Ep 7 | Keep your team focused through speaking & leadership [ Season 2 ]

Having a vision — and being able to communicate that vision to your team — is key to being a great leader. There’s an undeniable link between speaking and leadership, knowing which is key to business success.

In this episode of the Advance Podcast, Mike talks to you about the 3 essential questions to ask yourself before attending a speaking event and how they help determine the purpose, importance, and effectiveness of your speaking. You’ll learn about why you must be led by a vision – be it in communication or leadership – and how having one helps your team stay focused too. You’ll also learn about Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), their benefits, and limitations. Listen in!

EPISODE 07 SUMMARY & HIGHLIGHTS

What are the three questions you must ask yourself every time you start to speak with people?

02:42

The three questions one must ask themselves before communicating to an audience are: ‘Who am I talking to?’, ‘What am I saying?’, and ‘Why am I doing this?’.

‘What am I saying’ is an important question to ask because many people get into some form of public speaking having no idea what they want to put across to people. They have a few points they have gathered, but they aren’t clear how or in which manner they can put it out for people to understand.

The ‘Why am I doing this’ question is even more important because it gives you clarity of purpose – it should ultimately come down to something personal, not something production-oriented. When it does, you’ll know why you need to communicate effectively.

What are KPIs? What are the benefits and downsides of it? How does it explain the parallel between communication and leadership?

18:53

KPIs are short for Key Performance Indicators, which was popularized when Dr. Kaplan and Dr. Norton created the balanced business scorecard. They are like the SMART goal for business and assess if an employee is performing well as they should be. 

KPIs give you a lot of clarity by enabling you to measure the success, the direction, the activities, the outcomes and the productivity of the people that you lead. 

The one limitation of KPIs is that they can’t measure the ‘why’ – why people are doing or not doing something. For instance, during these days of the Great Resignation (as many of us choose to call it), there’s a lot of talk about employees leaving companies, but the ‘why’ behind this remains uncertain. Knowing the ‘why’, whether it’s in communication or leadership, is essential to move forward.

KEY QUOTES:

04:58-05:15
“Knowing the why behind what you say gives purpose. So knowing that gives clarity and direction as to what you're going to say. And knowing the why gives you purpose, it gives you conviction, it gives you belief that what you're saying actually matters.”

06:20-06:32
“The difficulty with KPIs is that they can give direction but not purpose. They can tell people what to clearly do and goals, but it won't tell them why they're doing it.”

RESOURCES MENTIONED ON THE PODCAST

BOOK: Write To Speak by Mike Acker
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B081TVZZYX

CONNECT WITH MIKE
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeackerdotcom