teacher Archives - Passion for Planting

The 4 different communication styles and how each can improve

Sean Cronin — Mon, 02 Dec 2019 10:00:49 +0000

This is a post by Jeff Henderson. Jeff is a leading voice on how to create and grow momentum for organizations and leaders and is a member of my Speaking Team. You can book Jeff to consult with your team or speak at your next event here.

By Jeff Henderson

Have you ever heard a boring presentation?

Sometimes when I speak to business groups, I ask them to raise their hand if they’ve ever experienced one. Everyone laughs and raises their hands.

Then I ask how many of us think we might have been the reason someone else raised their hand.

Public speaking certainly can be daunting but it’s inevitable in any organization. This isn’t limited to speaking on a platform, though. I define public speaking as any form of communication where you are sharing an idea or information to another human being.

When people tell me they aren’t a public speaker, I ask if they ever speak in meetings. The answer is, of course, yes. Then I congratulate them. They have spoken in a public setting. They are now officially a public speaker.

This is especially true for leaders. Eventually, leadership comes with a microphone.

Eventually, leadership comes with a microphone.Click To Tweet

Literally or figuratively, when we communicate we are handed a microphone and asked to lead. It could be our family, a friendship, a company, a team, a homeowners association (God be with you), a school, a volunteer group, etc.

This is why as leaders we must be very intentional about becoming better communicators. There are several reasons why but this one might be the most important:

The better we communicate, the better we lead.

Eventually, leadership comes with a microphone.Click To Tweet

This is true whether we are in front of five people or 500. If we aren’t communicating clearly and effectively, we put a lid on the potential of the organization and our leadership.

The problem is that public speaking doesn’t come easily for many of us. In fact, it’s been said there are two great fears in life: death and public speaking.

I understand. And yet, the reality is that most great things in history (and bad) have happened when someone got up to speak and rallied people around their idea.

The 4 different presenter voices

For this to happen in your organization and mine, there are a few techniques we can use to help us improve as communicators and leaders. One of the most effective techniques is to discover what I call is your “dominant presenters voice.”

Over the last 20 years, I have coached business leaders, preachers and teachers on how to make their next presentation their best presentation. During this time, I’ve noticed there are four presenter voices and that we usually have one of these as a primary voice.

When we discover which one of these four voices is our dominant voice, it allows us to leverage the strength of that voice while avoiding the weakness. This helps in a variety of ways but most importantly it helps in our preparation process.

This is why discovering your presenter voice is so important. The better you prepare, the better you present.

The better you prepare, the better you present.Click To Tweet

One of the reasons many leaders struggle with their communication is due to the fact that they aren’t aware of their primary presenter voice. I have seen dozens of leaders improve their presentation skills almost overnight by simply understanding how to leverage their particular voice.

Too often, we spend way too much time on our keynote slides and not enough on how we are going to communicate what’s on those slides. How we communicate is just as important as what we communicate.

Knowing this, I want to briefly describe the voices outlining the strength and weakness of each one. I have listed an example of a great communicator to help with the description of each voice. Additionally, I’ll give you a few questions to ask yourself during the preparation process.

After you’ve read the description, the best next step is to take the Four Presenter Voices Test. It’s free and can be found at this link.

Before you take the test though, let’s describe the Four Presenter Voices of Leadership:

They are voice of the Teacher, the Motivator, the Storyteller and the Visionary.

How we communicate is just as important as what we communicate.Click To Tweet

1. The Teacher

The Voice of the Teacher is instructional with explanation as the goal. If you have the voice of a teacher, you have great content. One of your challenges is trying to fit all of your great content within the allotted time, right?

The Voice of the Teacher is instructional with explanation as the goal.Click To Tweet

The weakness of this voice can potentially be a lack of connection with the crowd. This is a hard truth for teachers to embrace. Teachers can assume that great content automatically makes for a great presentation. This is a dangerous assumption to make.

We all know teachers who knew their content very well but lost their audience in the first five minutes. This is why the first part of a presentation is vitally important for those who have this voice. They must work really hard to connect with their audience by giving them a reason or reasons to keep listening.

When you combine great content with a strong connection with the audience, you have the recipe for a great presentation. Content alone rarely works because it doesn’t necessarily give the audience a reason to listen.

Knowing this, here are a few questions the teacher must answer for their audience in the first five minutes of the presentation: “Why should I listen?” “What’s at stake if I don’t?” “What compelling problem will this solve in my life?”

The great news if you have this voice is that you have strong content. Leverage this strength and avoid the weakness by answering these questions in the preparation process. It’s how you’ll make your next presentation your best one yet.

Example: Coach John Wooden

When you combine great content with a strong connection with the audience, you have the recipe for a great presentation. Click To Tweet

2. The Motivator

The Voice of the Motivator is action-oriented with personal change as the goal. In many ways, the voices of the Teacher and Motivator are the complete opposite. For example, the first 5 – 10 minutes of a presentation for a Motivator is easy. They lean into their natural gifting as a communicator. They quickly engage the crowd and bring energy to the presentation.

However, if they aren’t careful, as the presentation moves along the energy and connection begins to wane. The reason for this is that those with the Motivator voice can lean more on inspiration and less on content and clarity.

When I coach leaders, I can usually tell whether a leader who has this voice has done the hard work of preparation by around the 10 – 15 minute mark. At this point, they are into the content portion and this is where the weakness of this voice begins to grow.

It’s why I ask leaders with the Motivator voice to work twice as hard on the middle section of their presentations. To do this, here are a few questions a motivator must answer in the preparation process: “What do I want the audience to do with this information?” “Are the action steps clear?” “Am I combining motivation with helpful content?”

Example: Oprah Winfrey

The Voice of the Motivator is action-oriented with personal change as the goal.Click To Tweet

3. The Storyteller

The Voice of the Storyteller is engaging, with emotional connection with the crowd as the goal. So many of history’s best communicators had the voice of the storyteller. As you well know, stories are often more memorable than content. In fact, Dan and Chip Heath in their book, Made to Stick, encourage presenters to focus primarily on stories.

The Voice of the Storyteller is engaging, with emotional connection with the crowd as the goal.Click To Tweet

If this voice is your strength, you have a huge advantage on the rest of us because you can easily draw your audience into your presentation.

However, like the other voices this one has a weakness to avoid.

The weakness of the Storyteller can often be a lack of direction and clarity regarding the purpose of the presentation. If you’re not careful, it can seem like you’re just sharing stories with no purpose.

This is why the Storyteller must have a clear destination and purpose for the talk. During the preparation process they must answer questions such as, “How does this story connect to my message?” “Where am I taking the audience?” “What is the message that these stories illuminate and illustrate?”

Example: Abraham Lincoln

The weakness of the Storyteller can often be a lack of direction and clarity regarding the purpose of the presentation.Click To Tweet

4. The Visionary

The Voice of the Visionary is inspiring with organizational/world change as the goal.

Visionary leaders have a way of helping us see something that currently doesn’t exist. They turn good intention into reality. They help change the world and part of the way they do it is through communication and presentations.

The weakness of the Visionary voice is clearly articulating the how behind the why of the change. This is tricky because so often the how is unclear, which is understandable. However, if over time, there is no substantial way to help turn the intention into reality, the talk simply becomes rhetoric.

The question the visionary must ultimately answer is, “How are we going to accomplish this?” “What are we going to do to bring about these results?” “What is our plan of action?”

Example: Martin Luther King, Jr.

Now that you know the strengths and weaknesses of the Four Presenter Voices, the next step is to take the test. Once you have determined your voice, apply that to your next presentation. As you do, you will take a big step toward making that next presentation your best presentation.

The Voice of the Visionary is inspiring with organizational/world change as the goal.Click To Tweet

Want to take your communication to the next level?

If you are someone who communicates from the stage, what are you doing to constantly improve?

If you’re ready to start preaching better sermons and reaching the unchurched without selling out? Then it’s time to start using the right tips, lessons, and strategies for communicating better.

The Art of Better Preaching Course is a 12 session video training with a comprehensive, interactive workbook that will help you create, write, and deliver better sermons. The course contains the lessons Mark Clark (lead pastor of Village Church, a growing mega-church in post-Christian Vancouver) and I have learned, taught, and used over decades of being professional communicators.

This is the complete course you need to start preaching better sermons, including:

7 preaching myths it’s time to bust forever
The 5 keys to preaching sermons to unchurched people (that will keep them coming back)
How to discover the power in the text (and use it to drive your sermon)
The specific characteristics of sermons that reach people in today’s world
Why you need to ditch your sermon notes (and how to do it far more easily than you think.)
How to keep your heart and mind fresh over the long run

And far more! Plus you get an interactive workbook and some bonus resources that will help you write amazing messages week after week.

In the Art of Better Preaching, Mark and I share everything we’ve learned about communicating in a way that will help your church grow without compromising biblical integrity. We cover detailed training on everything from interacting with the biblical text to delivering a talk without using notes, to writing killer bottom lines that people will remember for years.

Don’t miss out! Check it out today and gain instant access.

Which type of communicator are you?

I’d love to hear where this shows up in your leadership.

CHURCH ZERO

Patrick Bradley — Sun, 04 Feb 2018 10:00:01 +0000

by Peyton Jones: When Jesus ascended with His work unfinished, He knew that no one person was going to be able to follow in His wake. The five kitbags each represent a specific skillset necessary for a church leadership team, like a sapper, sniper, commando, Navy SEAL, and heavy weapons expert. A church planter is never a splinter cell who acts alone, but the leader of a platoon of daredevil pathfinders. Church planting resembles a covert commando operation that travels covertly in small teams, creates an opening for other special teams, and gets the heck out of Dodge when the mission is accomplished.

Wimps need not apply. Typically, church-planting teams have not been very specialized. If somebody plants a church, it’s assumed that he must be a pastor. What about the other four roles? Imagine Navy SEALs outfitted in full scuba gear getting ready to jump out of an airplane. They just don’t have the kit. Don’t get me wrong, a pastor may be called to plant, but he’s going to need to jump with an apostle. If a pastor isn’t particularly gifted on the evangelistic side of things, he’s going to need somebody on hand with the evangelism kitbag. What good would it be if we were all Navy SEALs? I need a sapper. I’m gonna probably need a sniper as well. If you’ve seen Stallone’s The Expendables, you’ll know that the individuals in that team of elite mercenaries were recruited because of their special skills. So were you. When Jesus recruits leaders, He equips them like a Stallone, Statham, Li, Lundgren, Couture, Austin, Crews, Rourke, or Willis to assemble a super-team of highly specialized talents. We may be a Dirty Dozen crew of specialized ex-convicts, but we have skills. The Dirty Dozen impacted cinematic history because it concentrated on special teams. If it had been called The Dirty One, it would have conveyed an entirely different meaning, or it would have blown as a film.

Nobody wants to watch one guy doing everything. Nobody buys it, and it doesn’t work in real life. Because the church has assumed that all you need for simple shake-and-bake church planting is a pastor, the church has not learned to knit bands of special teams together, and rather than becoming the Expendables, they’ve often become the Disposables in terms of expanding the kingdom. The church desperately needs to see the return of the A-Team. The pastor-only club is killing the leadership of the church. Guys are burning out, losing their families, sabotaging their marriages, or simply going back to selling used cars. It’s time those of you in ministry got your life back. There was only one guy who could shoulder all five jobs on His own, and He’s not physically camping out here anymore. Jesus was the Master Chief of those five roles. Master Chief is a cybernetic super-soldier who can use any weapon of any make, alien or otherwise, simply by picking it up. He possesses integrative software hardwired into his cyber-suit that immediately breaks down the operational component of any weapons system. You and I, unfortunately, do not possess such a suit. We’re grunts. Therefore, we specialize. A shepherd can’t concentrate on evangelism; a teacher has to hit the books and resist being bogged down with too many namby-pamby counseling sessions.

Jesus alone mastered all five roles: •Apostle: “Consider Jesus, the apostle” (Heb. 3: 1). Let’s face it, He is the ultimate pioneer, missionary, messenger, and sent one. •Prophet: “The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers— it is to him you shall listen” (Deut. 18: 15). After Jesus gave the people bread in the wilderness like Moses did, John did the math for us: “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’” (John 6: 14). Good guess. •Evangelist: When Jesus took the scroll in the synagogue at Nazareth, He read Isaiah 61: 1, which says that He was anointed to “bring good news [gospel] to the poor” as well as liberty and the Lord’s favor. If John’s gospel presents Jesus as anything in His conversations, it presents Him as an evangelist. •Shepherd: “I am the good shepherd” (John 10: 11). Peter calls him our “chief Shepherd” (1 Peter 5: 4). •Teacher: “And he opened his mouth and taught them” (Matt. 5: 2). “Never man spake like this man” (John 7: 46 KJV). ’Nuff said. FIST leadership isn’t something we’ve made up; it’s what our Master Chief has distributed to the church so that He can “fill all things” (Eph. 4: 10). That means to spread out! Therefore, He calls some to be apostles, some evangelists … you get the picture. Facing a task unfinished, we seek to fill the hole that He’s left behind. When Bugs Bunny ran through a wall, he left a Bugs-shaped hole, rabbit ears and all. What does a Jesus-shaped hole look like? You got it: apostle, prophet, evangelist, shepherd, and teacher. Each of these leaders plays a vital role in equipping believers with a specialty so that they become a balance of the five roles. That’s why Paul said these leaders are given “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to … the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4: 12– 13). Last time I checked, the whole church hasn’t attained that fullness yet. These roles have been given until we attain it. Therefore, I think we’re gonna need these roles to stick around for a bit, until He comes back. If people see just the pastor-only model, they mistake Jesus’s leg for the whole body. But when all five roles operate, the church’s other three limbs will begin to be built up and attain Christ’s stature in the world.

The church is a bit like Voltron: Defender of the Universe. Voltron featured a team of five young pilots who each controlled a giant lion vehicle that combined to form Voltron, a super robot as big as a skyscraper and nigh invulnerable. (Yeah, it’s an eighties thing.) On their own, each of these lion robots, cool as they were, got their metallic butts kicked by aliens. For some reason that only the modern church could relate to, the five pilots repeatedly tried taking on said aliens individually before finally uniting to form Super Robot Voltron. Now, I was only eight when I watched this, but every day I knew their modus operandi was doomed. So I just waited till they got their cans kicked enough till they decided it was time to press the red button, uniting them into (step back) Voltron, Defender of the Universe. Once Voltron took shape, alien mutants got cut down, massive energy swords flashed, some alien chick screamed, and the universe got saved. Thus endeth the lesson. It’s tough for an evangelist to strike out on his own when he doesn’t know how to shepherd the community of people who get saved under his ministry. The pastor shepherds the people in the church while praying that he doesn’t leak more out, but he struggles to get them to walk through the doors no matter how hard he tries. The pulpiteering teacher swashbuckles through the riggings of exegesis like Errol Flynn, but he has no clue how to care for his hearers when their lives fall apart. If we would take a lesson from an eighties Saturday-morning kids cartoon, we’d start to unite the five lions in order to create the image of Jesus, who would tower over our communities wielding the sword of the Spirit.

Buy Peyton’s newest book “Reaching The Unreached: Becoming Raiders of the Lost Art” over on Amazon.com. You can also download a free chapter and watch a cool trailer for the book HERE or click the image below.

Source: CHURCH ZERO

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