Most people think they’re supposed to KEEP TALKING NON-STOP. They believe if they stop to think, even for a moment, they’ll look unprepared or someone will jump in and take over. This is a faulty belief that makes you look frantic.
It was a virtual workshop on Causative Communication. On my screen were five beautiful faces. Each one of them representing a wonderful person in different countries across Europe.
Julien had just finished practicing presenting a proposal to sell the government of his country a new high-tech product. The others were watching.
Julien knew something was really different about the way he was communicating. He reached the end. Long pause and then he said, “That was Amazing! I never felt that before.”
4 heads nodded. They never had either.
Julien: “What was that?”
When Jeffrey started his coaching three months ago, he knew something was off in the way that he was presenting. He said to me, “If I could be 10% of what my boss is as a presenter, I would feel like I achieved a big goal.”
The problem Jeffrey was having was a “There’s so much to say about this” problem.
When you feel like there’s so much to say, it’s easy to fall into the trap of talking too much. The audience completely disengages.
In the last group I coached, there was a big discussion in the group about how they were holding themselves back. They were “toning themselves down”. They were intense people afraid of being “intense”. Having coached tens of thousands of individuals and executives, I have observed that many people hold themselves back, and as a result, many people live half a life, not being all they are capable of.
It takes work at the beginning to continue to use these skills after the Communication training when you’re living in a world that doesn’t have them. The payoff is an exhilarating life. It’s always amazing how others change when you do the training and speak to them as a causative communicator. You create transformation. The power truly is always in your hands.
Leonard was making the mistake of delivering a “stream of consciousness” type of presentation that followed his logic of “Let me start at the beginning and tell you everything”. This is a common approach for people below senior levels. It does not follow what I call “Executive Logic”.
What was missing from Leonard’s presentation was…
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