As you develop as a speaker, you will inevitability become critical of your speaking and the speaking of others. When you turn that critical eye to the world, you will find that most speaking is just dreadful. You will then sit and lament to yourself, “Why are so many speeches horrible?”
The reason is Intention, which I discussed in an earlier post . If your intention is not in the right place, then you will come off as self serving and petty, which is death for a speaker.
So what is the proper intention?
Last week, I was on a teleconference with one of my mentors, the fabulous Patricia Fripp and one of her partners in crime, the Contrarian Consultant, Alan Weiss, PhD. After listening to the call, I started to read through Alan’s blog to gain insight into topics discussed on the call. This morning, I came upon a podcast on The Secrets of Million Dollar Consulting.
In the podcast, Alan answered the question of what the proper intention is when speaking in principle number one of Million Dollar Consulting. It is “to improve the client condition.”
As you are speaking, you are not there to make money, sell a product, or make a name for yourself. You are there to improve the lives of the audience. Making money, making a name for yourself, and winning contests is an outcome of improving the lives of the people you speak to. When people see how you change the lives of others, they will gladly pay you for your time.
So get out there and start speaking to change lives.
About the Author: My Toastmasters Blog is written and edited by Chris Elliott, the founder of the young professional coaching site Young Profit Pros. Chris enjoys using his knowledge and experiences during his speaking engagements, workshops, consulting projects, and one-on-one coaching sessions. The result—connecting people and empowering change. If you would like information on how you can bring Chris to speak to your next meeting, please download Chris' one sheet or contact him by clicking here.
And it’s scalable! Substitute other words for client such as, “Improve Chris’s condition” and you can apply this everywhere. Improve my child’s condition, improve my bosses condition, improve my spouses condition…you can take it from here.