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Featured Article: EXPERTS WHO SPEAK PROFESSIONALLY
Introduction
As I have been
writing in the first issues, my work in the last 12 months has focused
me on "experts who speak professionally". These are speakers who became
experts, or experts who became speakers.
As I've looked at the "success stories" I've identified four characteristics of successful experts who speak:
--- Freshness,
--- Novelty,
--- Originality, and
--- Boldness
In
this issue, I want to give a brief overview of these four
characteristics. In subsequent issues, I will explore each one in more
depth.
Freshness
Being "fresh" is, in
part, being new. But it is more than new. "Fresh" includes qualities
like briskness, brightness and purity. "Fresh" is not just new, it is
new that sparkles. It isn't stale. But it may also be cutting edge and
untried.
When I talked to Richard Weylman about experts, he said:
". . . we are going to stand and deliver a cutting edge new idea, its going to be fresh . . ."
And, Joe Calloway said:
"I
had tremendous admiration for those speakers who that can take basic
principles about attitude and values and motivation and keep those
fresh."
Novelty
"Novel" is new, but it
is also strikingly unusual. The unusual core of "novelty" reaches out
and captures the imagination and fuels ideas of the possible. It
creates a "wow factor". It does what Dan Burrus calls "turning light
bulbs on in people's minds."
Dan said:
"The moment that light
bulb goes on in a person's mind, where there is a new opportunity open
for them that they never dreamed possible, a new way of thinking is
open for them that they never had thought before. You could see it in
your eyes. That moment, I love that moment. I really love that moment.
So I asked myself, How could I turn on a gazillion light bulbs?"
Originality
"Original"
is not just new, it is both novel and first. "Originality" is about
creating the novelty yourself. "Original" is more than the collection
of the fresh or novel ideas of others. It is about the creation of
fresh and novel ideas.
Joe Calloway shared some ideas on originality:
". . . if I don't inject my own original ideas I'm just giving them book reports."
".
. . I distill down best practices and then add my own original creative
ideas to the mix and that then is what I take to my clients. That's
where the value is created."
"I've got to synthesize the reality
of the marketplace with their very particular situation with my
original idea and put that all together."
Boldness
"Boldness"
is what separates the "shy expert" from the "professional speaker".
When we think of "expert", we frequently envision the shy, rumplety,
focused expert, isolated in an office. But experts can also be bold,
both in their expression of their expertise and in their delivery and
presentation. Successful experts who speak professionally embody a
"boldness".
Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it.
--- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 - 1832)
The
boldness combines the fresh, the novel and the original with a courage
and confidence in the knowledge that only they have to deliver it with
purpose and passion. It is their niche. It is their calling. It is
their genius. Perhaps boldness is what sets them apart.
Juanell's Simple But Profound Statement
--- Boldness drives the work no one else knew to do.
--- The work gives you a knowing that no one else.
--- The knowing increases your boldness and sets you apart.