Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Article Review: How to Become an Authentic Speaker

I found that this article was very well written and interesting. It made several good points about being an authentic speaker. Morgan points out that rehearsed gestures make a speaker seem insincere and inauthentic. The author says that preparation for a speaking is important but the traditional approach is flawed because it involves specific coaching on body language. This is because we normally make gestures before we speak the words related to them but rehearsed gestures occur after we speak the related words and the audience unconsciously picks up on this difference. The author concludes that an authentic speaker should keep a set of four intents to keep in mind to make a speech more authentic. These intents are: intent to be open with your audience, intent to connect with your audience, intent to be passionate about your topic, and intent to listen to your audience.

The article can be found in the November 2008 issue of Harvard Business review

Written by Nick Morgan
Reviewed by Chris Postma