his words still pack a wollop.
“Speak the speech I pray you as I pronounced it to you, trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of your players do, I had as lief the town-crier spoke my lines.”
In other words, don’t mumble, but keep up the energy and enunciate so that your speech rings clear. And don’t bellow at the top of your lungs like that idiot wandering around the village green who is always shouting, “12 o’clock and all is well.”
“Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance that may give it smoothness.”
Here he’s telling them, “Don’t overdo it. Don’t show off or try to impress. Keep your gestures modest. [ctt tweet=”Strive to draw attention to your thinking and to your text–not to your performance skills.” coverup=”LGbbr”]Too much passion can damage your credibility and distract the audience from what you’re saying.”
Then, after he’s told them not to wave their arms around too much, he tells them to loosen up, but also make sure that their gestures relate to what they’re saying.
“Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o’erstep not the modesty of nature. ”
Hamlet is saying that a good performer has a sense of ease and a sense of form. She has high energy and low tension. Her gestures amplify and animate her words. There is no “standing at attention” or rigidity in her movements (she does not look like she has been coached.)
Nor are there distracting mannerisms–such as hands on hips, adjustments of the hair, or hands in pockets. Rather, the audience can sense that all the faculties of man–the intellect, imagination, emotion, and will–are working together within the speaker to create a powerful experience for the listener.
In a sense, Hamlet is encouraging his actors to use their voices to capture and keep attention on the content, while moderating the expressiveness of their physical presence. In Shakespeare’s time, and ours, excessive gesturing is a sign of intemperate speech, which, as I said above, will not win us many friends in the corporate boardrooms I’ve encountered.
So there you have it, presentation coaching from an unexpected source, and another reason to brush up on your Shakespeare–and your business presentation success!