This is part of a series on special delivery, answering a reader question from Spencer. Read the previous posts here:

Special Delivery Part 1: Universal Skills

Special Delivery Part 2: Specialized Skills

Special Delivery Part 3: The Four Core Delivery Skills

Special Delivery Part 4: Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses

Here’s where the real fun starts.

No matter where you are in your work on delivery, you should prioritize universal delivery skills. They are the easiest to fix and give you huge payoffs. Once you have a basic competence and aren’t getting negative comments about them, you can start to develop a specialized skill. First, remember the defining thing about a specialized skill:

It comes with tradeoffs.

Suppose you select passion because you personally care about your topic. In the first speech, you raise your voice; you pound the podium; you express the plight of orphans as forcefully as you can without exaggerating. The judge nods seriously. She’s on board with your passion; now she cares about the orphans, too.

With a minute left in your second speech, you pause for a few seconds of dramatic silence. You pull off your glasses, lean forward, and offer an impassioned plea to the judge in a voice barely above a whisper. The judge leans back toward you, spellbound, on the verge of tears. You’re right! She thinks. Someone has got to do something for these orphans, and that someone is me, by voting for you!

You did well to maximize your passion, but that did not come without some risky tradeoffs.

You didn’t exaggerate, but you presented the topic forcefully. You had to minimize nuance and dismiss details so the judge could buy whole-heartedly into an idea. That means your opponent may have more gravitas than you, which is okay. You aren’t focusing on gravitas. However, if you presented the argument too simplistically, the judge may think you don’t understand it, and you’ll lose credibility. That’s something you can’t afford.

You weren’t unpleasant, but you also didn’t crack jokes or defy conventions. The lives of orphans are at stake; this is no time for smiling! Your opponent may be more sympathetic than you. That’s okay, but make sure you’re not unlikeable. You shouldn’t be so upset that you become rude or harsh. In other words, push as hard as possible without risking the judge disliking you. Don’t forget:

Your passion built a wall between you and the judge.

Your eye contact is not bonding, you’re transferring an intensity. You’re making the judge uncomfortable in a controlled way. The judge sees the issue through you. That means your opponent may be have better rapport with the judge. That’s okay, as long as she doesn’t find you unrelatable. You shouldn’t be so passionate that you seem out of touch or crazy.

See the pattern here? The key is to pick a special delivery skill that suits the style and personality you already have, then maximize it, stopping just short of the point that a universal skill suffers.

Now we have the tools to discuss humor in rounds. That comes in the next post.