All of us can improve how we communicate
This past week I learned that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. got a C in public speaking when he was in seminary. I’d love to know the backstory of this grade, which apparently was a dip from the C+ he’d earned in the prior grading period. But I share it today because it gives me hope. Even one of the greatest orators of all time did not always have that gift; apparently it was something even Dr. King had to develop.
In my twenty years of teaching communication to grad students at NYU, Stanford, Columbia, and now USC, I’ve graded tens of thousands of papers and presentations. I’m sure I’ve given some low grades to students who’ve gone on to do some amazing things. Much like the Yale professor who gave Fred Smith, the founder of FedEx, a C on his term paper outlining what would become the giant corporation we know today, I’m sure some of my feedback will come back to haunt me.
But the larger point I draw from this is that all of us are developing (or should be) throughout our careers and lives. That’s the concept of mastery in communication that I espouse every chance I get. Each time we write or speak, our goal is not perfection, but incremental growth. We want to be a little bit better than the last time we communicated.
In parenting our kids, Ken and I often talk about the value of the simple word “yet” when they are talking about something they’re not good at. It makes all the difference when our 7-year-old Roma can just add it to the end of a sentence. “I’m not good at drawing unicorns…yet.” It reinforces that all skills in life can be developed if we chose to focus on them.
If Dr. King can rebound from a C to earn A’s, be valedictorian and a renowned orator, what’s possible for you? What areas of your own speaking and writing are not yet where you want them to be? What can you do to attain greater Mastery in these over the next year?
JD’s Recommendations: what I’m reading, hearing, and seeing
· Reading: Bad City, Peril and Power in the City of Angels – riveting master class in investigative journalism looking at scandals and collusion at USC and the LA Times. I could not put this down.
· Hearing: The Greg McKeown Podcast – his two-part interview with Kyle Westaway on identifying your circle of confidence (#161 & 163) is exceptional.
· Seeing: The Cost of Conformity – Shawon Jackson’s compelling view of the downside of expecting others to speak as we do, one of the hundreds of LOWKeynote talks at Stanford
Thanks for joining me for my inaugural post on Substack. If you’ve not subscribed click here to do so. If you liked this post, please forward to others.
As always, jds
PS: On February 1, registration will open for Realize the Result, a one-day workshop Ken Daigle and I are offering in San Francisco, Kansas City, and New York this spring. Consider spending a day with us to expand your mastery in speaking to drive results and click here for more info.