Do you sound under-educated?

A number of years ago I conducted an interview with master speaker, and former NSW Premier Bob Carr, for a product titled Choice Voice. Lessons from great speaking voices.

Here’s a portion of Carr’s response to a request during the interview”

Michael Kelly
**Give us an example or two of how your voice helped in achieving your success you’ve had in public life and business life.

Bob Carr
“Well, you have to be heard in the Parliament, so when I was a young Minister I took a lot of trouble to give performances at Question time in the New South Wales Parliament as impressive as I could make them.

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Powerful, subtle techniques to ‘own a room’

Picture this. You’re about to present to a roomful of executives senior to you. How can you ‘stamp your ownership’ on the room?

Here’s one way…

(1) Get to the room early and ‘walk’ the room.

That is, walk from the middle front of the room to the right front corner of the room. Look back to the middle front of the room and imagine your voice ‘traveling’ to that corner. Then walk to the back right corner of the room. Turn around and imagine your voice traveling from the front of the room to that corner. Walk to the back left corner. Look back to the front and do the imagining. Walk to the front left corner; Look to the front and do the imagining.

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Learn from the magnetism of former U.S. president Bill Clinton

Leaving aside the value of his policies, and his behaviour when he was in office in 1992 -2000, U.S president Bill Clinton – in this 3:08 minute clip – delivers a masterful performance. Clinton is one of the best communicators of the last 40 years.

Here is my analysis:

  • Clinton projects indescribable magnetism. From the opening of his response, starting with a light hearted comment, he shifts to a memorable string of words that hooks our attention and charms us: “To be really good at this, you got to like people, you got to like policy and you got to like politics …. and yet, there’s got to be somethings you won’t do, to be good at it.”
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Robert F. Kennedy’s 50% rule for being successful

In 1968, when on the presidential campaign trail, the late Robert F. Kennedy told the journalist Roger Mudd, something to the effect of, “Roger, 50% of success is looking like you’re having a great time at what your doing.'”

The best C level executives that I work with adhere to 50% rule. They can make all stakeholders feel that this role/job/function they’re having a great time performing their role.

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