You've spent half of the night rehearsing in front of your close friends, and spent the other half trying to draw mental images on how the audience will receive your first speech, and how their eyes will sparkle for the powerful response you are going to stir in their hearts and their minds. Now you are trying to catch your breath while climbing the few steps to the podium where you are going to deliver this five-minute speech, and just before you start, you looked at the few-hundred audience, glanced your papers, and reckoned an article you've read few weeks or months earlier that helped you to prepare and deliver this “charismatic speech”. It’s the article you are reading now!
Preparing and delivering an impressive speech that inspires the audience and sticks in their memories for long, is vital in many personal and professional life events, such as a graduation party, a marriage ceremony, a sports team gathering before a final match, an introduction of a new product to a sales group, a presentation of a major change to a department or team, or an introduction of a new leader, and so on.
You probably have attended several seminars, read a dozen of articles, or viewed lots of webcasts on delivering an effective presentation. You probably also have practiced and perfected it, as part of your job requirements. But what you must know is that delivering a charismatic speech differs greatly from delivering an effective presentation, in both the purpose and the means of each. In this article, I will be sharing with you the main guidelines that help you figure out what it takes to write and deliver a charismatic speech that leaves your audience dazzled. But just before that, let’s try to understand first, what we mean by the word “Charisma”, and how -if ever possible- to become more charismatic:
1. At first, what is “Charisma” anyway?One useful way is to define “Charisma” as the ability to trigger a strong positive emotional response in others. As Max Weber, the German sociologist explained, charismatic authority rests at least on one of three factors: devotion to an exceptional sanctity, heroism, or exemplary character of the person. If you are neither a religious leader nor a hero, then all you can have access to, is only the third source of charisma, which is your character and your personal appeal. There are six areas here which you can take care of: 1) getting and paying attention while communicating, 2) expressing the meaning of your ideas effectively, 3) instilling trust by following through on promises and taking clear positions on issues, 4) caring for people’s welfare, their feelings, and your own self-regard, 5) taking calculated risks in pursuing things you believe in, and 6) tapping into the feelings of others, and making their work/contribution more meaningful for them.
Having defined charisma, and what constitutes it, we now turn to see the main elements of the charismatic speech, and attempt to crack what leaders like Gamal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat, Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, and Barack Obama, were doing in order to be able to truly inspire their people whenever they addressed them with a speech.
2. The style of your speech1. Use simple language that the audience will understand. Use active verbs. Use colorful and vivid words. Use innovative symbols and slogans. Make sure that you get to your point quickly.      
2. Avoid using clichés.
3. Logically organize your speech, with clear transitions between ideas.
4. Drive analogies and tell brief stories and metaphors, to convey your meaning in a concrete way, simplify the complex, flame the imagination of the audience, and create the desired emotional reactions in them.
5. Employ “framing” techniques effectively to emphasize values and beliefs and to bring out the importance of the core ideas of the topic. Framing means selecting a framework for the message. For example, the two statements “our company goal is to build communication devices,” and “our company goal is to connect human beings to one another” deliver the same basic message with very different frames.  The book “Mind-Lines, Lines For Changing Minds” by L. Michael Hall and Bobby G. Bodenhamer is a practical resource that can help you master the art of framing.
6. Repeat the key message through various words, phrases, or sentence structures to emphasize its importance. Watch how Martin Luther King awesomely did this in his historic speech: “I Have a Dream”.
7. Use Alliteration, which is the repetition of initial consonants sounds (e.g., mighty mountains of Montana) which provide a pleasing rhythm to the speech and has a lovable musical effect in the ears of the audience.
3. The content of your speech1. Establish the need for change. Particularly, at turning moments in the lives of people and organizations, the audience will be usually anticipating to hear something that clearly sets the scene for a change in goals, directions, way of doing things, etc. After all, challenging the status quo for the good of one’s self and the group is a virtue of effective and charismatic people.
2. Describe a vision of the desired future situation that highly appeals to people's hopes for something better. A carefully articulated vision acts as a “true north” that guides people’s actions and behaviors.
3. Present a promising, innovative strategy (route) for attaining the vision in general terms, without too much detail. Keep in mind that it’s the route or way for fulfilling the vision that distinguishes truly visionary people from mere day dreamers.
4. Talk about the challenges that come across the way of achieving the vision, and the need for dedication, courage, persistence, creativity, and possibly self-sacrifice. Maintain a realistic outlook so that audience will regard you as being credible.
5. Express optimism that the vision will be attained, despite the obstacles. At the end, there is no motive for people to positively respond to your speech or to support you, unless they believe you can do what you say you are going to do.
4. The audience and the environment of your speech1. Find out as much as you can about your audience before you write your speech
2. Learn everything you can about the room, the other speakers, the time of day you will speak and the availability of logistical resources to boost your speech.
3. If you will be reading your speech from a paper, write it in a font big enough for you to comfortably and quickly read it from a distance.
5. The speaker - yourself1. Realize that the ability to speak in public is not innate. It is a skill that you can learn.
2. See speeches of great speakers to learn how they deliver them. You may refer to http://www.americanrhetoric.com for hundreds of video, audio, and text speeches of influential leaders.
3. Practice your speech, read it silently and then out loud. Tape-record it and play it back at least once a day, visualize yourself delivering it as you listen. Encourage yourself.
4. At the time of the speech, if you are nervous, breathe deeply to relax your body, mind and vocal cords.
5. Never forget that the nonverbal messages you transmit need to be consistent with and supporting to your spoken words.  For example, your voice tone, inflection, and pauses, and other non-verbal cues (e.g., posture, gestures, arm and hand movements, and facial expressions) can be used to amplify the intended meaning.
6. Remember that as you practice speech writing and delivery, your other communication skills will also improve.