Great Communicators Aren't Born, They're Trained!

“The pen is mightier than the sword.” 

“You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”

Put it any way you’d like, but it boils down to this: Effective leaders use their powers of communication and persuasion to convince others to follow them toward their goals.

Think about it, and I bet you could come up with a nice long list of leaders who were also great communicators: Historic leaders (e.g. Churchill, Lincoln, or JFK) and modern ones (e.g. most speakers on the popular TEDTalks site).

Unfortunately, you can probably think of more people who you’ve actually known who don’t fit the profile. Bosses who pull you from one task or project to another over and over again until you completely lost track of your job’s goals. Managers paralyzed by indecision because they don’t have clear goals to help them evaluate choices.

 The good news for us? Good communicators are not born that way; they are trained. Churchill trained as a journalist and actually choked during his first speeches in Parliament before he became the orator we think of today. All of those speakers on TEDTalks received extra training to become the speakers you see in those recordings.

You too can be a great leader and a great communicator. You just have to set the goal and work toward it.

As you work toward your goal of becoming a better communicator and leader, I hope you use this blog as a resource. I’ll share with you my experiences and tips as a professional writer, editor, public speaker, and communication coach and give you advice and tools you can use immediately to start improving on your skills. I'll share my tips for organizing and preparing your presentations to keep them on message and within your allotted time. I'll discuss grammar and composition to help you become a better writer. I'll also share tips for leading teams, facilitating meetings, coaching volunteers and interns, and managing your career.

Remember, communicators and leaders aren’t born great. They’re trained to be great. I look forward to contributing to your training to become a better leader and communicator.