Dahle Communication

What we can learn from the State of the Union

Last week President Obama gave his second State of the Union. Instead of talking about the politics in his speech, I wanted to touch on the idea of expectations.

Expectations can be both a good thing and a bad thing. If people have an expectation that you are a good speaker, they are more likely to listen to what you have to say and will want to see you speak. This usually comes with you being an effective speaker, so that means that you are a good speaker and people want to listen. However, the problem is that if you don't meet those expectations, people are going to walk away feeling disapointed.

This is how I felt during the SOTU. I have high expectations of President Obama's oration ability. He has consistently shown his powerful and engaging speaking style during his 2008 campaign and in his speeches since then. However, he did not come close to that in this speech. 

So what can we learn from this? Make sure that you know what your audiences expectations are of you and work on meeting that expectation. If you don't, be prepared for people to be somewhat disappointed. When that happens, it could decrease the effectiveness of your speech.

There are several lessons we can learn beyond this, which I will be looking at in February's newsletter.

 

In honor of another great public speaker

Today is the 50th anniversary of JFK's Inaugural address. So this week we get to celebrate two great public speakers.

 

In Memory of a Great Public Speaker

In honor of Martin Luther King Jr - the complete 'I Have a Dream' speech.

 

Ribbon Cutting, then after party - are you in?

Just wanted to send out a reminder about the Ribbon Cutting that I am having today. Here are the specifics:

Location: Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce Office (corner of 8th and Phillips)

Time: 4:30 p.m.

After-party: Monks - right after the ribbon cutting

So - do you need an excuse to get out of the office early on a Wednesday and head to Monks for a beer afterward? If so, come on down!

 

-Travis

My favorite posts from 2010

Two years ago I wanted to have a website up where I could talk about my ideas regarding communication. I've had a lot of ideas over those past two years and it is time for another year in review.

If you want a quick run-down of my thoughts on communication, you can take the abridged version and check out last years top posts list and then check out this years.

There were a lot of issues that I looked at over the past year, but these were my favorite:

Get off line to get some perspective - and work done. - Do we all spend far too much time on-line these days? It seems that sometimes we are so focused on keeping up to date with Twitter and Facebook that it kills some of our focus. I was off-line during the day for several days in a row and I got a lot accomplished in that time.

 

Is President Obama Speaking Too Much? - While I do think President Obama is a great public speaker, he seems to be on TV all of the time. At a certain point, saturation can get overwhelming - causing your effectiveness to decrease. In fact, the Decker blog once again put Obama on the top 10 worst speakers in 2010.

 

100 Posts! What's our focus been? - This was a fun post looking at what I had been talking about with my 100 posts since I had started my blog. Using Wordle to see what I was talking about was a great way to make sure I was focusing on the right things.

 

Are Super Bowl Ads Worth the Cost? Maybe, but what can we learn from them? - Super Bowl ads almost always have some very memorable ads each year. Is it worth the money spent? It depends on how effective it is.

Avoid making the big mistakes - what the Minnesota Vikings can teach us about public speaking - Being from South Dakota, I am surrounded by Vikings fans and saw the devastation of the fans when they lost the NFC championship game to the Saints. However, the mistakes that the Vikings made can also teach us a thing or two about presentations

 

Sherlock Holmes, Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr. and Style. - I loved the new Sherlock Holmes movie directed by Guy Ritchie and starting Robert Downey Jr. The style that was used is a great example of how changing up a style is a good way to give some new life to an old presentation.

 

Educators need some new branding. - This one is a bit personal for me since I am in education and my daughter wants to be a teacher. However, I think it brings up some interesting points on what educators need to do if they are going to be respected.

I Hate Public Speaking song. - I found this song and a lot of people really seemed to like it, so I wanted to make sure to include it here as well.

Know who you are following on Twitter - don't just use Keywords. Being on Twitter, I am used to people just following you at random times. However, I got really annoyed one weekend when I was being followed by a lot of wedding people because I had posted a couple of comments about the wedding I was at - the following post was my response to those people.

Native American Day versus Columbus Day. - This is an issue that I feel strongly about. In South Dakota, we celebrate Native American Day - the other 49 states - Columbus Day. Once I learned the entire history of Columbus and his treatment of Native Americans when he reached the new world, my thoughts on this matter got even stronger. What are your thoughts?

Should Obama become the Hulk? - This relates mostly to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and how Obama was responding to it. Our body language and voice inflections tell us a lot about how we are thinking and feeling. A lot of people felt that Obama needed to be a lot angrier at BP and felt that his attitude was far too light.

 

Foursquare Badges Tell Stories - Which One is Another Story. - I use FourSquare and I remember the old foursquare game. The badges can tell some stories that might not be what you want to be told.