What is your speaker personality type?

Recognising your strengths and weaknesses is key to honing your public speaking skills, which is why it is helpful to understand your speaker personality type.

The Sage and the Jester

The Sage

Sage speakers excel at providing their audience with information presented in a logical and easy to follow format. They find it easy to deliver well researched arguments and are eager to ensure their audience leave with an enhanced understanding of the topic at hand. Sage speakers can find it difficult to display and/or provide emotional connections and are generally more comfortable referencing scientific data.

The Jester

Jester speakers have an inherent ability to entertain an audience. They will often tell stories that introduce a touch of humour to a topic, which can sometimes become a weakness if they rely too heavily on trying to get an audience to like them and neglect to pay enough attention to communicating an important or heartfelt message.

The Monarch and the Wizard

The Monarch

As this article notes, owning the room is a key part of successful public speaking and Monarch speakers have an undeniably commanding stage presence. They do need to be mindful that their dominance can sometimes create a sense of distance between them and their audience, but when they position themselves correctly their ability to communicate information in ways that meet the confidence needs of their audience are unparalleled.

The Wizard

Wizard speakers are persuasive and can change perspectives through engaging experiential storytelling. Establishing a close connection with their audience is essential however to avoid coming across as manipulative or shallow. They fundamentally understand what drives their audience and recognise how to speak to those needs in powerful ways.

The Muse and the Peacemaker

The Muse

Muse speakers are adept at using their unique energy to present their audience with new perspectives. If you are a muse, you are likely a powerful motivational speaker who, like Adventure Man https://www.adventureman.org/motivational-speaker/, is often described as inspirational. You feel comfortable posing big questions that leave your audience feeling full of potential and possibility, which might not be suitable for all speaking events.

The Peacemaker

Peacemaker speakers understand how to facilitate connections between members of their audience. They have a unique ability to ensure that everyone feels included and actively promote the positive aspects of collaboration. Demonstrating too much empathy can be detrimental to their overall message, so focusing keenly on driving change with their subject matter is key.

Summary

This article outlines six public speaking personality types. The Sage delivers logical, well-researched arguments, the Jester entertains through humour and storytelling, the Monarch commands the room with stage presence, the Wizard persuades through experiential storytelling, the Muse motivates with unique energy, and the Peacemaker excels at building connections across an audience.

Questions this article raises

• Can a speaker combine traits from more than one of these personality types?
• Which speaker type tends to be most effective for a sales pitch?
• How can a speaker identify which of these types they naturally are?