One of the goals of any public speaker is to influence their audience to think or behave in a manner the other person would not have done otherwise. If you can do this, you’re lucky to gain power over others–increasing your speaking credibility.

There are at least three (3) things you need to remember if you wanna be powerful in your speeches. However, it should be noted that we avoid the following powerless languages:

Types of powerless language to avoid:

Hesitations

Language that makes the speaker sound unprepared or uncertain.

Intensifiers

Overemphasizing all aspects of the speech.

Disqualifiers

Attempts to downplay one’s qualifications and competence about a specific topic.

Tag Questions

A question added to the end of a phrase seeking the audience’s consent for what was said.

Self-Critical Statements

Downplaying one’s own abilities and making one’s lack of confidence public.

Hedges

Modifiers used to indicate that one isn’t completely sure of the statement just made.

Verbal Surrogates

Utterances used to fill space while speaking; filler words.

Types of powerful language:

Direct Requests

Asking the audience to engage in a specific behavior.

Bargaining

An agreement that affects both parties of a situation.

Ingratiation

Attempting to bring oneself into the favor or good graces of an audience.

Speech is a gift. Use it with power!