Speech of the Month, December 2022 - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

I find the Reith Lectures a bit like cherry blossom and Wimbledon; you forget about them until they’re upon you and then you’re mighty glad they exist. This year’s four lectures were illuminating and thought-provoking and it’s the speaker of the first lecture, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, whose style I’ll be analysing in this post.

I was unable to find a video of her full speech but if you take a look at the clip below, you’ll sample her speaking style adequately. 

Ngozi Adichie is becoming as known for her public speaking as she is for her writing, and yet she’s not what we expect from a great speaker in the 21st century: she doesn’t move about the stage; she doesn’t share too much of her ‘truth’ and emote as she does; she doesn’t try to make her audience laugh; she doesn’t bother with slogans or sound-bites or interesting visuals but she remains a powerful and captivating communicator. 

Here are the Ngozi Adichie hallmarks as I see them:

She’s not embarrassed about reading her speech

Ngozi Adichie reads her lecture. Now you might be thinking, ‘But most lectures are read,’ and while that’s true it’s also true that when it comes to other speaking gigs, Ngozi Adichie still reads her speech. She doesn't feel the pressure to pretend she's speaking off the cuff. And why not? If you've taken the time to really think what you want to get across and you’re happy with your script, then why not read it aloud and ensure the audience hears exactly what you want it to? 

She makes her reading work because of the smooth pace and the pauses that she leaves at the ends of phrases. It’s during those pauses that we absorb what she’s said and are then ready for more. Some speakers can feel very uncomfortable during that pause, but they shouldn’t. Just wait it out.

As she’s reading she’s always coming up from the page and making eye-contact with her audience. This is crucial if you’re going to read a speech or just part of a speech. An audience doesn’t want to be read to, it wants to be addressed; strong and frequent eye-contact is the bridge that turns a reading into an address. 

She’s completely herself

In a world where the Obamas and Ted Talks exist it could be easy to look at those whose public speaking is lauded and decide that that’s the bar; they’re who you should emulate. But why do that? Who wants to be the poor-woman’s Oprah? Far better to be clear about your strengths and honest about your limitations and work around them. So Ngozi Adichie steers clear of animation and humour (something that other speakers pull off with aplomb) but she doubles-down on presence and purpose and cracking outfits. 

That said, I thought her hair-do during the lecture was a mistake. She might have liked it and been comfortable with it but it meant we couldn’t see her face – the emotional organ.

She appears completely calm

I never fail to be mesmerised by Ngozi Adichie’s self-possession. She appears so calm and confident and in control. You can’t imagine her dashing to the loo a minute before she’s due to go on because nerves have got the better of her. But is she really calm or just acting calm? 

Of course, actually really feeling calm is the dream and I once had a client who had had a big problem with anxiety before speaking turn a corner. When I asked her what had changed, why she no longer feared facing an audience she said, “Because I realised I could choose to be calm. In the past I’ve been indulging my nerves. Allowing them to take over me and then catastrophise, but now I turn down their invite to bring havoc to my world.”

I’m sharing this with you because this mental shift; this knowledge that you can choose to be calm or terrified made a huge difference to her, not just her presenting but her life. And it’s a lesson that’s benefited me too. Well, ‘if you become a teacher, through your pupils you’ll be taught.’