Authenticity

I was lucky enough last night to hear David Penglase speak at the WA National Speakers chapter meeting. David is a pleasure to listen to, very informative and one of Australia’s top speakers. One of the key things that David spoke about, that rang true with me, was the absolute need to be authentic when you present, train or speak. You must be completely congruent with what you say and what you teach. All of this comes down to being comfortable enough to be yourself, who you truly are, and with full honesty, sincerity, authenticity and in complete congruence. Your message, gestures, eye contact and sincerity must all line up exactly with what you are saying. This also means being natural, imperfect, making mistakes and being prepared to be criticised, judged and scrutinised by the audience.

David gave some simple examples of how a speaker can be incongruent and not authentic and mentioned the time management guru who turns up late, the financial planner who does not have their own financial plan and the marketing consultant without his own marketing plan.

In all of my workshops I teach the need to be authentic, honest and congruent. It is so good to hear someone else, who is an expert and well know speaker echo the same valuable and critical advice. So the next time that you speak, just do a little congruency and authenticity “self check”.

Peter Dhu

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