In “The King’s Speech”, a new feature film about King George VI and his private speaking tutor, Lionel, there’s an extraordinary moment in which Geoffrey Rush (the tutor) says to Colin Firth (the Duke of York and King to be), “My job is to give people faith in their own voice.” 

Exactly.

Part of my job as a presentation skills and communications coach is indeed to help with the mechanics – how one stands, gestures, moves or annunciates.  But these are technical elements which can be adjusted only once a far more significant component has been addressed. And that is the true message — what I call the “Through Line” — which carries within it the core belief system held by that speaker.

Many executives and presenters have a message they’re afraid to deliver, not because it’s controversial (although sometimes that’s the case) but more because it doesn’t fit in style or content with what they’ve seen before at previous conventions or company meetings. 

And so, too often, they make the choice to hide behind “corporatized lingo” – the expected and presumed path – one that makes board members nod with vacant approval and teams go blank with lack of understanding.

And who wants that?

The executive laughs when I paint this all-too-familiar picture. The bored board room. The snooze-fest PowerPoint slide deck. They’ve suffered through more of these than they can count. Unfortunately, it’s the norm. 

And so I encourage her and him to take the risk. If the message and creative idea arise from the core, the heart and an innocent inner genius, it’s bound to make an impact. (It’s amazing, too, how this kind of alignment results in the mechanics falling into place organically: physicality, rhythm, volume, variance, eye contact, thrust, expressiveness and humor.)

Speaking
with one’s true voice (literally and figuratively) is no doubt
courageous, but the risk to reward ratio is heavily weighted in favor of
the bold. And the speaker’s impact, like a star’s true light, continues to travel through
space and time (and the company culture) long after that moment is over. 

Audiences are dying for creativity, luminosity, originality, humanity and truth. Once the presenter becomes viscerally aware that their true voice produces these results, the power and joy that emanate are
contagious and the freedom the presenter feels is unparalleled.

Charisma doesn’t come from hiding one’s light. Conviction breeds charisma. Why follow the crowd when your message is worthy of a crown? Those we most admire create new worlds and ways of being.  

As I often ask my clients at the start of a session, “Would YOU come to hear YOU speak?” 

Make sure the answer is yes. Or put another way….Be outrageous. It’s the only place that isn’t crowded.

(c) MMX Victoria Labalme Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.