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25 Oct One Leadership Competency You Must Have to Succeed

Posted at 13:36h in Updates by
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What is that one leadership competency that can have a domino effect on your leadership? It’s Public Speaking! I have been in OK since Monday and came back home last night. One of the themes I facilitated was Public Speaking: How to communicate effectively from the stage or in front of a camera EFFECTIVELY to sell your ideas, products, services, and change minds and hearts to take bold actions!

You should develop many competencies throughout your leadership journey to fulfill your mandates. However, if you have to choose one skill that can accelerate your effectiveness FASTER, it is presentation skills.

You may be protesting and arguing that other skills should be given priority. I hear you. Just bear with me for a while.

Please listen to my origin story, learn how I got here, and why I recommend that you prioritize your public speaking abilities.

I’m grateful to a teacher who, as a teenager before college, gave me Dale Carlinge’s book ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People.’

To give you some context, I was born and raised in one of the poorest villages in Ethiopia. Back then, we didn’t have exposure to the world. No:

  1. TV,
  2. Internet, and
  3. Social Media as we have now.

The library in my hometown ONLY had textbooks; even then, I had to walk for hours to get there.

The teacher called me out of the blue and out of nowhere. I was with my friends and playing soccer in front of his house.

I still remember the time of day and how it transpired. One of his legs was inside his home, while the other was outside. Stretching his hand, which held the book, he lent me the book.

That was the first time someone believed in me.

I still don’t have the answers to:

  • Why did he choose me among my peers?
  • What did he see in me that convinced him to reach out with this grand gesture?
  • Why did he believe that I needed that book with that title?

Mind you, English was my second language. Though I knew how to read English, I couldn’t comprehend some complex concepts that were written in English yet.

However, I felt obliged to read it with conviction because someone believed in me. I remember stopping everything I was doing and sitting down for days to read the book cover to cover.

By the time I was done reading the book, I was pumped up and ready to begin a long and rewarding journey to leverage public speaking.

The first decision I made was to find platforms on which to practice.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any. That didn’t stop me, though. I determined to create my own platform to practice what I had learned from the book. As a result, I inspired a few of my peers to establish a youth association.

It was a sunny Saturday morning. The room was jam-packed. These were prospective members of the association we were trying to form.

I was assigned to present the proposal and gather feedback. Mind you. It was going to be my first public speaking venture.

Inside, after reading Dale Carlinge’s book and with a few practices with the organizing committee, I was boldened and thought that I could speak like a pro for an hour or so.

Guess what?! My first public speaking bombed! It was a disaster!!!

When I stepped on the stage and made eye contact with some audience members whom I didn’t expect to be there, I was stunned, thrown off, and forgot everything I had to say.

I froze! It was for seconds, but it felt like an eternity.

I was tempted to run away from the stage without saying anything. Somehow, I mustered courage and stayed on the stage for 10 or 15 minutes. To be honest, I didn’t know what I was saying for the first 60 to 90 seconds. I winged it. After that, I began to remember the content I had memorized.

The moral of the story is that since I was convinced of the extraordinary benefits of public speaking, I WENT ALL IN and endured embarrassment. Though I felt like quitting after that dreadful Saturday morning, I kept speaking publicly while feeling scared and nervous…

Let me ask you:

  1. From 1 to 10, how do you measure your public speaking abilities? One means I’m scared to death to speak publicly, and whenever I speak, I perform very badly, and ten being I speak like a pro.
  2. If you scored less than 7, how can you take it to the next level in the next 3 to 6 months?

Back to my public speaking journey, Dale Carnegie’s book persuaded me for the first time that if I speak articulately, I can:

  • Achieve my goals,
  • Get what I want,
  • Make friends,
  • Influence others,
  • And more.

At that early stage in life, the above benefits alone were enough to launch me into a new path I never thought I would take. I’d still be in the village I was born without options. Most importantly, I’d not be where I am today without my ability to communicate effectively on stage and in front of a camera.

Over the years, I witnessed with my own eyes how professionals who excelled at public speaking with average technical skills took leadership positions while those who had off-chart technical abilities without presentation skills took the back seat. For instance, I worked for a research organization in Ethiopia. I knew the researchers who:

  1. Wrote killer proposals,
  2. Attracted millions of dollars  research project funds,
  3. Designed the research methods,
  4. Collected data and analyzed,
  5. Wrote the final research papers and published them in peer-reviewed journals.

Unfortunately:

  • These extraordinary scientists weren’t making critical decisions about how the funds were used.
  • They weren’t the authors mentioned first in the papers.
  •  These researchers weren’t willing or able to speak on stage to present the final results of their own research.
  • And so on.

Fast-forward to these days. I’m PAID well to speak. What is more? I coach both beginners and advanced speakers. I travel around the country to facilitate one-day and two-day workshops and webinars on public speaking.

That was what I was doing this week in Oklahoma City…

Of course, back then, when I had just started, if there was a coaching program or workshop like the ones we’re offering now, I’d have signed up for them immediately and shortened the learning curve.

If I knew what I know now, I wouldn’t have wasted years of my precious time, energy, and scarce resources to develop this skillset ORGANICALLY.

  1. I’d have avoided following a slow, trial-and-error approach.
  2. I’d have accelerated my progress and gained the results I’m enjoying now a long time ago.

You too.

  • Why take this journey alone?
  • Why take the slow route?
  • And in the process, waste your time, energy, and resources?

This is the time to cut the learning curve short and enjoy all the benefits of excelling at public speaking.

Let me ask you:

  1. Do you want to join those few elite professionals, leaders, entrepreneurs, and investors who speak like a PRO and supercharge their success? Well, you should sign up for our premium coaching program.
  2. Do you desire to improve the public speaking abilities of your team? Let’s design for your team a hands-on workshop or webinar that will equip your team to speak like a pro within WEEKS.

Whether you’re a novice or an experienced speaker, you’ll get a customized coaching program and workshop or webinar that meets your needs and equips you and your team to achieve your personal, career, and organizational goals QUICKLY.

When you sign up for our coaching program or workshop, you’ll get:

  1. The latest insights in public speaking.
  2. Opportunities to practice different types of speeches and excel at each.
  3. Techniques, tools, strategies, and tactics extraordinary speakers use to master public speaking.
  4. Constructive feedback that empowers you to take your speaking ability to the next level very QUICKLY.

As a result, you will:

  1. Shorten the learning curve from years to weeks.
  2. Throw out the guesswork right away.
  3. Immediately recognize your speaking strengths, weaknesses, and blind spots.
  4. Get instant constructive and positive feedback to avoid repeating the same mistakes again and again.
  5. Acquire the latest frameworks, approaches, strategies, and tactics to excel as a speaker within a short period.

By the way, whatever you learn in the coaching program or workshop will be transferable when you present virtually. We’ll also incorporate some insights to empower you to excel when you speak virtually.

To learn more about how our coaching program and workshops or webinars work, reach out via [email protected]

Schedule a FREE one-on-one consultation with us, and let’s accelerate your and your team’s public speaking quickly…

PS:

  1. If you would like to read a blog I wrote entitled “Supercharge Your Success in 2024 by Speaking Like a PRO,” click here. 
  2. Here is also a recent video I created on How to Excel at Public Speaking: