I’ve seen quite a few speakers talk about the value of silence and flagrantly violate their own advice. The most recent was Deepak Chopra, who I caught the tail end of on a PBS fund-raising session.

Like just about everyone else, Deepak needed to shut up for a few moments after saying, “practice silence,” but didn’t. Instead he gave a lecture about the importance of silence with hardly a pause. “You have to be silent to reconnect, recharge, to energize, to enlighten - silence is a profound act.” Not his exact words, but the fact he was using as many as he was is a problem.

Now I’m not suggesting that Deepak use sign-language throughout the “be silent, audience” part. But speakers should at least breath and let there be a few moments of silence. First so the audience can sink in the good advice and experience the power of silence and secondly so the speaker is in line with his principles.