John Adair's 100 Greatest Ideas for Brilliant Communication

Idea 28: Truth through personality

You make the audience say, ‘How well he speaks!’ I make them say, ‘Let us march against Philip!’

Demosthenes, the greatest of all Athenian orators

As the speaker, it is within your power to capture and direct the attention of your audience. That attention should be firmly attached to the content of what you want to say, not to you or your personality. If you are wise, you won’t make your speech an ego trip.

You cannot, of course, eliminate personality altogether, even if you were so foolish as to want to do so. Whatever light we have to bring to dispelling some of the fuzziness around us always comes through the lens of personality.

You should, however, strive to keep your lens clear of any of those kinds of ...