Leadership Development Training
In a recent leadership development training for high potential leaders for State Farm Insurance in California, I stated that “emotion is the fast lane to the brain.” My statement evoked a spirited conversation around the proper and appropriate use of emotion in a business presentation.
It seems that everyone is afraid to use emotion while at the same time acknowledging that what is missing from most business presentations is emotion. In many cases, my clients are stumped as to why everyone is so boring and yet, they keep developing presentations where content is king and personality and authenticity are shuffled aside as extraneous.
Consider this, you are an emotional being. There is no thought or action without an underlying emotion. Thoughts lead to emotions and emotions are followed by thoughts. They are married together and cannot be separated. Every speaker and every audience member thinks and feels simultaneously.
The unique way you think combined with how you feel is expressed as a one-of-a kind personality called YOU!
Therefore, if you try to give a presentation focused solely on content without the freedom to express your emotions, you’ll get nervous. You may not even be able to think straight. Why? Because you’re denying an intimate and authentic part of yourself.
Have you ever given a presentation based on PowerPoint slides that had so many bullet points and so much content that all you could do was stand there and read the slides without being able to comment, ad-lib or be playful? Was it horrible? Of course it was. Because you couldn’t be YOU!
The radically bold concept that emotion is the fast lane to the brain is based on solid research. You cannot teach something to someone who is not paying attention. Content without connection is boring. If you cover content for a prolonged period of time without any emotional stimulation, you will lose attention. People will start fiddling with their Blackberry’s and scribbling notes. They’ll check email while they’re supposed to be paying attention.
If you are emotionally engaged, feeling a feeling, often through the vehicle of storytelling, you pay attention. If you want to teach something or if what you have to say is too important for it to get lost in the fog of dense content, make your listener feel something.
The way for you to do this is simple. Feel something yourself! Don’t just deliver content, connect with how you feel about your content. Talk about what it means to you. Don’t report facts. Editorialize. Interpret. Be a person, not a speaker. Don’t give a speech, have a conversation.
Emotion is the fast lane to the brain. It’s not just a slogan. It’s how you connect with people.
Doug Stevenson
Doug Stevenson, president of Story Theater International, is the creator of The Story Theater Method and the author of the book, Never Be Boring Again.
His 10 CD - How to Write and Deliver a Dynamite Speech audio learning system, is a workshop in a box. It contains an 80-page follow along workbook.
Learn more at: Dynamite Speech Home Study Course
Doug can be reached at 1-800-573-6196 or 1-719-573-6195 or at: Story Theater Website
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