Sam Harrison is the author of a fabulous book titled: IdeaSelling: Successfully pitch your creative ideas to bosses, clients and other decision makers.
He joined the show recently. You can listen here. You can read notes from our conversation here.
It made sense them for me to ask him what we, as a country, could do to develop those presentation skills in upcoming leaders. And who better to ask, right, than our President.
I asked him:
Let’s say President Obama brought you to the WH. And he realized our ability to grow as a nation is dependent on the ability to communicate and collaborate, share ideas and find new ways to implement them.
And, he’s walking you through the Rose Garden, got his arm around your shoulder and turns to you and says:
Sam, what are the skills we’re not providing our students in order to pitch creative ideas and what are three thing we can do today to give them the skills to successfully pitch ideas.
What would you say?
And he answered, well, right to the point.
First of all I’d have to ask what happened to your presentation skills?
He was so powerful as a candidate. He made the best talks. Unfortunately he put that aside. I would have loved to have seen him show the leadership and make those talks he made as a candidate.
We’re doing a good job teaching students what to think, but not how to think.
Second I think...we need to do a better job of interpersonal skills. Awareness, perception, ethos. A lot of team projects with guide or mentor would help.
Help students improve their public speaking skills. Just simple training on how to speak, how to present and give them opportunities to present in the classroom.
Want More from Sam Harrison?
- Visit his website.
- Follow him on Twitter
- Buy his book: IdeaSelling: Successfully pitch your creative ideas to bosses, clients and other decision makers.
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Some may say this is inappropriate.
This is politics! And you never discuss politics at Thanksgiving Dinners, backyard barbecues and on a business radio show.
I disagree. As long as only politicians can discuss solutions for our country then those solutions and their interested audiences will remain off-limits, political, for those who make this brand, our country, run. And only politicians, these days that's only career politicians, can discuss those ideas and spoon-feed solutions to the public.
I see our times as an all hands-on-deck opportunity and not a crisis. That opportunity is for each of us to lend our hands, our conversations, our ideas to find and share solutions. In our absence those challenges are left to ideologues, vested interests and politicians of all stripes and partisan persuasion.
We...are the only ones with vested interests. And now we have, with social media and the urgency of today, the opportunity to reclaim our place at this table and discuss our ideas to solve our challenges. At the very least, we can listen to a discussion until we are ready to speak up.
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