Why do we speak? Why did humans develop communication skills, to begin with?
In general, we talk because we need something. We need our basic needs met; we need to survive in life. And today, that means succeeding in our workplaces.
What do we need at work? We need people to think we’re smart. We need people to believe that we are doing a good job. We need to be trusted, considered authoritative. We also need people to hire us for jobs & gigs. And we need them to listen to our ideas in meetings.
We need to have strong friendships. None of this can be accomplished without speaking.
Why do we speak?
We need to speak to get what we need out of life.
We also need to speak to get our message out there. Perhaps you feel strongly about a topic and you want to get people to understand your opinion and perhaps change their views.
Speaking skills and arguing your case used to be taught in schools up until about 200 years ago. They taught logic and how to have an argument. In fact, the word “argument” itself didn’t have negative connotations as it does now. Now when you think of an argument you think of raised voices and slamming doors.
Up until a short time ago, we considered teaching children to “make their case” to be a big part of their education.
Now adults don’t even know that they can improve their speaking abilities!
“Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.”
William Butler Yeats
I never knew this was a thing.
For 20 years, when my clients completed their programs with us they always said, “I never knew I could be this powerful & persuasive in every aspect of my life.” “I had no idea I could accomplish this.” Or something to that effect.
We’ve had clients say that they wanted to “turn it down” because they weren’t accustomed to people doing what they told them to do. But that’s why we speak. 🙂 Not so we can have good pronunciation. So people will do what we want them to do.
This is what prompted our rebrand.
4 Definitive Techniques to Making Small Talk
When people came to us they came for a specific aspect of speaking.
Accent reduction. Presentation skills. Voice improvement. To stop being interrupted, etc. Mainly because they didn’t know that they could make such huge changes in their ability to communicate.
(In this article I talk about why it’s easier to communicate with your friends than during meetings or with your boss.)
If at the end of the program my clients’ results are significantly more extraordinary–I’ve been doing something terribly wrong with my marketing. In doing so I’m depriving people to learn the ability to communicate in a way that’s super relaxed & super persuasive.
I didn’t know my core offering! Accent Reduction & Presentation Skills training is merely (& partly) the method!
Being a Great Communicator Can Be Rocket Science and It’s OK
Why We Speak
The big picture results from training with me & my coaches have been that people become more powerful. You become a better leader with better relationships.
The results are that you become more comfortable making small talk, making introductions, and delivering presentations. You’ll easily come across as authoritative, credible, yet warm. Furthermore, people get to see & respect the real you. That’s what we need out of life.
To summarize, we don’t need to reduce our accents for the sake of it! We do it to be crystal clear & highly persuasive. Presentation skills is an umbrella term I use to train people to be charming, authoritative & credible in all milieus of their lives.
It’s not about getting rid of all your filler words. It’s about having amazing relationships with everyone with whom you communicate. Large groups or 1-on-1. It’s about getting people to do what you want them to do.
That’s why we’ve gone from OlsenSpeech to Convey.
Learn from my mistakes & don’t wait 20 years to figure out what your core offering is. And realize that what you have to offer is (hopefully) helping people.
So get your message out there! I can help you do it 🙂
I love how these posts get me thinking about new concepts. Humans developed communication skills not to have perfect pronunciation, but so that people will do what we want them to.
Exactly! Thanks, Brittney!
We speak to have amazing relationships with others! Of course. I get so caught up in how I’m saying things that I don’t focus on the big picture. Communicating with others. Before I found you I never knew it was a thing, either! I didn’t know you could change the way you speak for the better.
Thank you, Rich.
Yes, we are not taught communication skills in school. I’ve been working to change that 🙂