DR. MICHAEL GERHARZ
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Posts in Tag: Effort

It’s called giving a speech – but do you actually give it?

It’s called giving a speech, but for many, a speech is about taking. Taking the audience’s time and attention, their money, their vote.

These people give a presentation so they can take something.

But what if you considered your speech a gift? Your presentation a present? Here! I made this for you. It’s yours to keep.

What would make that gift a precious one? Not one of those cheap giveaways that we brought when we were at the grocery store, anyway. Or one of those leftovers from the last party. But a real gift that we invested empathy in. That took us time to make. That required to dig deep to find a message that our audience needed but would never have thought of themselves.

What would make it more beautiful? What would make them smile? Or speechless?

Let’s take it even a step further: If we just offered it as a gift and left the decision to take it to the audience, don’t you think they would want to take it? Don’t you think they would value your partnership?

The shift is this: Instead of giving just enough so that our audience gives us something back, we invest so much that we become an invaluable partner for them.

Either you care or you don’t

Either you care or you don’t, there’s no in-between. And if you care, then go all of the way. – Stanley Kubrick

Almost compelling is another way of saying “not compelling”. Almost sold means not sold. Almost inspired is not inspired.

If we aren’t willing to go all of the way, then we don’t actually care, according to Stanley Kubrick: either we want people to get it or not. Either we want to inspire or not. Either we want to sell or not.

Keep in mind, though, that the crucial word here is “not”. By saying “not important” to most destinations it becomes feasible to say “important” to the right ones and mean it. Dismissing the paths you’re not willing to go ’til the end allows us to follow the right path to its end and invest the effort that is necessary to reach our goal.

(Interestingly, your audience will often sense it when you are not willing to go all of the way.)

Someone’s got to suffer

The journalist and language teacher Wolf Schneider famously said: “Someone’s got to suffer, the writer or the reader.”

The same is true for speakers and audiences.

Either we let our audience do the hard work of understanding. Of getting the point. Of looking for what we mean.

Or we do the hard work to make it easy for our audience to understand. To get the point. To see and feel what we mean.

The good news is that as a communicator you get to choose.

Yet, depending on your choice it means that we need to go the extra mile to think and re-think of ways to come up with better metaphors, visualizations, and stories. With easier words and ways to interact with our audience. It means that we need to invest the time to practice until our story works. But it also means that it’s so much more likely to resonate with our audience.

How do you choose?

The long valley of hard work and despair

“The Dip” is what Seth Godin calls that long valley of hard work and despair that you have to get through before being able to achieve anything of significance and remark-ability.

When faced with the dip, Godin says that

“The most common response to the Dip is to play it safe. To do ordinary work, blameless work, work that’s beyond reproach. When faced with the Dip, most people suck it up and try to average their way to success.”

When was the last time you aimed high with your speech? When was the last time that you tried to come up with something that’s actually amazing? And with amazing I don’t mean “looks good” but to take your audience to places they haven’t been before.

It requires us to do work that feels scary. To say words that people might not like. To step up even when we feel like others might repel us. To be vulnerable to speak about the things we truly care about. To be courageous to come up with new ways of looking at things.

It might feel scary. It might be hard work. But it’s also worth it.

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