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Joey Asher
President's
Perspective |
The King’s Speech may win lots of Academy
Awards later this month for its story of King George
VI’s battle against stammering and stage fright. But I
liked it for another reason.
Having spent the last 13 years
coaching CEOs. salespeople, and other business
professionals in how to become more effective
communicators, I saw the film as a good portrayal of
what it takes for leaders to learn to connect with
audiences.
Here are three lessons business
leaders can take from the film.
Lesson 1. Practice, practice, and
more practice.
Leading up to the big speech at the
end of the film, King George and his coach rehearsed
over and over again --out loud!
I’m amazed at how often this critical
idea is overlooked by sophisticated business people.
I’ve seen Fortune 500 executives spend weeks preparing a
deck of slides for a big presentation. They’ll have it
reviewed by their marketing team, the CFO and the
General Counsel.
But when it comes time to practice
delivering the speech, they’ll review their notes on an
airplane and declare themselves “ready to go.”
A speaker who doesn’t practice out
loud is like a piano player who doesn’t practice at the
keyboard. You have to practice out loud to get a feel
for how the words will flow so that you can speak
without hesitation. (
Tim Vine, a comedian, makes this point with a song
called “The Importance of Rehearsal.” The song starts 54
seconds into the clip. )
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