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"It's not about the content of the message, but how you're communicating it."
I was attending a leadership development seminar recently where effective communication skills was on the agenda. During this part of the program, the merits of the
'fake it 'till you make it' philosophy were debated.
As you probably know, "Fake it till you make it" (also called "act as if") is a common catchphrase that means to imitate confidence so that as the confidence produces success, it will generate real confidence.
In researching this topic, I uncovered the results of an interesting experiment conducted by Columbia University in which forty-two male and female participants were randomly assigned to a high- or low-power pose group.
The premise under study in this experiment was the impact of physical posture (or poses) on business performance.
Subjects in the high-power group were manipulated into two expansive poses for one minute each: first, the classic feet on desk, hands behind head; then, standing and leaning on one's hands over a desk. Those in the low-power group were posed for the time period in two restrictive poses: sitting in a chair with arms held close and hands folded, and standing with arms and legs crossed tightly.
Researchers discovered that holding one's body in expansive, "high-power" poses for as little as two minutes stimulates higher levels of testosterone and lower levels of cortisol. In addition to causing hormonal shifts, power poses lead to increased feelings of power and a greater tolerance for risk.
While this study seems to lend credence to the mottos 'if you act confident, you'll BE confident' and 'fake it till you make it' ...I believe it would be lazy leadership to stop there.
Effective communication is as much about the CONTENT as it is about STYLE and CONTEXT.
Personally, I am much more inclined to accommodate a speaker's style when his/her content and credibility are compelling than a polished presenter whose content and credibility don't have my respect or attention.
I stumbled upon a quote that I believe should be the qualifier to anyone subscribing to the 'fake it till you make it' philosophy:
The best way to sound like you know what you're talking about is
to actually know what you're talking about.
~Author Unknown
Looking forward to our next time.
Mike Malinchok, CPC President S2K Consulting, LLC
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