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This month's e-Newsletter highlights:
The Marketing Co-op's e-Newsletter is produced by Breeze Hill Publishing. This
month's edition is presented by: Featured
Columnist:
Speak from the Heart: Chapter 1 – The Personal Touch (part 1)
Have you ever tried to figure out why it's so hard to keep an audience (or even one other person) interested in what you say? If you stand back and objectively view any presentation, you can quite easily see how things go so wrong. The world of business and most professional situations are dominated by people speaking from every place other than their authentic self. Somewhere along the way they have come to believe that if they inundate people with enough facts, figures, stats, charts, and graphs their message will be too compelling, the logic too indisputable, to ignore. I remember waiting my turn to give a speech at a business conference in New York City. The five people before me gave extremely well rehearsed PowerPoint presentations. The lights were down; the bells and whistles were going off; the speakers were clicking their slides along in perfect synchronization one to the next. After an hour or so of this, it was my turn. I got up and said, "I have to apologize for not coming prepared with a PowerPoint presentation for you." The audience cheered, applauding wildly. They were thrilled that someone was going to turn on the lights, look at their faces, and talk with them rather than at them. My presentation focused on communication competence and connecting with people in a low-tech, conversational way. I spoke what I believed. I tried to talk with conviction from a place rooted in strong feelings. I told them about the mistakes I've made as a communicator and the ways I was trying to improve. I used real-life examples and anecdotes to support and explain my main point. I told them about my own communication challenge of trying to become a better listener. The audience stayed with me; they asked good questions; I asked them questions; we were engaging each other. No one, that I could see, dozed off. The "magic" in that style of communicating compared to the others was simply this: my effort to make a personal connection with the audience. I certainly don't own the patent on this idea. There have been far more powerful speakers since the beginning of humankind who, with mere words, could inspire people to move mountains. Consider great communicators like Jesus or Gandhi, who through their powerful lessons about the nature of right and wrong moved people to change their lives. Consider Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who changed the course of history with his forceful words of conviction. (Can you imagine Dr. King giving his "I Have a Dream" speech in PowerPoint?) Unfortunately, the ability to touch people with words is becoming a lost art. In an age in which we are overwhelmed with information, data, and technical wizardry, our society is hungry for people to speak to us in a human, personal way. That's exactly why Oprah Winfrey is so successful. Every day she communicates a sense of genuine caring by empathizing with her guests and audience. Her tremendous skill as a communicator allows her to engage in a personal heart-to-heart conversation with them. She is living proof that audiences are quick to appreciate the spoken word that is not written by a professional speechwriter or advertising jargon master, that is not dependent on the bells and whistles of high-tech, audiovisual support, and that is not crafted to sound good in a fifteen-second media sound bite. I recently experienced this effect as a member of the audience myself at my son's graduation from second grade (no caps and gowns here, but our educational system now moves him into a middle school). I sat back at this graduation ceremony expecting the usual little speeches that say, "We're so proud of your children....They have all worked so hard....We will miss them and wish them good luck." But I was soon surprised. Judith Conk, the superintendent of the school system, touched each one of the several hundred parents that day in a way none of us will soon forget. She told us that her own children were in their twenties and that she sometimes has a hard time remembering what each one was like in the second grade. She then asked us to take a moment to look at our children on the stage -- not through the lens of a video camera, but from our deepest selves -- and to burn that picture into our memory so that when the years flew by, we would always have that mental picture to cherish. She spoke to us without notes in a very personal, human way. Although I no longer recall the other speeches given that day, her words are forever etched in my memory. Not all speakers know how to do this -- or are even willing to try. During that same week, I watched a political candidate who had just won a hotly contested primary election for major public office illustrate a more common and flawed style of speech making. As he read his carefully prepared acceptance speech, he kept losing his place when the audience interrupted him with applause. He would then fumble along searching frantically for his next words. He had no idea what he really wanted to say to these thousands of enthusiastic supporters. He didn't realize that they didn't want to hear a "canned" speech -- they simply wanted him to look into their eyes and tell them how he felt at this very special moment. He failed to capitalize on the opportunity that their enthusiasm offered to really connect and create a memorable and meaningful exchange. I'll wager that not one of the millions who heard the candidate's speech live and on TV could tell me today a single detail of that message, but that not one parent will ever forget the message he or she received from Judith Conk at that graduation. From SPEAK FROM THE HEART by Steve Adubuto. Copyright (c) 2002 by Steve Adubuto. Published by arrangement with The Free Press, a division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., NY. Click here to return to the top of the page Member
Spotlight:
Dr. Murphy serves as a leadership coach. He works with leaders, managers, and management teams to develop high performance capabilities. He has extensive experience coaching a range of individuals including high talent individuals, middle managers and executives in some of the country's most prominent organizations. His coaching approach begins with extensive assessment and continues with the development of the individual's personal awareness and interpersonal competence. His unique approach also provides each individual with the opportunity to learn and master practices in leading high productivity organizations and work groups. The approach emphasizes an individual development plan that is fitted to support each organization's leadership needs. Included in each of those plans, Dr. Murphy stresses the importance of personal contact with team members and a personal approach to leadership development which he firmly believes results in competencies that enable leaders to manage and to create work environments conducive to high productivity and motivation. Dr. Murphy is currently an instructor in the graduate program at the Fox School of Business and Management at Temple University. He teaches courses related to strategic management of human resources and leadership development. He also conducts workshops related to leadership for corporate, nonprofit and educational institutions. Click here to return to the top of the page
Artist Spotlight
Much in the same vain that photographer Ansel Adams has entrusted the beauty of the globe to his viewers, Stahl strives to communicate the essence of the natural world. While doing so, she hopes to impress upon her audience the need to take care of the natural surroundings, preserving them, seeing them in an entirely new light. Stahl presents her landscapes abstractly rather than re-creating them. By presenting their essence, she allows for people to develop their own connotations of the theme at hand. Stahl wishes to inspire her audience and encourages them to take action and regard their habitat with respect and wonderment. Her art is featured on The Marketing Co-op’s August Artistic Impressions postcard. More about Anne Stahl, her paintings and artistic experience can be found at www.annestahl.com. Click here to return to the top of the page Click here to return to the main Newsletter Archive page to access other newsletter issues. |
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