Sims Wyeth founded Sims Wyeth & Company, Inc. in 1995 in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers.
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Creative Public Speaking and Presenting
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Frank Kern is senior vice-president of IBM Global Business Services. On May 19, 2010, he released a new survey of 1,500 chief executives conducted by IBM’s Institute for Business Value. Are you ready for this? According to that survey, today’s CEOs identify “creativity” as the most important leadership competency for the successful enterprise of the future.
“That’s creativity—not operational effectiveness, influence, or even dedication. Coming out of the worst economic downturn in their professional lifetimes, when managerial discipline and rigor ruled the day, this indicates a remarkable shift in attitude.”
Creativity is also important in public speaking and presenting, and in the training and coaching of speakers too.
Many years ago, I heard Kathleen Hall Jamieson speak about the future of public speeches. She predicted that politicians and business leaders would be using music in their presentations—not just as preludes and postludes, but as integral parts of content, just as movies use scores.
We haven’t seen that yet.
And in the realm of training, the standard approach to developing people as speakers is a small group seminar that lasts a day or two in which people give presentations, see themselves on videotape, get feedback, and try to make adjustments.
This is fine, but it needs to be re-invented. Too much training is prescriptive and not creative. Most students are told how to organize their talks, how to design their PowerPoints, and how to stand still and use their hands.
We need to create highly effective speakers and presenters who will become creative speechwriters and presentation developers. And to do that we must create highly effective training and coaching programs in speechwriting and delivery skills.
However, I must admit that when I contemplate doing something new and creative with clients, I get scared. The new and unknown is hard to sell. People resist it. I don’t feel as confident as I would delivering the tried and true.
I feel the truth in what Ghandi said:
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.”
I want to know how long til the “win” part.
Sims Wyeth is an executive speech coach in Montclair, NJ specializing in presentation skills and public speaking training in order to give accomplished people the knowledge and skill they need to become accomplished speakers. Learn more public speaking tips at www.SimsWyeth.com.
Tags: effective presentation skills, effective presentation skills training, effective speaking, executive coaching, persuasive speech, public speaking, speech writing