Leadership Thought #342 – Don’t Lose Your Personal Censor Button
We all need to have a censor button and use it as needed.
As you grow as a leader and start to have some success, you mustn’t get too full of yourself and remain humble. This is especially true as you begin to do more public speaking. While you certainly can, it is not advisable to just say whatever is on your mind and/or to believe you have all the answers. I am often amazed how many people forget this fact. Otherwise, intelligent people, who have much to share with an audience, kill their credibility with unwise or unnecessarily controversial statements. You must know when to use your censor button.
It is certainly okay to have strong beliefs, but be wary of speaking with a sense of certainty unless you have a strong set of facts to back up your case. If your audience is sophisticated, they’ll know you can usually manipulate statistics to make your case. As the saying goes, “Correlation doesn’t prove causation.” In addition, just because you’ve read a book or two on a subject doesn’t mean you are an expert, especially if the author has a biased opinion to begin with. People will see through thinly veiled arguments. Being brash will get someone’s attention, but it will also create increased personal scrutiny.
Two things tend to get speakers in trouble: speaking in over-generalizations and making unfounded personal criticisms.
We all know that life can sometimes be complicated and that context matters. Acting like your experience or knowledge is applicable in all situations is a foolish position to take. There will always be exceptions or things you don’t know. It’s okay to have an opinion, but position it as such, not as a fact when it is not.
I wish many more leaders would use qualifying statements when making strong points. We should speak with certainty about only a few things at best. For example, how can someone who isn’t a scientist debate the scientific merits of something without the proper training or knowledge to do so? I also have tremendous difficulty respecting someone who is intractable in their opinions and is not open to alternative points of view. A closed mind is not worth listening to.
I’ve never understood why someone would go out of their way to be personally critical of another person to impress an audience. You can criticize positions you disagree with, but stay focused on the issue, not the person. How can one attribute motivations or question the character of someone they have not yet met? People often hastily pass judgment on political candidates, regardless of their party affiliation, without genuinely listening to their statements or conducting even basic research on their past performance. Such behavior has become an especially dangerous development as people take on more strident political and religious beliefs.
You never win someone over by insulting them or someone they admire. You also rarely elevate yourself long-term by diminishing others. You only create further divisiveness, and you alienate as many people as you convert to your point of view. This may sell books and media advertising, but it doesn’t promote progress or successfully address any real problems. Be ever mindful of your censor button and USE it!
Related articles:
- The 3 Levels of Public Speaking (geoffreywebb.com)
- Spark the Conversation!: Audience Engagement in Presentations (hookyouraudience.com)
- Just Be Helpful – Don’t aim for smart, nice, cool, or clever (stratecutionstories.wordpress.com)
- Avoid Arguing, Just be Calm (jayrando.wordpress.com)
- Taking a Dim View of Opinions (badlamaguide.wordpress.com)
- Disagreement is Valuable, But We Can Do Without the Lying (atheistrev.com)
