Leadership without communication skill is like a heart without a beat.
Lacking the ability to communicate well, leadership rarely is effective as the 2010 Academy Award-winning film The King's Speech so vividly brings to life. This historical story dramatizes the relationship between the King of England and his unorthodox confidant/coach Lionel Logue. Father to England's current Queen Elizabeth II, the king happened to be a heart-wrenching stutterer. But stutterer or not, almost everyone struggles with public speaking.
I've worked with stutterers, "vomit"-ers, and "sweat"-ers. Some were so nervous they had serious digestive problems. Others were so frightened they broke into tears at the mere mention of public speaking. Perhaps, saddest of all is the president or division head, who is blind to his need for help. He typically is boring or long-winded. People silently groan when they have to listen.
The film highlights what the king clearly understood: To lead, speaking with eloquence is a given. A detail you might miss in the midst of the drama, the film also demonstrates that public speaking is a skill, not an innate talent-even if you have a stutter.
For some 25 years, with my slightly unorthodox techniques, just like Lionel Logue, I have watched clients blossom, learning to speak with commanding eloquence. So far, knock on wood, I have never had a client who did not improve.
You see, the reason most people fail and flail is not because they have no talent or some other terrible problem like stuttering. They do not know the true skills involved.
If I or anyone could but write the skills in a book so a reader could "get" it, I'd have the best-selling book in business history!
What the King's teacher Lionel Logue realized and what I know is this: Speaking well is more like a sport than writing a report. No one learns to play football by reading a book, or golf, or tennis. You must get on the field. Physically, you must practice skills first.
When my clients are exposed to the correct skills and dump the silly, yet prevalent, advice that does not matter, a bright, new world opens up for them!
When a client enters my world, words matter and audience fear is a thing of the past.
Once, I was a speaker who, in my own way, was just as handicapped as King George VI. Then, I, too, learned the "secrets" I now share with clients.
"I have a voice!" the King shouted at Lionel in a rage-but without a trace of a stutter.
"Yes," Lionel replied with great empathy and admiration. "Yes, you do."
And so do you, once you learn to use it.
