Episode #273: Persuasion Power Eats Everything For Breakfast

Persuasion Power Eats Everything For Breakfast

Intuitively, we know that people who can command an audience, energise teams, excite customers and secure decisions through their persuasion power are successful individuals. Did they gain persuasion power because they were successful or did they become successful through their persuasion power. We know it is the latter. Given we all know this, then why are so few business people successful as speakers. I attended a chamber of commerce AGM, which just shocked me. It hadn’t dawned on me that as part of the proceedings those aspiring for a position on the Board, had to get up and say why they should be selected. When I realised this prospect was looming, I thought to myself, “this will be interesting”. There were some very serious corporations’ very serious heavy hitters assembled to joust for seats on the Committee.

No Free Pass for Corporate Captains Of Industry

What a revelation. Almost none of them could string a five minute talk together extolling their own virtues. I was wondering how on earth they were allowed to represent their brands with such an underwhelming facility in persuasion power? Why didn’t their companies invest in making them presentation and promotion advocates advancing the brand’s credibility. As often happens though, they didn’t get the training, they just got the responsibility for their big enterprise’s revenue production. They toiled long and hard in the engine rooms of their companies becoming outstanding individual performers. Often they started as technical people, typically engineers, who were excellent in their field of specialty. Promotion after promotion led them to run the operation.

Getting to the top and being able to successfully promote the brand are not the same thing. The apex of the organisation narrows down to only a limited number of contenders for the top positions. Those who have the technical skills, the experience and the ability to persuade others will self-select themselves for the top job. The logical conclusion is to not wait until you get promoted to garner the facility to persuade, but to grab that skill set so that you are the one who gets promoted.

Self Promotion That Elevates Personal Brands

Promoting oneself and being really good at what you do are also not a given. We have to be intelligent, competent, industrious, patient and strategic. At the same time we should get training and grab every single opportunity to promote our personal and professional brands through presenting. Once we gain more ability, we will be given more opportunities for bigger events and larger venues. Being able to present to a large audience is good, but being able to keep presenting to large audiences is even better. We scale up our capacity to dominate any sized venue, as we learn the intricacies of each step on the ladder. The chances though of getting a series of large events from the very start are low. We have to put in the sustained work and build up our presenting nouse, skills and confidence.

My recent TED talk was speech number 546 for me, so you would think that would be a dawdle for such an experienced presenter. What I immediately realised though, was the scale was different. It wasn’t a typical large venue, it was a vast global audience. Normally, if you underperform in your talk, only the assembled business people know about it. If you do a poor job on your TED talk, then you are exposing your personal brand to the entire world and exposing it forever. In my case, it is even worse, because I teach presentation skills professionally. I also have my global Dale Carnegie colleagues and all of my competitors, watching like hawks. I also recently published my book on presenting in Japan, raising the bar on expectations. On the other hand, if you are under the spotlight and you do a professional job, then your brand becomes global and your credibility goes up.

The Catastrophe Secret Escape Hatch For Presenters

It looks like there is no safety net with presenting on the big stage but that is not quite true. Yes, you only have yourself to rely on for the success or failure of the talk. No one can sweep in from the wings of the stage and rescue you from a self-induced disaster. What people see on stage is only the tip of the presenting iceberg. Be it the experienced presenter or the novice, there is one huge escape hatch from speaking catastrophe and that is rehearsal.

This is such an obvious thing, you have to wonder why I even raise it? What is amazing though is that the vast majority of business talks are given once, delivered to the live audience and that is it. Investing time and effort into the rehearsals will do more for a person’s personal and professional brand than any other factor. I teach company presidents how to deliver their speeches and the before and after versions are comprehensive validations for why everyone should rehearse as much as possible. I am there to coach and provide feedback for them, but any speaker can get valuable feedback in rehearsal if they know how to do it. Never ever ask “how was it?”. A torrent of confidence crushing critique will land on your head immediately. Instead ask, “what was I doing well and what can I do to improve it?”. Do that every time and you will maximise the effectiveness of the feedback during your rehearsals.

“Persuasion Power Eats Everything For Breakfast”

“Persuasion power eats everything for breakfast”, should be our business community mantra. We know this is true, but are we doing anything about honing our presenting facility? Hope is not much of a strategy for becoming a persuasive speaker. Getting professional training, rehearsing and seizing every opportunity to give talks are the keys to success. With greater responsibility comes the requirement to be highly persuasive. So let’s get to work and become highly persuasive, fully primed to step up.