Sharpen Your Message

BursaSnipers

Publish date: Sun, 12 Jan 2020, 01:41 PM

9 Good speakers focus on sharpening their message. Great speakers also think about how they appear as a messenger. And there are ways to boost your stature.

You might think audiences or the people you lead at work overlook appearances and always listen to the best ideas, the sharpest arguments and most thought-out proposals. But that’s not usually the case.

“The reality is that all of us rely on judgments we make about the messenger when deciding whether to listen to their message,” said Stephen Martin, who teaches executives who want to be great speakers. The person speaking “can be as important, sometimes more so, than the message itself,” he said.

Martin and Joseph Marks wrote “Messengers: Who We Listen To, Who We Don’t and Why.” Martin is also CEO of Influence At Work UK, a behavioral science consultancy firm.

How do you sharpen your image so you can get your points across?

Convey Humility

Modesty is a highly valued human quality. It resonates with listeners.

Marks cautions that even a speaker’s attempts to hide self-aggrandizing statements with self-deprecation can backfire. “People see through these conceited attempts to signal status, and they typically make a messenger seem more insincere and less likable.”

Studies show experts who are transparent enough to express some uncertainty — if they have some — will be listened to even more than an expert who doesn’t share doubts, Martin says.

Enlist Advocates

Don’t be afraid to let someone else talk you up. Audiences will often be more receptive to a speaker following a recommendation or endorsement from a third party, Marks says.

Endorsements are powerful, even when the audience knows the third party is biased or likely to financially benefit from the introduction.

Marks cites this example: A group of real estate agents asked receptionists answering phones to share their credentials with callers who were prospective clients. This simple endorsement boosted initial appointments by 20% and signed deals by 15%.

Talk With Your Hands

An important messenger trait — charisma — can be conveyed not only verbally. Nonverbal movements through body language speak volumes, too.

Presenters in successful TED talks typically use around twice as many hand gestures as their less successful peers, Martin says.

“It is possible to learn to be more charismatic; so, take a (body language) class and let your hands do the talking,” he said.

Create Teamwork

It’s a leader’s obligation to listen to dissenters, says L. David Marquet, author of “Leadership Is Language: The Hidden Power of What You Say — and What You Don’t.” Doing so lays the groundwork for the leader’s words to be embraced.

Marquet is a former Navy commander of a nuclear-powered submarine who is now a leadership consultant.

When leaders resort to coercion, they get compliance, he says. But “when we engage in collaboration, we get commitment.”

He says leaders also need to remove the pressure of the clock to release the creative thinking of the team. “Leaders need to be able to say, ‘Time out, we need to make sure this is right’ and ‘Hold on, what does everyone think about this?’ ” he said.

Speak Last

The higher you are in an organization, the more important it is to hold your comments until others have spoken, Marquet says.

The people you lead are predisposed to align to your position, he wrote. “You speak last not to prove you’re the leader, but because speaking last allows others to freely voice their opinions first,” he said.

By withholding your opinion until later, it shows you’re curious and interested in what others have to say.

Scrutinize Your Words

For leaders and in everyday life, the language we use with others “is our most powerful weapon for getting the behaviors we want,” Marquet said.

Most great speakers update their lexicon to match the modern mindset. To workers today, it’s better to say the company is a “can-think organization” rather than calling it by the tired cliche “can-do organization.” Stop calling for “all hands on deck” meetings. That’s an outdated nautical phrase that’s meaningless to many. Instead, call for an “all-hearts meeting,” he says.

Rewriting our language playbook “will result in more resilient decision-making, happier people and more effective teams,” Marquet said.

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