The Sound and the Fury

by R. L. Howser on October 17, 2011 · 1 comment

I’ve addressed this before, but when I teach delivery skills to my clients or students, they sometimes get the impression that I’m saying it’s all just a magic show; that a powerful delivery, full of drama and intrigue, will somehow hypnotize their audience into doing what they’re told. But of course, that’s not true at all.

A dynamic, confident delivery style will grab their attention long enough to get your message across, but it won’t make a poorly thought out, valueless or irrelevant message, or worse the lack of a coherent message, any more compelling. That’s particularly true if you are trying to effect a long-term change of beliefs or values, or build a lasting business relationship. Trying to dazzle the audience into doing something that is against their own interests is simply hucksterism. I’ll leave that to the politicians and the late-night infomercial barkers.

A compelling presentation is about the compelling logic of your message. It’s about offering your audience something of value, something that will benefit their lives or their bottom line. The distillation of that value into a short, simple message that they understand and remember is what determines the success or failure of your presentation.

The mechanics of effective delivery are simply about making sure your message cuts through the noise and confusion, so they will hear it and remember it.

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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 Fred E. Miller October 22, 2011 at 2:04 pm

Good Post and I agree!

The goal of all communication; verbal, written, or visual, is the same. We want the recipients, as quickly as possible to – GET IT!

They may not agree with everything we say. They may not agree with anything we see. But unless they GET IT! we can’t have an intelligent conversation going forward.

Thanks!

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