Editor's Note:  This is a guest post by Phyllis E. Thesier of The Articulate Advantage

Focused individuals and groups like the Beatles, Tiger Woods and Tony Robbins have made the efforts to make the correct muscle movements to become very good at using their fingers to play an instrument or playing a sport and even speaking effectively.   Yet, some folks do the same thing repeatedly without changing.

What is the difference?  Having someone scoring you via a scorecard or placement in sports; having an audience that gives feedback or an audio-recording that indicates when unwanted notes were played.  Scoring yourself……

Yet, in speaking another language, especially English, we often do not get the quick feedback of how well we are using our motor speech system to hit the target pronunciations.

Our listeners often consider reminding another of the mispronunciation or asking for clarification as being  “rude”.  Rather, our listeners go ask other folks what we just said or just ignore what we said entirely…..

The speaker only begins to realize that they have not spoken to be understood after they get ignored for a promotion, a prime project or have received a smaller than expected raise.  For some ESL speakers, this can take several years to become apparent.

In Malcolm Gladwell’s popular new book, “Outliers: The Story of Success”, Chapter 2, he cited research showing that even though one may have talent, it will take practice….around 10,000 hours of practice….to become Extremely good at anything. This is two to four years of daily practice.

How to Harness the “Power of the 10,000 Hours”: Three of Ten Strategies:

1. Speak English only every waking moment for 2-4 years.  Using 16-8 hours/day at 365 days/year, this adds up to about 10,000 hours.  Considering that many folks have been in English working environments for over 2-4 years, this should not be too much of a problem.

2. Become one of your own coaches….. Audio-tape yourself DAILY when speaking on the phone. Rewind, put your earphones in and listen to yourself.  Put yourself in the other person’s place.  What did your colleague hear?  Dropped articles? Dropped syllables? Stress on the wrong syllable? Sound substitutions? Speaking at the speed of light?

3. S-L-O-W Down!  Listen to an audiotape you made of yourself (See #2). Time yourself for a minute from the middle of the tape.   Count EVERY –uh; -ah; as well as EVERY word. Do this in 2-3 second segments. It may take an hour to get it right. And . . . It is worth the effort.

This is VERY Important.  If you are over 110 words/ utterances in a minute, you are way too fast for your listeners to understand you and your accent.

Recap:   Speak English EVERY DAY for 16 hours.  Audiotape and Listen to yourself.  SLOW Down!

Remember, do you want to be passable or extremely good at speaking English?  Just one of the team or a top manager?  -The Articulate Advantage

Also read: Harnessing the Power of the Voice in Public Speaking

photo credit: db*photography

Unfortunately I won't be able to attend the PresentationCampLA, but heard about it from Lisa Braithwaite and wanted to alert our readers to this opportunity.  Check it out!

Looking to keep your skills sharp for job hunting or career advancement?  PresentationCampLA is a grassroots, do-it-yourself event that aims to help individuals better present themselves and their ideas.

On Saturday, June 20, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., participants will gather at BlankSpaces in Los Angeles for a unique collaborative experience: creating a public speaking conference from scratch. The group will decide collectively at the start of the day which topics they would like to hear about, who will teach them, and the order of sessions for the day.

PresentationCampLA is a great opportunity for participants to learn from, teach to, and network with professionals involved in improving presentations in the Los Angeles area - and around the world!

PresentationCampLA website: http://barcamp.org/PresentationCampLA
Register here: http://presentationcampla.eventbrite.com/
Twitter hashtag: #pcampla

Once a quarter The Henderson Group holds a "By Invitation Only" Art of Presentation workshop in San Francisco, led by our VP of Services, Terry Gault.

Our work has to be experienced to truly understand its value.  We use these workshops as a way to introduce our work experientially to new prospective clients.

About the workshop:

Building rapport with an audience and moving them to action requires the ability to confidently present information that convinces and engages even the most skeptical customer. This intensive work educates and motivates participants to deliver high-impact presentations.

Using interactive methods, rather than lectured instruction, participants cultivate a personal style – a style that gains the audience's attention through confident composure and meaningful interaction. Through the Henderson Group's unique and proven feedback model, participants receive immediate feedback from instructors, peers and videotape, enabling them to rapidly learn, reflect and improve their presentation skills.

The results of this work:

• Competently present ideas and information to groups of people
• Energize and persuade audiences using stories and metaphors
• Effectively communicate with peers, superiors and customers
• Move business objectives forward by quickly engaging with customers and colleagues and creating influence.

"The skills we learned in this class can be translated into our every day life, every interview and every sales call we ever make."
- Oracle

Contact us for more information.

Click here to reserve a seat >>

by Terry Gault

There is a special kind of story that organizations need to be able to tell.  In a way, it is the collective “Who We Are” story meaning that it spells out Who We Are and What We Stand For as an organization.

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines 'myth' in this way:  A usually traditional story of ostensibly historical events that serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon.  They list “parable” as a synonym.

So, a Creation Myth is also usually a teaching story that explains a practice or belief system.  It describes the central ethos that defines an organization or group.

The Henderson Group Creation Myth

It was 1990 and the high tech boom in the San Francisco bay area was just beginning.  David Henderson, our co-founder, had quit his practice as a litigating attorney because he was “soul sick.”  David had been very successful working as council to Ernest and Julio Gallo during their ascent to a dominant market share.  But he said, “I saw a lot of zeros moving from one bank account to another but didn’t see anyone getting any happier.”  David was looking for work with greater meaning.

The idea of teaching presentation skills seemed like a good fit.  He approached his friend Rand, who he’d worked with at Ernest and Julio Gallo.  Rand was now heading up Human Resources at a growing high tech company based in Belmont , CA.

Rand introduced David to the Director of Training and Development.  The meeting did not go well and the woman told Rand that she had no intention of hiring David.  Rand pulled rank.  He informed her, “Yes, we will” and out of respect for her autonomy, they’d give David one workshop and agreed that if the scores were not excellent, then she wouldn’t have to hire David again.

She grudgingly agreed to move forward and filled the workshop with friends and gave them instructions to put David to the test.

The morning of the first day of our presentation skills workshop is when the bulk of the didactic or formal instruction takes place.  It was a difficult morning for David.  The group was pushing David and calling him on every little mistake he made.

David called Linda, his wife, partner and co-founder of the company, at lunch in a state of near panic.  It was a disaster.  Linda managed to calm him enough to get him back to the classroom.

I once asked David, “Did you learn to be a good presenter as a lawyer?”  He replied, “Not at all.  I didn’t learn to be a good presenter until I started leading these workshops.”

“Really?” I queried, “So, how did you have success as a trainer?”  He replied, “One of the things I was very good at as a litigator was the ability to coach witnesses.”

David had an unusually powerful BS detector.  He’d grown up in a challenging home environment with a mother who struggled with psychological illness and an alcoholic father.  He’d learned to pay very close attention to the behavior of those around him in order to protect himself.

Having been coached by David for about 6 years, it’s clear to me that he must have been very good at coaching witnesses in their demeanor and delivery so they would be telling the story that his firm wanted to be told; the story that would support their case.

In the afternoon, the participants were required to give their presentations and get feedback from David.  This was where his experience as a lawyer truly shined.  They began to see David’s coaching as valuable.

By the end of the workshop, the afternoon of day 2, they gave David the highest marks of any workshop that had been held at the company.  The Director of Training and Development had to admit that the workshop was a success and hired David to come back again.  They eventually became friends and the workshop became the most highly rated in the history of the company.

What was the company?  Oracle.  The company went through phenomenal growth through the next decade and was our largest client, both in terms of size and the revenue they generated for 12 years.

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photo by: John Carmichael