What matters more: gifts & talents or discipline & preparation?

People often think that when it comes to public speaking skills, You either have it or you don't! How about you? Do you agree it's really as simple as that, or would you rather go for Kate Sanborn's good old "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration?"

Original Thinkers' Evolution

One way to test it (intuitively) is to remember your early experiences in the public speaking department, going back all the way to school years, accidental as many of those experiences may have been.

Looking back, is there anything you'd change if your task at hand was to improve the way you performed back then? Surely, you'd easily find at least one thing you know now that you didn't know back then.

In other words, your natural, "evolutionary progress" makes you see things you didn't see earlier. Likewise, years from the many job interviews you may have been to in your career, or important, life-changing conversations you've had, it's not a far-fetched assumption to believe you wish you had said/or done some things differently, in retrospect.

The Hidden Treasures of the Overlooked

One of the biggest (and perhaps wisest) ironies of success in life is that the more you achieve, the higher the probability you will stop seeing things (as in "recognize, reflect on and acknowledge the importance of"). As irony would have it, these might just be the very things that really matter the most, at the end of the day...to you, your loved ones, your friends, your colleagues at work.

Over the years, I've worked with dozens of public speakers (incl. people who regularly give speeches and presentations at conferences) and I never stop wondering how many of them had lost sight of some of the key public-speaking-success variables on the way...largely because of their egos increasingly blocking their vision.

Success not only makes you successful. If you're not careful enough, it may also make you blind...even to what others will classify as 'too obvious not to notice'.

Key Goals of Public Speaking Training

(Too) many people think that the primary goals of effective public speaking training include things like:

• the "right" movement & gestures on the stage
• the "right" places to look at while speaking
• the "right" clothes to wear
• the "right" pace & intonation patterns

It's none of those things, really. The key goals of a tailored, public-speaking programme should always focus on your particular brand of authenticity, on the beauty, the colour and the opportunities hidden in your "imperfections". Once you understand that, you will realize soon enough that it all starts with two things:

1. Improving your critical self-observation skills
2. Taking your ability to find the kind of "best practice" that best suits your needs to the next level and helping you adapt it to your actual (as opposed to imaginary) needs.

What about the original question?

Great public speaking is (a lot more) about perspiration and continuous improvement than it is about talent or magic (tricks). Great speakers never underestimate the power of preparation, repetition, introspection, feedback and (constructive!) self-criticism.

Take Sir Winston Churchill, for example. One of the primary reasons why he evolved to be such a powerful public speakers is the fact that his attention to detail and continuous improvement became clear "self-education" priorities very early on. What is more, he made it a habit to confront (literally thousands of) his public-speaking assumptions with different types of audiences, throughout his career. He also rarely wasted an opportunity to reflect on his past performance and look for ways to improve his rhetorical arsenal, both while addressing a group of workers or protesters in a small town square or commanding absolute respect and complete silence during his iconic, parliamentary speeches (during the pivotal moments of WW II).

One last thing...

So, if you're looking for excuses in life, the likes of I wasn't born with the right talents or predispositions! might come in handy, but if you're serious about communicating whatever it is that matters to you (at any particular moment in your life) to anyone in particular, you'd better start joyfully exposing yourself to risks and failures, as most of them will be the closest you will ever get to the proverbial blessings in disguise.