Speak to Win... Amazingly

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

In Speak to Win, Brian Tracy enlarges the best principles on how to present with power in any situation. It's the greatest power there is. When you can communicate very well, so others get it too, and can get across what's on your mind, what you've learned or experienced, you will rise to the top wherever you are. All great leaders are exceptional speaking communicators.

Tracy reassures us that this is a skill you can learn and become very good at. This is one of Tracy's best skills and he has now written a book about what it takes to be one of best at speaking.
Speak to Win covers small groups, meeting, large and small group presentations.

The art of speaking and rhetoric.The three elements of persuasion.
Logos--words and reasoning in your argument.
Ethos--character, ethics, believability when you speak.
Pathos--emotional content of your messages, which is perhaps the most important.

Planning and preparation made simple. Know your audience. Age and age range, gender, income, education, occupation, family status, their knowledge on your subject, how they think, personal desires. Go deeper into their lifestyle such as what is going on in their business, their environment, who they listen to, specific concerns.

For each point use the PREP Formula.
Your Point of view,
Reasons why,
Examples,
re-affirming your Point of view.

Practice (Tracy lists several methods on how).
Use memory techniques. The more you practice, starting small, the better you become. The key to speaking well is speaking a lot. (Toastmasters is a great place to practice, learn and improve.) Develop self-confidence and mental mastery. Overcoming fear is the biggest speaking roadblock. To increase self confidence, talk about what you strongly believe in, talk from your heart, think of the audience as being on your side, use positive self-talk. ("These guys like me.")

Visualize like a kid imagining great speaking success, go to sleep dreaming of your speech. Emotionalize seeing a pleased group when finished. Do this over and over again and you will actualize what you fantasize?

Also come early, room management is important. Prepare the room ahead of time, so you have time to meet a few people before you begin. Start strong, take charge, be authentic and humble, use humor, tell stories.

Mastering meetings with small groups.
Use meetings for problem solving, information sharing, new product announcements, team building. Be prepared and start with the most important items first... so if you run out of time you have the most important covered.

As a participant, be the first to share, volunteer for responsibilities, prepare before meetings.To be persuasive in a meeting: accept others, express appreciation of other's ideas, compliment others and reveal what you admire about them, share approval by praising others, pay attention to others, be agreeable with others. (Point out what you like about someone else's ideas before suggesting your own.)

Mastering small-group presentations and negotiations.
Negotiations: Start with the end in mind. Remember everything is negotiable. Think like a lawyer by thinking through the other person's case before giving yours. Know the differences between desire and fear. People buy more out of fear of loss, than a desire for a gain.

Law of four: most negotiations require four main issues to be resolved. Find your four and sculpture your presentation around them.

Presentations:
Get them involved. Group solidarity. When your are nice to one person they all feel you are being nice to them. Know the pecking order and make sure you peck in the right order. Invite questions, take a power position. Stand at the head of the table. Determine the next best action. Use visuals: show, tell and ask questions.

In the rest of Speak to Win, Tracy covers how to impress large audiences, learning the tricks of the trade techniques used by master speakers, controlling your space using sound, lighting, temperature, and how to end with a bang. Plus, he adds a bonus chapter on making persuasive sales presentations.

This is vintage Tracy. He packs a lot of quality information into Speaking to Win, dealing with the essential speaking skills and techniques. Tracy has more, including free newsletters and ebooks at:
http://www.briantracy.com/

When Stephen faced the crowd it was said he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Here, a young man, soon to be a martyr, spoke with a boldness which amazed everyone. Peter was given credit after being filled with the Holy Spirit to have great speaking influence. The Apostle Paul was known for his ability to persuade the Jewish leaders to persecute the Christians. But after His conversion experience He spoke with great power, but not of human persuasive abilities. His abilities were of the Supernatural, of Great Power, and that which changed the behavior of those around him.

The Apostle Paul says himself, learning to talk with a new oratory skill... the skill of Spirit...."When I first came to you, dear brothers and sisters, I didn't use lofty words and impressive wisdom to tell you God's secret plan. I came to you in weakness—timid and trembling. And my message and my preaching were very plain. Rather than using clever and persuasive speeches, I relied only on the power of the Holy Spirit. I did this so you would trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God."
(I Corinthians 2: 1-5, NLT)

We have a power beyond our abilities to speak well. Paul, an educated man, was quite good at expressing a point, and change people's mind. But, in Spirit he found something even Greater.

Andrew Murray enlarges on this theme in the Spirit of Christ.

"Every person must continually be taught by the Spirit how to speak it. And every hearer needs the inward illumination: it is only as he is a Spiritual man, with his life under the rule of the Spirit, that his mind can take in spiritual truth."
"Our preaching was not in man's wisdom, but in the Spirit; that your faith might not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."
"We must learn to fear our own wisdom. 'Trust in the Lord with the whole heart, and lean not to your own understanding.' Paul says, to believers: 'If any man thinks that he is wise, let him become a fool, that he may be wise ' (I Cor.3:18)"

"Reject the spirit of the world which is still in you, with its wisdom and self - confidence; come, in poverty of spirit, to be led by the Spirit that is of God. 'Be not fashioned according to the world,' with its confidence in the flesh, and self, and its wisdom; 'but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, ' It is a transformed, renewed life, that, only wants to know God's perfect will, that will be taught by the Spirit. Cease from your own wisdom; 'God hath revealed them to us by His Spirit.'"
"The crucifixion of self and all its wisdom, the coming in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling, as Paul did, will most assuredly be met from above with the demonstration of the Spirit and of power."

This all comes from time committed in Prayer, entering in Spirit, and listening to Spirit. When the Spirit fills our souls, then the words Spirit gives us are loaded with Power that transforms, revolutionizes, persuades beyond our best human skills.

Dr. J. Robert Ashcroft pointed out in the Body of Christ that Peter prayed for ten days with the disciples, gave a 3-minute speech and 3000 people were converted that day.

Power in Spirit is always preceded by much prayer. Put more work into prayer and your work will produce more. You will see demonstrations of power in what you do, and others will be impressed by it and drawn to the source of the Power, Jesus Himself. God then is Glorified which builds His Kingdom.

People need to walk away being impressed of Spirit, not impressed of you. If they do, the human exceeded the Spiritual, and God's Power was left to be desired. When in Spirit, people are drawn to Spirit, not us. Then they will have His Power too.

Heavenly wisdom and power is so beyond human wisdom and power. With the Holy Spirit, Peter went from being the most ineffective disciple to being one of the model apostles. Jesus knew what the Holy Spirit will do when we take time in prayer, in Spirit, and allow the Holy Spirit to saturate the Situation.

Add to your speaking skills the skill of Spirit and let there then be a demonstration of power in and through whatever you speak.

"For the Kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk; it is living by God's power."
(1 Cor. 4:20, NLT)

This is the new speech... it may not be verbalized but only in prayer, but in prayer our battles are won. We walk by power, not articulation skills. We have confidence to enter any communication, knowing when we have prepared in Spirit we have a power beyond us, that works beyond anything we can do... that's amazing.