2021 Insights of an Executive Speech Coach

Many of us expected to be doing more IRL speaking engagements and I, for one, am used to being on stage helping groups of the Pro90d community connect and engage, however 2021 was a more subdued year with hybrid work favored over IRL events. This has proven more and more challenging for our students who are in high power sales and management positions, because so much of how they communicate is in real life, and not via screens and phones.

The first topic we are going to cover in these insights is overcoming anxiety and speaking clearly on phone calls, without visuals. Sure you have Zoom, and for some students, this is worse, but for others, the phone calls are incredibly challenging. Sufferers from speech disfluency suffer gravely without the aid of body language and being able to read the cues their audience give. When I am coaching a student to perform better on phone calls, which is just one of the things we go over at Pro90d, I treat the entire process and person.

What are some of the issues that an executive speech coach looks out for when helping coach for phone calls? Well, picture yourself speaking without any clues as to your audience comprehension. You will need to listen extra carefully to try to guess whether they understand you and if you already have issues with speaking too fast, or mumbling, stuttering, or other disfluencies, you might be too nervous projecting how your audience is thinking about you, to actually pay attention to how you sound.

Pro90d executive speech coaching has core exercises that instill confidence speaking under any circumstances, and shockingly, I find in 2021 that the Pro90d community of students is just as helpful as my coaching 1:1. The practice speaking within groups on my monthly calls and to each other about their experience speaking, makes them more effective speakers. So the Pro90d community is part of the cure.

The second area of 2021 Insights are felt by those in management, who are in the position to have difficult conversations. Delivering hard news and feedback is a trigger for speech disfluency. Why? Emotions play a big role in speech and vocal delivery. As we are nervous to deliver hard news, we are not focusing on speaking clearly or smoothly. I find my clients project their emotions on a conversation long before it even takes place, and it is a self fulfilling prophecy that the conversation is more difficult than it needs to be.

The second area of 2021 Insights are felt by those in management, who are in the position to have difficult conversations. Delivering hard news and feedback is a trigger for speech disfluency. Why? Emotions play a big role in speech and vocal delivery. As we are nervous to deliver hard news, we are not focusing on speaking clearly or smoothly. I find my clients project their emotions on a conversation long before it even takes place, and it is a self fulfilling prophecy that the conversation is more difficult than it needs to be.

If you are in sales or management positions that require tough conversations or you struggle with phone calls, we can help. The past year may have felt like an uphill battle with overcoming speech disfluency without IRL interactions, but we, at Pro90d, offer not only executive speech coaching but a community to support your speech. Contact us today to get started.

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Executive Speech Coaching