Agree or disagree with Barack Obama’s policies, there’s no denying he’s an effective speaker. Tuesday’s (January 24th) “State Of The Union” showed, again, that Obama knows how to deliver a message. As in anything, we can get better at communication skills by watching people who have mastered them. Let’s break down some of the techniques the President used as he addressed the nation. We’re not concerned with content, only with delivery, and will focus on three broad areas: demeanor, mechanics, and techniques.
Demeanor: Obama was calm and relaxed as he entered the Chamber of the House of Representatives. As he smiled and shook hands on his way to the podium, he looked comfortable and in control. Optimism was the theme of the day and it was carried through the entire event, from beginning to end. Of course, you don’t get to be President without confidence, and Obama certainly seemed to exude poise and self-assurance. He did stumble a few times in his delivery; but, over the course of an hour, one can expect that. Mostly, his delivery was smooth and assured.
Mechanics: The President has mastered the mechanics of public speaking. He showed solid “technique” in his use of gestures, eye contact and stage presence. His vocal skills were good; pitch and rate of speed. I also thought he made good use of the technique of highlighting a point by pausing and using a LOWER tone of voice. Most often we tend to “crescendo” a particularly important passage in a speech. Obama talked at such a high energy level that taking it even higher would have been harsh. Instead, when he wanted to emphasize a point” he often used the “spoken whisper” as a highlight. It worked. I thought, as a mater of speech mechanics, that he reached his high energy level too quickly. Sustaining that energy tires an audience. But, Obama managed to hold the energy up; in part by effective pausing, giving us all a chance to rest.
Techniques: The president’s speech was an interesting construction. The “introductory” portion was long. But, once in, the President did what all speakers should: tell us what you’re going to tell us, tell us, then tell us what you told us. He also used a repetitive “theme statement” when he spoke, often, of an economy or America “built to last.” He made frequent use of alliteration. He never used that tool boldly, but often in more subtle ways. For example, when talking of tax breaks for energy companies he said the tax breaks were going most heavily to companies that “had never been more profitable” instead of those “that had never been more promising.” Of course, the President made frequent use of the story. He told the stories of people who had overcome unemployment by making use of a government/private partnership. He had these people in the audience and directed us to see them; to put a face on his message.
There were, in my opinion, some flaws. I was a little surprised he didn’t use bigger, grander stories. But I can appreciate his choices. The President tried to use humor; talking about a regulation that inadvertently equated milk with oil, requiring dairy farmers to submit a plan to clean up a spill and quipping, here there was good reason to “cry over spilled milk.” Obama is not Letterman, and though I applaud the effort, it was only fair at best. I was a bit disappointed that, for me at least, the President did not spell out a clear over-arching vision. But he did carry through the twin themes of optimism and “built to last” and that seemed to be enough.
There is no doubt the President is a skilled and very effective communicator; and I will leave you with one thought on something I thought the President did particularly well. He tried very hard, and I think he succeeded spectacularly, in identifying with large segments of his audience. Several times he spoke of national concerns and expressed his own frustrations. He essentially said, for example, that: you’re mad at Wall Street, and so am I…you think Washington is broken and so do I…you want the bickering to stop and so do I. In my opinion, his attempt to make common cause with broad groups and prevailing national opinion was his single biggest accomplishment of the night.
The State Of The Union was a solid performance. We’d all do well to take bits of the Presidents techniques and incorporate them into our own presentations.