You’re as Good as You Decide to Be

Are great leaders, athletes, politicians, and speakers born to greatness, or did they learn the skill? Is it nature or nurture?

As Thomas Edison once said, “Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration.” All the talent in the world won’t take you to the top of the PGA or the business world if you don’t decide to do what it
takes. With all due respect to Nike for one of the world’s greatest slogans, you have to decide to “just do it.”
Speaking well is your decision. It doesn’t matter if you were an introverted child or the quiet type in high school. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t have opportunities to speak early in your career. It doesn’t matter
if you have a busy schedule or a company that doesn’t particularly support your professional development. You are the one who has to decide to be great. 

All CEOs who speak well were once average, and many were terrible. Many people would like to be better speakers, but they don’t make the decision to do what it takes. The decision sets a chain of events in

Make It a “Game”

 

The work of becoming great is not always much fun. Even golf can become a job when you have to do it every day and there is pressure to win. So, you have to make work a game. That’s what Tiger Woods did. “I always kept it fun,” he said of practicing. “Not necessarily by just going
out there and beating balls all day; that gets boring. I like to play games, play situational games.”
You can take the same approach to the “speaking game.” Make i interesting. Look for opportunities to try something new. Put yourself on the line. Set goals and determine what would make an event interesting for you. Set up your own rules, your own guidelines for success. Do more than meet other people’s expectations. 
Say “Yes” to Public Speaking

Many people avoid public speaking if they can. In fact, it’s often said that
many people are more afraid of public speaking than of death. Whether
that is true or not, the excuses I typically hear are that people are too busy
or have more important things to do.
You can hand off the speaking roles to others in your organization.
But you will be missing important opportunities. When you are the CEO,
you are the face and voice of the organization, and people expect you to
be standing up at the front of the room. You will never improve if you
don’t say yes to public speaking. 

Ask for Help 

It isn’t always easy to ask for help. You may be accustomed to getting
things done on your own. A client in financial services got a big promotion
to a senior executive position. One Friday, she found herself in a
quandary. She had made a commitment to teach a course, attend several
meetings, and entertain a client, but she also had a major presentation to
give on Tuesday. She didn’t have time to brush her teeth, let alone prepare
a major speech