In the fast-paced and ever-evolving business landscape of today, any entrepreneur that is not open to learning, unlearning, and relearning will become outdated and irrelevant, with time.
I may be sounding like a broken record because I have made this statement in my last two blog posts. But I don’t mind, if you feel or think so, provided I pass the message across to you.
I have continued to repeat that statement because of the positive transformation I am experiencing as a result of my decision to be open to learning, unlearning, and relearning.
To be precise, when I was directed by one of my lecturers at the Lagos Business School that I should take the Harvard Communication online course, I initially saw it as added work for me. More so, I felt communication was not relevant to managing a business.
But after going through it, I must confess that I am glad I took the course. It truly opened me up to some facts I never knew.
While going through the course, I came across a quote by Darren Whissen, Director of Research at Waveland LLC. He said, “No matter how strong one’s financial model is, if one cannot write a logical, compelling story, then investors are going to look elsewhere. And in my business, that means death.”
By compelling story, he meant a clear, concise, and persuasive art of communication.
Also, Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta Air Lines said, “When you’re managing as much change as corporations globally must deal with today, the ability to communicate and communicate effectively, is so important that it ought to be a core capability in a business school curriculum. These statements were phenomenal for me.
To narrow this down, the course focused on three aspects of communication. That is, planning communication, writing in business, and presenting in business.
By studying and practicing good communication skills now, I realized that you will be better prepared to lead. The reason is that one of the core things you will always do as a business owner is communication.
You will have to communicate with investors, employees, customers, and other stakeholders in your business. Some of these communications will either be written (through emails) or done verbally through presentations. And all of them require planning.
Specifically, it was the presentation in business module that intrigued me the most.
From the module, I learnt more about the need for speaking persuasively and engaging your audience. Also, I learnt about the obstacles to persuasive presentations
As you quite know, a lot of people can engage in intelligent conversations on a one-on-one basis. But when they stand in front of an audience, that ability seems to vanish. Their speech doesn’t flow, they stop smiling, and they do not make eye contact. A little later, they are smiling again and carrying on productive conversations without difficulty.
The question is, why does this happen to so many people? I realized that fear of speaking, over-reliance on slides, failure to engage, and misconception about persuasion are the reasons people behave that way.
Finally, I learnt that slides are supposed to complement your presentation. Not to take over your presentation. Also, I came to understand that slides that convey too much create a dilemma for audience members.
These facts were really eye-opening for me.
In all, I am so glad I attended the course.
Nkem Adenuga
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