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Not only is her public speaking enviable, her style is on point, too. (Source)
Unlike former POTUS Barack Obama and computer giant Steve Jobs, there's slightly less of a chance that you've heard of or about our final impressive speech giver. But that could all change at any point in time, given the nature of information-spreading these days.
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a novelist and short story writer from Nigeria. Remember how we talked about those non-political types getting in on the awesome public speaking game? Well, Adichie is a prime player. She can eloquently express her thoughts and convey ideas both in written and spoken ways; that's not an easy task, since many people are highly skilled in one of the two forums, but not both.
As you may be able to assume, Adichie's work—not unlike Martin Luther King's—is highly political in nature, because of the topics she focuses on in her speeches and stories. Not only has she written and spoken at length about the Nigerian Civil War, she focuses a lot of content on the relationships between men and women and could certainly be considered a feminist writer.
Oh yeah—and did we mention that the speech you're going to watch her give is one of the top most viewed TED talks ever? At the time we wrote this very sentence, it'd been viewed almost 13 million times.
That's a lot.
We've only got the best for you. And since we like to close out on a strong, positive note, we're utterly convinced that Adichie is just the speaker to make that happen for all of us.
WHO'S THAT LADY?
As we mentioned, Adichie may be unfamiliar to you. So, unlike with Obama and Jobs (who are, um, fairly prominent American figures) we're going to start with a little background on her.
Read "Biography" from the official Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie website to gain a better picture of who this woman is and what she stands for. You'll find out a bit about her
family
education
and her notable work and honors/awards she's received for it.
This will give you some context prior to watching her amazingly popular TED talk.
"THE DANGER OF A SINGLE STORY"
As we finish out our unit on delivering a great speech, think about how far we've come and all the varied elements we've learned about and studied, like the following:
There are best times and places to use the four primary delivery methods—manuscript, memorized, impromptu, extemporaneous.
The physical space in which you're speaking plays a huge role in the overall success of a presentation.
Mistakes happen to everyone; learn to roll with them and let go of perfectionist notions.
Pacing and rhythm of a speech are crucial in capturing and keeping an audience riveted.
Audience involvement is an essential part of a modern speech.
Technology is your audience involvement friend.
Don't fear the Q&A: stay in control and retain your power.
Scott Berkun. Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie are all leaders in the public speaking world from whom you can learn a lot—but don't stop there. Keep developing your own comfortable place in the world of public speaking and you'll likely surpass even your own expectations.
To close out, consider all of this information as you watch our final speaker do her thing.
Without further ado, let's watch Adichie in action with "Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: The danger of a single story."
Good stuff, right? You've watched various examples from great speakers, and read loads about how to get your own speech delivery down to a science. We feel pretty comfy letting you take it from here.
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