DailyPost 1120
PUBLIC SPEAKING – ACHIEVING THE PURPOSE?
You would be witnessing the dull and drab of speaking in meetings, in boardrooms, in training programs, professional conferences and finally in the public domain. The purpose of all other forms of speaking are too well known, meetings to boardrooms, whether it is being achieved or not is a different story. The very purpose of public speaking remains as nebulous as ever, with barely any conclusive way to measure the impact. There are any number of instances when the purpose is not served and the public speaker becomes a celebrity or an icon.
Awareness programs, sensitisation courses, training in the public domain on generic stuff etc fall in grey areas where people have been making a living since times immemorial and the purpose remains unachieved. The content, the capability to connect, the grit to take the message / skill / knowledge through are mandatory compulsions of a professional public speaker. After all he or she has not been invited by anybody to fulfil that role. He has to deliver. He cannot celebrate passion at the expense of the main stakeholder.
When you don’t have the capability to electrify or put the audience on fire, force them to think, make them feel that they are missing something worthwhile or provide them the glimpses of a different trajectory for a more satisfying life or imparting out of the blue professional thought and skill which can revolutionise their professional life, why should they listen to you? For most of the speakers its just another job fulfilled, its not a mission to be accomplished. That’s the reason why all professional public speakers combined would not have delivered more that 10% of what they had set out for or promised to deliver.
Taking the purpose through is the lust you ought to carry. Lofty pronouncements, great language and critical viewpoint cannot be termed even as the beginning of professional public speaking. Professional Public Speaker comes out of professional expertise and competence, finds its relevance in the public domain, picks up the role of transformational speaker and takes it through to its logical conclusion.
ACHIEVING THE PURPOSE IS IMPORTANT NOT THE SPEAKING.
Sanjay Sahay