World Championship Advice

Big thanks to Andrew Dlugan over at the Six Minutes blog for posting an interview he did with the recently crowned 2008 World Champion of Public Speaking, LaShunda Rundles. She is the first woman to gain the title since 1986 and the first African-American woman ever. I haven't heard her speech, but the interview is both inspiring and informative.

Here are three answers highlighting Authenticity as a critical factor in her success (and yours)...

Question: Having gone through six separate speech contests this year, what lessons have you learned from competitive speaking?  The thing I learned most from competitive speaking is that you have to stay genuine.

Question: Studying other speakers and developing self-awareness are necessary to grow as a speaker. What do you consider your greatest strengths as a speaker? How about weaknesses: what speaking skills or habits are you currently striving to improve?  My greatest strength as a speaker is the ability to stay truthful. I find my message and I let my words guide me from there. Also, I don’t try to become too staged. I work to have a conversation with the audience not a one-act play.

Question: What other advice can you give to Six Minutes readers who are striving to become more confident and effective speakers?  To become a better speaker I encourage people to just practice, practice, practice. You have to get comfortable in your own skin.

Authenticity Rule #1

Know Thyself

Effective communicators share a common goal of cutting straight to the hearts and minds of their audience. AR #1, therefore, is to Know Thyself. Self-intimacy cuts the deepest path to understanding others. It is also completely impossible to be authentic if you don't hold a firm understanding of who you are.

Achieving Authenticity...

1. Reflect often on your beliefs and values
2. Journal
3. Attend conferences to exercise your self-awareness
4. Think about why you do things
5. Gather around you friends and family that let you be yourself and challenge you to be the best of yourself.

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning to work on becoming yourself. -- Anna Quindlen

People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering. -- St. Augustine

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.
-- Carl Jung

One of the secrets of life is to be honestly who you are. Who others want you to be, who you used to be, and who you may some day become ... these are fantasies. To be honestly who you are is to give up your illusions and face today with courage.
-- Bill Purdin