As a student of public speaking, I’m always watching and analyzing how people communicate. Whether it’s on television, at a play, or just sitting in Starbucks, there are certain key ingredients to effective communication. The list can be rather long: presence, voice, style, word choice, authenticity, structure, content … we could keep going. One distinction I’ve been reflecting on lately has been the difference between communicating in order to influence and communicating simply to inform. As a pastor and preacher, my natural bent is to communicate to influence. That’s not to say we don’t inform. We certainly do. In fact, to truly influence requires solid information otherwise the influence will be short-lived, perhaps even harmful. Here’s a mistake I see many communicators make: they desire to influence but simply inform. Every public speaker has to be clear about the goal of their speech — if it is to influence or…

Malcolm Gladwell has great hair. Beyond that, he is one of my favorite authors. He has written such great books as Blink, Outliers, David and Goliath, and Tipping Point. He’s also a very engaging speaker. He has also given several TedTalks that you can find online — certainly worth listening to. He was recently interviewed on the BBC Radio show, “Desert Islands Discs” and the host asked Gladwell about public speaking. In particular, he asked Gladwell what made a person a great speaker. Here is part of his answer: I like the challenge of standing in front of a group of people and being required to reach them … People have travelled to be there and what an audience wants is to be taken seriously. They will put up with a lot if they have the sense that you have thought about what you are doing with them in some considered…