A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. -Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)
From Albert Einstein himself, courtesy of A Word A Day.
This comment really struck me as a Toastmaster. This is exactly why I joined and stay in Toastmasters. When I joined I was a good speaker, but a poor communicator. I find, and I am sure many of you would agree, that most people come just to be better speakers. Once they are more comfortable speaking they often leave and use their new skills. So few stay and refocus their efforts on being better communicators.Why can't we, as Toastmasters, communicate this part of the mission of the organization? When I talk to people about being a Toastmaster they assume I went to be a better speaker. They are often surprised to hear me talk about the communication skills I have learned.
An issue that has been much on my mind lately (as I watch District 27 Toastmasters spend all its energy on organization and alignment and ignore leadership development and program quality). Follow the link for development of the thought and video example from Jon Stewart.
Twitter has reinforced my belief in the importance and value of storytelling in the last day or so. First, my friend @ralphsierra pointed me to a BBC article pointing out that stories always trump statistics. @ZimmerJohn picked up the theme with a blog post that showed how stories can help make a point stick. And The Eloquent Woman has followed up with a post titled Make storytelling compelling with details. All examples provide convincing examples
So, what do you think about that Chinese idea you should pay your doctor when you stay healthy?
I’ve shamelessly cherry-picked the presentation tips from Scott’s book that I most agree with.
1. Let go of perfection
If you’d like to be good at something, the first thing to go out the window is the notion of perfection. Every time is I get up to the front of the room, I know I will make mistakes.
I so agree. I get so annoyed by courses, books and articles that claim to help you deliver the perfect presentation. Not only is there no such thing, that type of thinking will sabotage your efforts to deliver a competent, effective and engaging presentation.
Olivia Mitchell picks the top six tips from Scott Berkun's Confessions of a Public Speaker. Click through for five more.