Business & HR/OD Leaders, Choose Your Speakers, Coaches & Mentors Carefully.
When a prisoner was sentenced to death in the US, some scientists conducted an experiment on the prisoner. The prisoner was told that he would be stung to death by poisonous cobra instead of hanging. On D-Day, a King Cobra was brought in and the prisoner was blindfolded and tied to a chair. However, he was not bitten by the snake and was pricked with a needle. The prisoner died in 5 seconds. In post-mortem report ′Venum-Sadushyam’- Poison found. Where did this poison come from? This poison was produced by the prisoner's brain due to mental fear.
The abovementioned false-story is what a Motivational-Speaker shared on social media and WhatsApp University. Many people liked/believed it even though fact-checkers websites proved that this was fake. Motivational-Speakers, Evangelists, Pastors, Babas and Sadgurus-in-Ashrams love spinning fairy-tales and misleading people with their chicanery. Many false-lessons about how to cure cancer in 3-months or depression in 30-seconds, or how to become successful millionaires quickly with magic-mantras and instant-hacks. Other modern-fables motivational-speakers love telling are about the Old-Eagle who breaks his beak/claws or the sharks that cannot grow in a fish-tank or the Fake-It-Till-You-Make-It theory which defies the principles of leadership. Remember Real-Leaders are sincere and authentic, not fakers.
False-Pep-Talk - That's all it is! Peps people for some moments and then drops them hard, when they learn it is untrue. Myths like the Prisoner, Eagle or Shark stories are defeating and not motivating. They never help anyone. Many Speakers/Coaches who lack True-stories of Real-heroes, authentic Subject-Matter-Expertise, Compelling-Content and Seriousness-of-Intent, concoct these urban-legends and narrate them with mock-elan and stylised-razzmatazz to an innocent audience, who feel motivated for sometime, but feel cheated when reality hits hard.
Speakers/mentors/coaches who work with Executives in Organisations or Parents, Educators, young-adults & teenagers in schools/colleges, should make them think by provoking mind-altering insights with true case-stories so that people in the audience can Learn2Learn and apply the learning to their Personal/Professional life.
That is why I always start my workshops/talks with the Socratic thought "I cannot teach anyone anything, I can only make you think.” Then through powerful True-Stories of Real-Heroes we breathe life into the life, leadership and learning2learn lessons and facilitate the Learning by applying Andragogy i.e., Andragogy refers to methods and principles used in adult education and literally means leading people to lead themselves.
To do this one needs to have in-depth research of Subject-Matter-Expertise, powerful-content and true-stories of ordinary people who have gone for extraordinary. We must understand, human-beings remember, re-experience and relate to stories of ordinary-heroes. These are Real-Heroes who are as ordinary us and yet have accomplished the impossible. True stories of humans, their Spirit and Struggle to move mountains, build glaciers and grow forests with their bare hands and singular focus, grit, determination, resilience, perseverance, integrity and courage of conviction. Studies show that people relate better with stories of Ordinary-Heroes and not with stories of larger-than-life sports or movie celebrities.
To be a Real Orator/Mentor/Coach learn to respect your audience and give them worthwhile inspiration without misleading them. To do that we need to go out there, research real-content with right-intent in the first person and experience, feel and internalize the stories and then share them so that the audience can feel "If these people can do it, I CAN DO IT TOO".
My humble request to all orators/coaches please don’t fool the audience with all that Jazz and Razzmatazz, but leave them better than before with an unforgettable experience that they cherish for eternity. Business/HR/OD Leaders should also choose their speakers/orators with proper due-diligence.
