by Michelle Davis
We included Katharine Hayhoe on our "Best Public Speakers" list because of her passionate delivery, strong eye contact, vocal variety, connection to the audience, and variety of intentional gestures.
Katharine is a Climate Scientist. She is also a Professor and an Endowed Chair in Public Policy and Public Law in the Texas Tech University Department of Political Science. In 2021, Hayhoe joined the Nature Conservancy as Chief Scientist.
We reviewed Katharine's Ted Talk titled "The most important thing you can do to fight climate change: talk about it". During this talk, she discusses how everyone can be a part of the solution to prevent climate change by opening up a dialogue about it. Hayhoe shows how the key to having a real discussion is to connect over shared values like family, community and religion -- and to prompt people to realize that they already care about a changing climate.
What are the main communication takeaways?
Variety of gestures: She uses the open palm to create connection, the pincer for precision/accuracy, and the steeple to shows confidence.
Locking and holding eye contact: Katharine uses strong and direct eye contact to engage her audience.
Connection with everyone in the room: She does a great job at relating a controversial topic to all that are listening and provides a call to action.
Passionate about the topic: It's clear that she cares about climate change and is an expert on this topic.
Vocal variety: She emphasizes important phrases to make them memorable.
How could she improve?
Slow down pace of speech: Katharine starts off with a quick pace which makes her trip up on some of her words. Slowing down and taking more pauses will help her sound less rushed.
Open up her gestures: She crosses her fingers and clenches her grip which can be perceived as stress or tension.
Use more of the stage: Katharine stays planted in one spot for the entire talk and it would have been beneficial for her to use the stage more.
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