Page 217 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

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TRAIN YOURSELF

eople who teach golf, skiing, and tennis have known for
Pyears that nothing speeds the learning process like showing
someone a tape of themselves trying to perform a test of skills. The
subjects of these revealing videos study every move and every nuance
with uncommon attentiveness, because they are, after all, watching
themselves—and they don’t always like what they see.
The same is true for the role of the TV camera in helping people
(1) see themselves as others see them, (2) spot distracting body move-
ments or gestures, (3) practice for speaking assignments, (4) perfect
key elements like pauses and eye contact, and (5) monitor their own
progress and improvement as they advance through a program like
mine to develop their own speaking styles.
Even if you have never had even a single minute of professional
help or speaker training of any kind, regular use of a camcorder
setup with a tripod and TV monitor in your own home or in your

office will help make you a more effective talker. The reason is that
most people are acutely sensitive to whatever shortcomings may
show up on tape. Once you identify the offending elements, it is easy
enough to practice until they go away. It is important, though, that you
don’t see a swan as an ugly duckling and then proceed to kill the
swan. So I suggest that if you undertake to practice with a camcorder,

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