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July, 2006
Become a True Agent of Change
Ask how you can be of service rather than
how you can demonstrate your expertise
Ask how you can be of service rather than
how you can demonstrate your expertise
by
Carla Kimball
©2006, Carla Kimball
All rights reserved.
In 2006 I attended the Shambhala Institute Authentic Leadership Conference and had a conversation with another participant, Steve Ryman. That March, Steve spent time at Kufunda, a small village in Zimbabwe. This country is in the midst of a significant eroding of the social and economic structures that hold a country together, including the reality of an economy with an inflation rate of 1,200% in the last year, 70% unemployment and 30% of the population living with HIV/AIDs. In the midst of this catastrophic social and cultural devastation, Marianne Knuth, founder of the Kufunda village, has a vision of creating a sustainable, thriving village in which local human capital and natural resources are used to create an extended community of support.
Steve attended a two week "learning journey" to immerse himself in the life of the village and then continued on in a coaching capacity to provide the community with some assistance in solving some of their many seemingly insurmountable problems. New to coaching, Steve found himself at a loss for how he could be of assistance in the face of such monumental crises.
Early one morning, Steve climbed a small hill near the village to watch the sunrise. He was desperately looking for answers to what he could possibly do to help this community survive, thrive and become a model for other sustainable "villages" in the world. As the sun came up over the horizon Steve became acutely aware of his place on the planet and realized that he was just one "inadequate" human being hoping to be of some small service to a village, a country and a planet facing catastrophic odds. In this moment, he realized that while he had very little expertise, he did have a desire and an opportunity.
That morning he returned to the community with the humble recognition that all he could do was to be of service. Before others had awoken, he swept out the kitchen floor and began to peel potatoes. His contributions to the community in the subsequent two weeks became invaluable.
The moment Steve moved from feeling like he had to be an expert to looking for ways to be of service, he became a profound agent of change. As speakers, we often get caught up in the misconception that the most important thing we can do is to demonstrate our expertise. And, yes, the audience comes because they recognize that we might have some information and knowledge about the topic at hand. But, if we present ourselves as the expert, we then create a wall of separation that can throw us into the paralyzing fear that so many people feel about speaking in public. I refer to this self-absorbed concern as the "arrows in" position. We are so concerned about looking good and being perfect that we isolate ourselves from the audience.
If instead, we focus our attention on how can we, despite all our "inadequacies", simply be of service to our audience, we drop into our humanity and humbly connect with the human beings in our audience. I call this position of connection our "arrows out" position. And from this position, we can deeply affect our audience and become powerful agents of change.
Next time you have a presentation, ask yourself: “How can I be of service to my audience?” Rather than, “How can I demonstrate my expertise?”
*******
Carla Kimball, M.A., M.B.A. is a public speaking executive coach, workshop facilitator and president of RiverWays Enterprises. Over the past 18 years she has presented and coached on a diverse set of business, stress management and communication topics to thousands of business and service professionals. Client companies include leading financial management, health care, and accounting firms.
Carla offers a selection of regular public speaking and presentation skills programs and coaching services for individuals as well as for corporate groups. Carla works from inside-out and helps people become more confident speakers while establishing a strong relationship with their audience.
Carla is a prolific writer on public speaking topics and currently offers a 26 week subscription to The ABCs of Presence in Public Speaking Toolkit, a newsletter which presents one article a week organized alphabetically with a unique perspective on public speaking issues.
Carla is based in Cambridge, MA., ckimball@riverways.com, 617-489-1154, www.riverways.com.
(You may freely copy and distribute this article as long as you keep the content intact and unchanged including title, author, copyright notice, text, contact information (www.riverways.com), and this entire notice. )
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