Ear is a concept that concerns your speaking style.
The language of leaders has always been direct, unadorned and ordinary. You will rarely find a successful CEO, for example, who got to the top by talking like a memorandum, or in the secret language of his/her discipline.
Great leaders are straight talkers. Ordinary language is straight talk. So talk straight.
The Power of Ear Is Consistency
EAR means talking to every audience the way you talk to family or friends. When you interact with people, there should be no difference between your business persona and your private persona.
If you listen carefully, you’ll notice that’s a consistent characteristic of the best leaders.
You can be smart and knowledgeable and experienced. But if you don’t know how to share those valuable assets, you may be missing an opportunity.
Improve Your Conversational Tone with Bar Talk
Sometimes I ask people to relax and think of their presentation in terms of what they want to accomplish.
- Selling a new product or service?
- Looking for better performance from the team?
- Want senior management to act?
- Want to get everybody behind a single idea or cause?
The solution – and the best business language – is what I call BAR TALK. Talk to these audiences as if you were talking to a friend over a beer in a bar.
You would be unlikely to say things like “it is incumbent upon us…” or “recent research indicates…” or “in conclusion” when speaking with family or friends.
You’re failing to connect.
Instead of turning people on, you’re turning them off!
And you probably have no idea what you’re doing wrong.
Learn to adopt a speaking style that is clear and direct. The importance of this skill will become obvious in our next article that covers Retention.
