Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
By Shane Michael Hatton, Major Street Publishing, $29.95.
Communicate a message that counts in moments that matter. That’s the essence of Lead The Room.
Leadership and communication expert Hatton gives us food for thought. As witnessed by recent world events, in those moments of substance, it’s the leadership that matters. Being more globally connected, ‘people aren’t just looking for something that can inform them, they are looking to someone who will lead us’. This is a book about making those moments count.
It’s an interesting thought: how many of our greatest achievements in life are born of moments of deep uncertainty. Think. How often has the fear of the climb pulled you back into the comfort and safety of the familiar? As Hatton points out: “only those who decide to challenge this uncertainty, to take that next step forward, experience the elation of a new perspective, the thrill of success and the joy of completion that are the rewards of conquering their mountain”. Afterwards, looking back, we wonder why we had hesitated in the first place.
Hatton is much happier to equip you to leverage your platform to lead and mobilise your team. “My goal in writing this book isn’t to help you become a better speaker. I want to help you become a more effective leader.”
This is “not just a book about presentation skills (though if it helps you nail your next presentation that’s great), my aim with Lead the Room is that it equips you to leverage your platform to lead and mobilise your team and help you become a more effective leader”.
“If you want people to remember your message, then you need to make it memorable. If your audience can’t remember your message, it isn’t that they have a retention issue; it’s that you have a communication issue.”
A great message is easy to remember and hard to forget. Your idea should be succinct enough that people can recall it while being stimulating enough that it is hard for them to forget. In order to do that it needs to connect at three different levels: logic, emotion, aspiration.
To be eloquent speakers, we need more authentic communicators.
