Speech & Seminar Expert Asks: Is A Dynamic Delivery Overrated?

By: Dr. Gary S. Goodman

I was selected as part of an elite team to train 18,000 senior U.S. Navy managers in 18 months.

It was part of a bold initiative to help them to focus on results, to be more effective administrators, and at the conclusion of the program the consensus was that we were tremendously successful in imparting information, especially to resistant learners.

After I was recruited, I was assigned to a master trainer to observe and emulate him, but it was the last thing I wanted to do. I had taught speech communication at the college level for 5 years, and I was already a highly paid seminar leader in my own consulting business, so I doubted he had anything to teach me.

Moreover, his DELIVERY sucked!

He seemed to hem and haw, and bumble along in a monotone, and he was anything but dynamic. If I had to grade his performances, he would have squeaked by with a “C-” at best, and that was based on content, not style.

Get ready for the shock.

His course evaluations were the highest in our entire instructor cohort!

How could this be? Is there no justice? The ghost of Demosthenes must have been spitting up marbles at the thought!

Based on observation, inference and some direct experimentation, here’s my analysis of what informed his success.

Simply put, our trainees loved the persona he adopted. He came across as a blending of Tom Hanks and John Wayne. Not a handsome guy by any standard, he was clean cut and corporate, and certainly not threatening.

And his style definitely didn’t get in the way of his subject matter.

Now, here’s the kicker.

At first, I decided to do my own thing, to perform the way I had been trained before the Navy got a hold of me, and in a manner that suited my dramatic impulses and sense of aesthetics.

My evaluations were very good, but not flawless, as his were, on most occasions.

So, I decided to steal some moves from his playbook. At times, I purposely imitated his monotone, and his aw-shucks mannerisms and jokes, actually introducing noticeable flaws into my speaking, and by doing so, I raised my scores to his level!

From that time forward, especially in my own consulting practice, I put to work his tricks and a whole bunch of others that I learned, especially with regard to effectively training resistant adult learners and tough customers.

And in truth, these skills have been worth seven figures to me, when you calculate the value of assignments I accepted that I would have turned down, if I didn’t have these lion-taming skills.

So, is a dynamic delivery overrated in a speaker? It’s counter-intuitive but I must say:

“Uh, well, you bet fella!”

If you want to learn more about conquering your speaking challenges, and especially about selling upscale products and services through seminars, give me a holler!

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com & The Goodman Organization is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, "The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable," published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations.