Photo by Eyngin Akyurt
Link to article | Number of words: 396 | Reading time: 3 minutes
According to motivational speaker Peter Dhu, pursuit of perfection in your public speaking can have adverse effects. Dhu writes that the core element of perfectionism is fear: an excessive fear of making mistakes and concern those mistakes might make you less successful. This fear can be distracting and debilitating.
Instead, Dhu urges speakers to focus on being honest, authentic, and genuine with their listeners. This emphasis also avoids another side effect of perfectionism in public speaking: "paralysis by analysis" - never actually delivering the speech you've been planning and hoping as you overthink it and imagine all the things that could go wrong.
Dhu suggests shaking up the traditional "Ready, Aim, Fire" approach to counter the perfectionist tendency to endlessly "aim" but never "fire."
A more effective model, Dhu writes, would be "Ready, Fire, Aim"; prepare, do the speech, and then get feedback afterwards. It's important to embrace uncertainty. Just do it - and then do it even better next time.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
In addition to the fear Dhu describes, pursuing so-called perfection for your speech puts an enormous amount of pressure on you as you craft, practice, and deliver your speech.
It's not healthy.
And it can be exhausting, too.
Caught in an endless loop of writing and re-writing, searching for just the "right" words?
Free yourself by remembering this:
We often don't know how every portion of our speech is going to land with listeners - we may get a big laugh at a reference we considered merely an aside, for example, or little reaction to a point we thought would be an "Aha" moment.
At a certain point, we can't refine our speech on our own - we have to let the audience help us based on its reactions to our content.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
Internalizing the idea that no speech is "perfect" also will help you pivot more smoothly when the unexpected happens when you deliver it: an audience member's phone goes off; the Powerpoint glitches; your allotted speaking time gets trimmed right before you you're ready to deliver your talk.
Try not to be rigid in your perception of exactly how your presentation is going to go.
Thoroughly prepare - yes. Once you've mastered the content, make a list of bullet points for your speech and refer to them, rather than reading from the full text in an effort to get every word "perfectly".
Apply a flexible mindset so you're not derailed in your delivery if the unexpected pops up.
What do you think about this approach?
Have you used some of these elements? How did it feel?
Let me know, and I'll share your comments in a future One for the Week.
Fill in your contact information to receive newsletters like this once per week.
Photo by Christina Morillo
Nolan Zandan, founder of Quantified Communications, and his team of data scientists examined the effectiveness of more than 100,000 presentations from corporate executives, politicians, and keynote speakers.
Zandan's team built on work by psychologist Albert Mehrabian, expanding upon Mehrabian’s original “Three V’s” — the verbal, vocal, and visual choices that a communicator makes — by adding a fourth V: the vital elements of communication.
The 4 Vs of high-impact communication are: (1) verbal (2) vocal (3) visual, and (4) vitals.
Fill in your contact information to receive newsletters like this once per week.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
The 4 points above are a proven, efficient checklist for improving your public speaking.
Backed by data science AND thousands of years of experience dating to orators of ancient Greece and Rome, these elements - when combined - provide a holistic approach to communication.
All 4 categories foster CONNECTION with your audience: using familiar words your listeners know (Verbal); varying your tone and using visuals that keep the audience paying attention to you and your presentation (Vocal, Visual), and demonstrating to your listeners you're genuinely interested in talking to them (Vitals).
When you CONNECT with listeners, they'll reflexively be more attentive, tuned in, and interested in CONNECTING with you and your communication. Everyone's a winner!
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
Next time you're preparing an oral communication, think about how you'll incorporate these 4 elements.
Practicing your content and delivery until you're confident you've mastered both will enable you to maximize the 4th element, Vitals.
You won't need to devote much of your brain's "processing power" to remembering WHAT you're going to say; instead, you'll be able to more fully express the energy and passion you have for your topic, triggering your audience's reflexive reaction to feel similarly about you and your talk.
You'll find yourself in that magical state of "flow".
In this context, flow is your seemingly effortless movement through your presentation - you're expressing yourself exactly how you want to, your enthusiasm radiates outward to listeners, and they react the way you'd hoped.
What do you think about these 4 elements?
Have you used some/or all of them? What kinds of reactions did they trigger from listeners?
Let me know, and I'll share your comments in a future One for the Week.
Hi!
In this TEDxBoston talk, Wall Street Journal best-selling author and business school professor Dorie Clark talks about a fundamental challenge facing many of us:
Wanting to be less busy, with more time to reflect and enjoy life, while, at the same time, making choices that put ourselves in the position where we’re just as busy as we’ve always been.
How to overcome this challenge and get the life - personally and professionally - we want?
Dorie discusses some of the major root causes of this exhausting loop - and how we can address them to live a more fulfilling, less stressed-out life.
Link to the article (including transcript) and Key Take-Aways and Editorial Comments below. Add your own views on the article in Your Turn - I'll include them in a future newsletter.
Now...your One for the Week!
Video | 8 minutes | Link
There are 3 main reasons our lives are filled with a busyness that can wear us down and make us unhappy:
1) There's status associated with being busy. As Dorie explains, when we say, “Oh, I'm so crazy busy,” what we’re really saying is a socially-accepted version of “I am so important - “I am so popular! I am so in demand!” That feeling can be hard to give up, even if we say we want to.
2) The uncertainty of modern life keeps us scrambling to keep up. Sometimes we're given tasks or challenges, and we may not know how to accomplish them. There's a tendency to just double down and keep doing more of what we've always done - just to address the uncertainty, even if that's unlikely to actually overcome the challenge.
3) We're trying to avoid uncomfortable feelings, and busyness helps us numb them. When we're busy, we may be seeking ways to occupy ourselves so we don't have to think about what's bothering us.
We can make a change. It starts with getting real and acknowledging what's actually underneath some of the busyness filling our days. We have to really get honest about what it is that’s motivating us so that we can make a different choice. Ultimately, real freedom is about choosing how and with whom we want to be spending our time.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
A focus on choice, trade-offs, and what we need to be happy is a good place to start in the effort to regain freedom over our time.
What do we truly need to feel good about the life we're leading?
How much of what we're doing is to fulfill expectations others have for us?
A strategy to help answer these questions is to ask yourself: "A year from now, will this make a difference?" or "Is my effort enough to produce an acceptable result, even if it's not perfect?"
Periods of intense work can be unavoidable. But when we find ourselves in a constant busyness that wears us down, controls our time, and routinely crowds out activities we enjoy, stop and ask yourself: "Is it worth it?"
What do you think? Any stories or suggestions from your own experience?
Let me know, and I'll share your comments in a future One for the Week.
Hi!
There's an ocean of advice - and 951,000,000 results from Google - on how to be a better communicator.
But there's 1 fundamental element of effective communication often left out of how-to's.
And it's the essential foundation supporting everything else:
Clarity.
You may think you've clearly explained, described, directed, or requested - but do your receivers understand what you're aiming to share with them? And does your "communication culture" enable everyone to feel comfortable asking for clarification?
This post with 8 communication tips from Harvard's Division of Continuing Education rightfully leads with the need to be clear and concise. You likely will recognize - and already may regularly use - some of the other recommendations in the post.
But we tend to gloss over the need to deliver our message with deliberate and premeditated clarity - in an atmosphere hospitable to follow-up questions to guarantee understanding.
Link to the entire post and Key Take-Aways and Editorial Comments below. Add your own views on the article in Your Turn - I'll include them in a future newsletter.
Now...your One for the Week!
Article | 1400 Words | 10 minutes | Link
Start by thinking through, in advance, the clearest and most concise ways to deliver your message. It takes planning.
If communicating information in person, remember your tone, expression, and other non-verbal cues can be just as important - and potentially more impactful - than what you say.
Remember communication is a two-way street; it's not dictation.
Ask questions with authenticity - it can help uncover areas of confusion, resistance, and support, all of which are vital for understanding and addressing when moving to the next phase: the specific action you may want to trigger with your communication
We can make a change. It starts with getting real and acknowledging what's actually underneath some of the busyness filling our days. We have to really get honest about what it is that’s motivating us so that we can make a different choice. Ultimately, real freedom is about choosing how and with whom we want to be spending our time.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
Communication starts with clarity.
We may overlook its primacy because we assume the intent of our communication is clear and easily identified and understood by receivers of the information.
But this can be a dangerous assumption.
As you're developing your message, try to adopt a so-called "beginner's mindset", approaching the topic as someone unfamiliar with it.
And remember: brevity is a clarity enabler.
The more words, the longer sentences, the more likely you're going to lose some of your listeners.
"I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter." This is one of my favorite quotes, and it's attributed to 17th century French mathematician Blaise Pascal.
It's not easy being brief.
Make sure you allot enough time to craft your messages so they hit the mark.
What do you think? Any stories or suggestions from your own experience?
Let me know, and I'll share your comments in a future One for the Week.
Hi!
What if you could ethically and effectively deepen your impact by making small adjustments to the way you communicate in writing?
In fact, a few easy-to-implement techniques actually can produce significant, positive results in your career through improved writing.
This article by Brian Clark, founder of copyblogger, a company teaching people since 2006 how to deliver valuable information that attracts interest and attention, outlines 10 specific and small ways you can inspire the people around you while authentically gaining support for your initiatives.
Link to the article and Key Take-Aways and Editorial Comments below. Add your own views on the article in Your Turn - I'll include them in a future newsletter.
Now...your One for the Week!
Article | 1369 Words | 10 minutes | Link
Persuasive writing is generally an exercise in creating a win-win situation. You present a case that others find beneficial to agree with.
Even the most innovative, high-impact ideas or programs can fail to attract support if they aren't presented in a way that engages readers.
Learning how to write persuasively not only attracts people to your content, it also keeps them interested in your message.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
The principles in this article - Repetition, Consistency, Social Proof, for example - are rhetorical tools used for thousands of years to engage and interest readers and listeners.
The tools are believed to date from the 4th century B.C.E., when the Greek philosopher Aristotle defined "rhetoric" as the art of persuading on any subject.
2,400 years seems like a long time ago, but from a brain development perspective, it's merely the blink of an eye. Our brains still process information in much the same ways they did back in Aristotle's time.
That's why these rhetorical tools are just as impactful as they were when Aristotle developed and used them.
It's not about trickery or manipulation. It's about conveying accurate information in a way that resonates with your reader and meets his/her/their needs.
The next time you're getting ready to send an email, address a group, or talk to a work colleague, remember these tools and think about how you can apply them.
You may be pleasantly surprised by the positive differences in how you're received.
What do you think? Any stories or suggestions from your own experience?
Let me know, and I'll share your comments in a future One for the Week.
Mark Bayer served as a Chief of Staff in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives during a 20-year career as a Congressional staff member. He's worked as a management consultant at PwC and co-founded a non-profit organization for disadvantaged youth.
Mark now teaches scientists, engineers, and executives how to advance their priorities with key decision makers using the RISE|System™️, a unique methodology incorporating proven strategic communication and influence-building principles crafted during two decades of work in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
