Tweet

When you are ready to stand up to speak

Written by: Seth Godin

Article Overview: Perhaps you should consider sitting down.

When you are ready to stand up to speak

Perhaps you should consider sitting down.

When you are asked to give a short talk at the big company gathering, or contribute a few minutes in a large group discussion, and you're ready to stand up and have all eyes on you, sometimes, perhaps, it makes sense to sit down instead.

If you're a bit nervous and you've written everything out and your main goal is to say nothing controversial, nothing memorable, nothing that might get you in trouble... well, why say it?

If your job is to act as filler, to say a small not-so-funny joke and then stall for a minute or two, or your job is to put in an appearance, or perhaps to make sure that senior management knows you exist, I bet there are far better ways to pull that off.

The traffic engineers in New York think nothing of wasting two minutes of each person's time as they approach a gated toll booth. Multiply that two minutes times 12,000 people and it's a lot of hours every day, isn't it? If you're speaking to a thousand people for just a minute or two or three and you don't have anything in particular to communicate, you've just wasted many hours of the most expensive time your organization has purchased this year.

Big groups are perfect places for the efficient communication of emotion. They are terrific for the impact that comes from watching your peers shake their heads in agreement simultaneously. The power of groupthink doesn't happen in an electronic memo, but it can sure be powerful in a big room.

The flipside is obvious: if all you want to do is recite a fact or a policy or worst of all, not really be noticed, then it's probably better to just sit down.

Related Articles
  Do your words promote or demote?
  Do you invite thinking or evict thinking?
  Bite Your Tongue: Eight More Ways To Improve Your Presentations
  How to Formulate Your Copy to Increase Sales
  Anger Management

Article Tags: appearance, efficient communication, electronic memo, emotion, few minutes, flipside, funny joke, group discussion, groupthink, job, large group, main goal, peers, senior management, toll booth, traffic engineers, two minutes



Related Forum Posts
Re: What are you doing if o have a bad day? - It just brings up a good point that it is really important to add "play" to your life occasionally so that you'll have a good balance of everything. Even though we are adults, we need to give our brains a break once in a while so we're refreshed and ready to go the second round, so to speak.
Re: How many nationalities are on the forum? - Hi Rainmaker, So how many language can you speak? Kevin it is also good to be able to understand Cantonese even though you don't speak it well.
Re: When did your entrepreneurism start? - It may have started earlier but at 7 years old, my second summer of having the lemonade stand on the corner of my block, I realized something important. There were four of us at the same stand, and we took turns sitting at the booth. What I realized is that while we liked hanging out together, we were only getting sales from people in this one area. The next day, I came out with two boxes and two pitchers. I sent two of my friends a couple blocks away to set up a second stand. By the end of the summer there were four stands and we each made enough to satisfy every desire of a 7 year old. My understanding of scale, franchise, and entrepreneurship began.
Wills, Power of Attorneys personal, bank, health - These four items are important even if you don't have a business. You don't have to have a Will because the law has procedures that are in place just incase someone dies without a Will. It is call dieing intestate. However, it can be an expensive process for your beneficiaries and your estate may not go to who you want it to go to. A Will - helps you set up where you want your assets to go to and who they go to. They set out your wishes for the business as well. In Ontario, you do not have to have a Will prepared by a lawyer but sometimes it is in your best interest to do so. There is a lot of info on the internet and kits that are available but they key to this are the witnesses to your signature. You may want to write it yourself and then have a lawyer witness the signing of the Will. If you handwrite you’re Will then you don't need to have it witnessed. But the entire document must be in your handwriting no typing allowed. The Power of Attorneys - Personal or Health Personal - This gives someone consent to act on your behalf if you can't due to physical or mental disabilities. The Power of Attorney goes into effect only when you are incapacitated or you authorize it. So it can be signed and ready to be used but only takes effect when you are ready to use it. You don't need a lawyer to prepare these - there are kits on the internet, there are kits that the government have where you can fill in the blanks. But if you have an extensive estate I would take it to the lawyer because their could be other issues that need to be dealt with. Health – This Power of Attorney outlines what you want to happen in case of medical emergency, for example, do you want to be revived if there is no hope of recovery, is the most common reason, maybe the type of treatment that you want to receive for the particular illness you have. This Power of Attorney protects your health rights when you can't speak for yourself and it gives someone else the right to speak for you. In the Power of Attorney you would outline your request and designate someone to carry them out. Bank - This one designates someone to look after your finances if you aren't able to do them. The banks have special procedures and these forms are completed at the bank. So if you became ill then your designated person can take care of your finances until you are ready to resume doing them. The Power of Attorneys and the Wills are legal documents and they can be revoked or changed at any time. If your estate is very large then I would suggest that you have a lawyer prepare these documents to protect your interest. Again, the law does not have the same rules as a married spouse so this would protect the surviving partner in a common-law relationship. I realize that most of the subjects that are discussed on this site are concerning growing your business but I deal with the hidden aspect of the business as well and these could affect your business as much as if you can't find that next client. Happy and Prosperous New Year Everyone
EGO - I think really successful business people and entrepreneurs, in addition to having the skills etc. to find a need and fill it effectively, need a healthy amount of ego. Just enough to know that success is achievable and nothing can stand in their way and not so much that they stand in their own way. Sometimes you have to be big enough to be teachable. That is the magic ingredient from my perspective.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Leader's Success Secret: Celebration

Stress: What Causes It and How To Deal With It

What I Really Want Is...

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.