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How confident are you as a speaker?

You are backstage.

Palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms heavy.

In other words: You’re just plain terrified. Stage fright has got you in its grip and it’s squeezing hard.

Public speaking is the monster under the bed for grown-ups. It’s that universal fear that sends shivers down the spine of some of the boldest leaders.

Their powerful voices suddenly feel weak. Their decisive stride seems uncertain. Their usual commanding presence fades into doubt. Backstage, the bold leader is no longer a tower of strength.

Almost certainly, you’ve been hit with advice to conquer that fear. But in my experience, most of that advice actually achieves the opposite. It doesn’t make you feel less nervous but more.

Huh? More nervous? Let me explain …

Often, it’s quite a beast in terms of things you have to consider and do in the correct order: Deep breaths, power stance, eye contact, pacing, how to hold your hands, how to stand, when to smile, … 

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg …

What’s worse is that all of this is on top of actually having to remember what you wanted to say. (Not to mention: actually saying it.)

I’ve never seen it work well. Not only does this advice not eliminate stage fright. As I said, it actually adds to the stress.

Which is why I prefer a very different approach that I hope can change the game for you, too.

In 16 years of working with leaders who went on stages, large and small, this is the only approach I’ve seen that has consistently led to improved confidence in front of audiences.

I’ve turned it into a free eBook: Speak Easy – 4 Steps to Total Confidence in Your Communication.

It’s a short read with a pretty unusual take.

If you haven’t done so already, download it here: https://michaelgerharz.com/speak-easy

PS: Please share this with someone you know who struggles with stage fright. I hope it can be a game changer for them.

Speak Easy

If you’ve ever struggled with stage fright but somehow nothing you’ve tried has really worked, this is for you.

Perhaps you’ve already watched a couple of motivational YouTube videos that promised a fix.

Or you’ve been to workshops hoping to improve your body language to come across more confidently.

Maybe you’ve read some books or tried power posing and meditation.

But whatever you tried, either things didn’t really improve or you fell back to your old patterns shortly after.

I’ve tried some of these, too. I never found them to work well, either.

Until I’ve changed my approach.

I tried to understand what was really going on and realized that almost every advice out there only addresses the symptoms but not the cause. It’s a pretty unusual take that not many speak about but I think it’s obvious once you see it.

I wrote a little eBook to share with you what I’ve discovered over the years.

It works for me and it works for my clients.

I hope it does for you, too.

It’s also free.

Get it here: https://michaelgerharz.com/speak-easy

PS: If you find this useful, please share it with your friends and colleagues so that others can improve their stage presence, too.

Your definition of success

As the CEO, if you and one or more board members disagree on the definition of success, you need to have the hard conversations to reach alignment.

If you don’t, you’re going to have to constantly battle it out.

It will slow everything down and consume energy that’s better spent elsewhere.

It will confuse the team and have a toll on their confidence.

It may cause frustration as projects are shut down over disagreement but with unsatisfactory justification.

In other words, if you and (parts of) the board are not on the same path, figuring the path out becomes your prime concern.

If you shy away from that conversation, it will become your only concern.

Until it becomes the exit.

Have you had difficult conversation with the board?
How did you approach it?

PS: If you need support, reach out!

Us, together

So many businesses miss out on an opportunity to create a deeper connection with their customers on their “about us” page.

They take “us” to mean “themselves”. The business.

While this isn’t exactly wrong, it excludes the customers.

A much deeper connection is possible when “us” includes the customer.

What about “us, the business” is it that clicks with the customer? What is it that makes the customer identify with the business to think that they are “like us”.

What’s the common ground? The point of identification? What makes this combination of business and customer the perfect match?

Ultimately, this expands “us” to mean “us, together”.

Now, this doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t speak about yourself. But what you do say you say purposefully to resonate with your customer.

It’s your story that they read, but it’s also a profound feeling of “like us” that they sense.

A great example is Patagonia. On their “Business, unusual” page they speak about themselves, their values and their journey. But in every single word their customers see themselves; you can easily see them thinking “just like us”.

That’s a profound connection that has the potential to create an incredible amount of loyalty.

PS: Reach out if you want that, too.

The leap to our vision

Here’s why some leaders struggle to align their team behind their vision: They haven’t made the leap from “my vision” to “our vision”.

When it’s “my vision”, why should the team care? They will do their job because they’re paid to do so. But anything more than that? You will need some decent persuasion skills and perhaps have to drop in an incentive or two.

But when it’s “our vision”, that’s a different journey. It’s as much their drive as it is yours. Even if they might not burn for it just as much as you do, the team is intrinsically motivated to get there.

So, what about “your vision” makes it “our vision”? How does it align with what matters to the team? Where’s the common drive?

A great way to find out is through conversations. Great visions aren’t usually crafted at night, sitting at a desk in a dark office. Much more often, they are the results of curiosity and exploration, asking questions and listening closely to what others have to say.

The better you understand what matters to the people on your team, the better you’ll be positioned to transition from “your vision” to “our vision”, a vision that not only motivates you but the whole team.

PS: Reach out if you need support.

Less

We often default to adding more details to clarify our points. But did you ever notice how more details sometimes lead to even more confusion?

When more won’t help, less might. Yet, seldom do we consider subtracting an aspect or two to stop the confusion.

Have you experienced that?

On to something new

Heading there means leaving here.

Change becomes easier once we acknowledge that.

What will we gain?
But also, what will we miss?

What’s pulling us ahead?
But also, what’s holding us back?

Some change initiatives fail because they are framed as “here it’s bad” vs “there it’s glorious”.

But it’s hardly ever black and white.
In fact, it’s often not an easy choice.
For some team members, it’ll be a tough journey.

Instead of dismissing the “here”, it would make it easier for them if we embraced the fact that some things have actually been pretty good over here.

In moving forward, we do not have to forget the past.

We can carry forward our experiences, our lessons,
the very essence of who we are.

This is what transforms the journey into our journey.

Irrational audiences

If you are a rational person, chances are you’re sometimes deeply frustrated when people just don’t get it.

I’ve certainly been in the past.

I mean, sometimes it’s so obvious …

the logic is flawless …
the data clear …
but this guy almost refuses to get it.

That can be so frustrating.

Yet, there’s no point in complaining.

As much as we would like our audiences to be fully rational in their decision making, sooner or later we will encounter one that just isn’t.

That’s when logic won’t do the job.

I mean, of course you’re free to dismiss that audience.

But if that’s not an option, the only other option is to figure out a way to somehow resonate on an emotional level. Not to dismiss the logic (after all, it’s still valid), but to open a side door that allows the conversation to take place even if you can’t agree on the logic.

This is something I’ve seen brilliant people shy away from who devalue “emotional arguments” as, well, “irrational”. But I think that’s a mistake.

An emotional side door to the argument doesn’t devalue the rational main entrance. It doesn’t make the argument any less true.

But it allows people access to your insights that would otherwise have to stay outside.

The misunderstanding here is to consider rational the opposite of emotional. It’s not.

If you craft the emotional appeal in a way that is true to the logic, then it’s actually another facet of the same thing.

Give it a try!

How do you deal with a situation where people just don’t seem to get the logic?

Relevance beats elegance

If I can’t relate to a speaker’s words, it doesn’t matter how beautiful their slides are, how elaborate their body language is, or how creative their storytelling is.

It might be nice but it’s also pointless.

If, on the other hand, they manage to make it highly relevant, I will tolerate an ugly slide or two and a little nervousness.

In other words, work on your story’s relevance before you begin to work on the show.

The good news is that when it’s relevant, a great show will only amplify the impact.

How exciting is your pitch deck?

If you’re not excited by your pitch deck, chances are your audience won’t be, either.

It’s something that has always baffled me: how far some people will go to defend a mediocre presentation with rational arguments when there’s a very simple metric to decide whether you’ve nailed it:

Does it make you feel excited?

If it doesn’t, there’s no use in arguing that it contains all the facts. Or that it’s logically structured.

If all of that is true and it still doesn’t make you feel excited, it means that your story isn’t working.

Sometimes, it’s indeed because the facts aren’t right, but in my experience it’s much more often the words people use to speak about the facts that aren’t right.

How about your pitch? Are you excited by it?

Spread the Word

Dr. Michael Gerharz

Dr. Michael Gerharz