Failure is one necessary step towards achieving anything which is significant. Failure needs to be accepted, as fear of failure never allows you to take any risks. It pushes you into inaction which is the bane of life. Inaction is worse than procrastination. In any one’s life, procrastination is the enemy of a strong personality. It fills you with guilt which goes on increasing. Though failure has many negative effects, there are also some positive outcomes. In this essay, I would like to discuss both the negative and positive attributes of the failure. More importantly, I will put forth some suggestions on how we can leverage the positive aspects of failure and use it as a tool to propel us towards achieving our mission.
Negative aspects of failure are listed below:
i) It discourages you. Sometimes you get into depression as you feel you are good for nothing.
ii) It affects our positivity. It tends to weaken our hope and brings in a streak of pessimism in our life.
iii) We start avoiding company of our successful peers which dampens our spirits. This in turn weakens our personality.
iv) Sometimes, it may make you feel that life is good for nothing. It is not worth living. You want to escape. In worst cases, it pushes people to try to commit suicide.
v) In order to cover the loss due to failure, it may make the victim reckless. Trying to cover losses without proper thinking, the person plunges into bigger problems, debts etc.
vi) Often, failure leads to addiction. In a bid to escape facing the realities of life the ‘failed person’ resorts to drinking, drugs etc.
vii) Failure brings social stigma whereby people look down upon you. No one likes to be in the company of someone who has failed. Failure is not accepted as a part of struggle for success is some societies.
viii) It is sad but the victim is often ridiculed to make matters worse. Instead of helping to pull the person out of trouble those who had harbored some kind of grudge enjoy putting spanner in the wheel. The victim suffers even more.
ix) Extreme anxiety attacks the mind and the victim starts doubting everything. Suspicion brings further misery to the life of the victim.
x) Besides, failure may result in sleeplessness. It aggravates the difficulties and problems. It also affects health and weakens the mind.
So much for the negative impact of failure. Positive results of failure are also many, if the failure is viewed in the proper perspective. How the failure impacts a person or an organization depends on your immediate response after the failure takes place. If you own the failure and analyze the reasons, failure turns a teacher. Best lessons are drawn only from failures. But if you start the blame game and assign reasons of your failure to some people, sabotage or even the circumstances to give yourself a clean chit the failure snowballs into worse failure.
These are many reasons why failure should be viewed positively. I will list 5 which are most important according to some psychologists. These are:
i) As said above, failure acts as a teacher. Follow the lessons learned in a failed attempt and don’t repeat the same. Lessons learnt during failed projects, when put to practice and adopted suitably, shape the character.
ii) Failure inspires you to innovate. If one thing does not work, you try another. All scientific inventions are based on this aspect a failure. Thomas Edison once said, “I have not failed. But I have found out 10,000 ways in which things don’t work”.
iii) Failure is used for quality enhancement. For any product, the quality department will try to find out the circumstances in which the product fails. But for software programmers this is just a necessary tool.
iv) Failure enables individuals to face facts of life. It helps you to understand that struggle in life is necessary. This is the only way you can come up.
v) The worst factor in anyone’s life is fear. Failure helps you to overcome your inherent fear and makes you courageous. Further, you develop courage to take calculated risks in life. This is necessary as the dictum – no risk no gains.
Having talked about the negative and positive aspects of failure, let us deal with the question, “How negative effects of failure can be countered and how can we turn failure into success? I give below the answer as 5 steps that we must take to achieve the desired results.
Step I. Be prepared to accept failure. For any venture which poses some risks you must be prepared for the worst at the beginning itself. In this case you will be able to handle the situation because you are not taken by surprise.
Step II. Create a strong desire in your mind to succeed in spite of the grave difficulties on the way. Become prepared to face the difficulties and work hard. Don’t expect the task to be easy. You strong desire will help you to adopt this attitude.
Step III. Open your mind to embrace any change that you may have to make in your plan of action. World is changing fast and there is no science to inform you what changes will take place and when. Your open mindedness will come to your rescue.
Step IV. Develop your mind power. Comfort or discomfort resides only in mind. While a heavy traffic cannot deter someone from enjoying listening to the music in cool comfort of an air-conditioned car, it can be a harrowing experience for another soul who is not prepared to adopt the change.
Step V) Last but not the least, choose a role model. There are many great world leaders who have embraced many failures before coming out as great winners. Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela or Steve Jobs- who was turned out the company he started, are just a few examples.
Therefore, choose your role model. Read and understand his/her life. Draw your own lessons and go ahead with your projects.
When we focus only on the positive attributes of failure during the journey of the work involved, we will be rid of the harmful impact of so many of the negative attributes of failure. So our attitude and choice of actions make all the difference.
Thanks for reading.
All About Talent
Everyone is endowed with one talent or another. It’s important for us to discover the hidden talent. In fact the main purpose of education should be to identify the talent of an individual. However in our education system the students at school rarely identify what they have to do in life. Except for a few of them who become clear about what they have to do after the school well in time. In such happy cases, some of them are helped by their parents and some close relatives and a few of them by the teachers.
If the inherent talent is recognized and the child is encouraged to pursue a career in line with the inherent talent, he/she is bound to do very well in life. When you pick up a career where you enjoy your job, you are likely to excel in the profession.
Cicero, the great philosopher had said 2000 years ago:
“Natural ability without education has more often attained to glory and virtue than education without natural ability”
It is true even today. Success of persons like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates confirm the veracity of the statement. Whatever you are by nature keep it; your line of talent lies in what the nature has intended you to be.
It is often said that you cannot come out of mediocrity if you are or have to pursue a career which is not to your liking. There is one school of thought that says “if you so desire you can start liking anything that you may be doing”. I don’t entirely deny the truth of the statement. But it is easier said than done. It may be possible, in rare cases, only with consistent efforts and training under a mentor. So, do what you can to discover your talent sooner than later, and leverage it.
Thanks for reading.
4 Faces of Persistence
Persistence is perhaps the most important reason of anyone’s success in life. The 4 faces of persistence that I have chosen to discuss are:
- What is persistence? Its definition.
- The road blocks or the difficulties faced for persistence.
- How to develop persistence if it is not the part of your personality?
- Last but not the least, how does persistence help you to achieve your goals? This discussion will contain examples of the leaders who are the shining stars in this respect. Let us deal with each of this 4 faces in detail.
Face 1: How do we recognize the ability to persevere in anyone’s personality? What have the leaders and thinkers in the past stated about persistence? The review will enable us not only to understand but also to assimilate the virtues of persistence. Following are the famous quotes of great leaders and thinkers from different fields
- Winston Churchill: “Never, never, never, never give up!”
- Buddha: “A jug fills drop by drop”
- Samuel Johnson: “Great works are performed not by strength but by perseverance”
- Napoleon Hill: “Victory is always possible for the person who refuses to stop”
- Albert Einstein: “It is not that I’m so smart, it is just that I stay with problems longer”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson: “By persisting in your path, though you forfeit the little, you gain the great.
- Unknown: “It is when things get tough and you don’t quit that success comes”
- Unknown: “The darkest hour is just before the dawn”
In fact your persistence in following your project measures your faith in yourself.
Face 2: The moot question is persistence if understood to be so important for progress; then why it is missing in almost 90% of the educated working class. It is difficult to find one common answer for all those who lack perseverance. A study of the human behavior assigns the following reasons why perseverance is missing in most of the people.
i) Accepting life as it comes. The habit of living life in a certain way which does not require to stretch out of your comfort zone does not allow one to think beyond.
ii) Sometimes, the problem starts during our formal education. The education system does not emphasize the important of simplicity in dissemination of the knowledge. Complex instruction affects the student’s ability to understand and assimilate. As a result there is a tendency of the mind to go somewhere else. Important of persistence does not come in to the picture.
iii) Lack of patience, inability to take risk and inadequate courage also act as deterrents.
- iv) Goals of life should be specified and written down by each individual. Our goals inspire us to persevere in order to achieve them. When there are no goals there is no inspiration.
Face 3: How to develop persistence
i We must specify our goals and they should be written down. The goals can be according to your priorities. The subject of our goals can be: health goals, career and financial goals, and family goals etc. You may add any other goal as per your liking. But, these should be time bound. These will inspire you to persist in your efforts for achieving these.
ii) Meditation is very useful. It enables you to review that you are moving forward in the right direction. When you meditate on any subject, the mind will keep on wandering and providing inputs on the subjects. This means that in the back of your mind you will keep on thinking about your goals. Meditation is not related to any particular faith. You may sit down and meditate on your breath or any other object. But make background thoughts hover around your goals.
iii) A detailed plan of action in pursuance of your daily tasks as well as weekly will be very helpful.
iv) And, above all the most important action that you can take, to bring persistence in your personality is to love your job. When you enjoy your work you are encouraged to continue doing what needs to be done.
Face 4: The benefits of persistence. These are immense. Progress in any project that you may undertake will become easier than you may imagine. Big difficult projects will not frighten you. You will gladly undertake these knowing fully well that these will require your consistent hard work. Your commitment to your mission becomes impeccable. The lives of great leaders of the world tell us innumerable success stories of those who failed many times before achieving success. Some of the well known examples are: Abraham Lincoln who failed repeatedly before becoming successful, Dr. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and our own Mahatma Gandhi. You may find any number of examples that you may like when you go through the pages of world history.
Thanks for reading.
6 Steps to pursue leadership excellence
What is leadership excellence? What are the important features? How is it supposed to be pursued? These are the questions that we will consider. There are 6 steps, which I think, that a leader needs to take in order to pursue excellence. These are:
The leader’s attitude is very important. Self awareness too is very significant. But more importantly, proper implementation of any idea in great detail is critical. Other 3 important aspects are- accepting responsibility, realizing that pursuing excellence is your own choice and determination, and finally the leader must be must ensure that the team members are in a position to live up to the leader’s expectations. Having said that, let us now deal with each of these 6 steps one by one.
Step 1. Any idea or plan must be executed/implemented with great precision. In fact the quality of implementation of an idea is even more important than the idea itself. Leading management Gurus advocate that ‘A’ quality implementation of ‘B’ quality plan is more productive then ‘B’ quality implementation of ‘A’ quality plan. When we look through the finer details of any task, we are able to follow its original objectives. But it doesn’t happen if we overlook the details. Excellence is a continuous process. It is not just an event. It is not just an accident. But it is your choice which you follow step by step, always. This becomes easier if you love every moment of your life and therefore if you love everything that your do from moment to moment.
Step 2. Your attitude is extremely important. Excellence is not just a skill like those skills you require for doing anything correctly and nicely. Excellence is your attitude to do every job with at most care and while enjoy at the same time. Precision and enjoyment may appear to be incompatible but they are not. There is no doubt that you have to follow this practice of using eye for detail and getting satisfaction for following the finer details at the same time.
Step 3. The good news is that there is no preparation required to pursue excellence for the leader. It depends entirely on their choice- decision and determination to follow the decision. One may decide just now that henceforth from the next moment onwards he/she will do everything while pursuing excellence. Sometimes there may be time constraints and other such difficulties. But the pursuit of excellence teaches you make best use of the available resources. Some people talk of discipline. Excellence is not discipline. It does not ensure quality of work which can be classified in the required category. Discipline is defined as that you must do something at a time when it needs to be done even when you don’t like to do. In a way it cages you while the ‘excellence’ knows no such restrictions. It emerges from the application of your mind and the joy that your draw out of doing something that you like to do.
Step 4. The 4th important step that leader must take is to accept responsibility for excellence in a group life. The leader does not teach his follower to achieve perfection. Perfection is unattainable. But when you chase perfection you catch up with excellence. The leader ensures that his/her followers understand it very well. Such leaders have the ability to motivate the followers to such an extent that the commitment of the followers becomes as strong as that of their leader. This is particularly true in respect of the political leaders. Dr. Martin Luther King is one such example. But for him Barak Obama would not have become the President of USA.
Step 5. Self awareness is something that the leader must practice. It trains him/her to observe their actions from moment to moment. They develop the ability to change their action as per the requirement of changed circumstances. Their decision making process does not suffer a jolt even if most unexpected event take place. In our sacred book, ‘The Bhagwat Gita’ such a person is known as ‘Stith Pragya Purush’. It depicts not only the alertness of the mind but also the coordination between the mind and the reaction which lead to necessary speech and or action.
Step 6. Last but not the least the leader has to be realistic. They can pursue excellence only if their expectations are reasonable. Any unachievable task if set before the team is bound to de-motivate them. This does not mean that the team member can take things easy. Life is such that for achieving any significant result you have to stretch yourself. It’s the leaders job that he practices not only himself but also ensures that the team member follow suit.
When the leader undertakes their journey as per the steps enumerated above, it is then that the leadership excellence is pursued.
Thanks for reading.
All about the Greatest Singer of Indian Films
Yesterday, Mohammad Rafi was remembered by the entire music industry on his 26th death anniversary. It was on 31st July 1980 that he died. The day saw an unusually intense rain. It appeared that the the Sky in India was weeping to mourn the great loss to the music treasure of our country. In spite of very heavy rains, a mammoth crowd followed the funeral procession. That was the story of a very simple man, a family man but a very profound singer in the film industry of our country.
There are lots of anecdotes regarding his compassion, simplicity and devotion to his work.
Once he was traveling in his car to a recording studio. It was extremely hot. He saw that a beggar at the crossing was standing on one leg and then changing the foot because the road was extremely hot. Rafi asked his driver to stop the car, took out his own shoes and told the driver to give the shoes to the beggar. He said that beggar’s need was greater than his own.
It is said that whenever he would go for recording, he would take tea from home in a thermos flask. His wife would make a special tea for him. She put various dry fruits like cashew walnuts, almonds etc. He would never share his tea with anyone. He was thoroughly a family man devoted to his wife and family. The couple was fond of each other so much that after completion of the work Mohammad Rafi wood straight come home. He would hardly ever attend get together and parties of the film industry.
Rafi sang many songs for the famous music director OP Nayyar. Once, Nayyar asked him, “you have worked with so many music directors; who is your most favorite music director?” Simple but quick witted Rafi said, “yoon to Humne lakh music directors dekhe hain,tumsa nahi dekha” meaning that I have seen lots of music directors but you are unique. OP Nayyar was equally fond of him and would always engage him unless the actor or the situation demanded some other voice
Another very interesting anecdote of his depicts his uncanny simplicity. Once, he had to record a song At All India Radio, Mumbai. Singer Mohinder Kapoor was his fan as well as his friend. Rafi asked Mohinder Kapoor what was he doing? Come with me, “I have to go to recording in All India Radio. Both went to the All India Radio studio and recorded the song. When they were going back they found lots of boys and girls asking Mohammad Rafi to give autograph rafi who did not understand English and did not understand what it would mean to give autograph. Rafi asked Mohinder in Punjabi what they were saying. Mahendra Kapoor said that they were asking his autographs. Simple Rafi said, “tun yo kar de yaar.” (you only do it for me) That was his simplicity.
Laxmikant Pyarelal who became famous music directors were the children of a trumpet player. He was always short of money. He would often go to Rafi for help. Once Mohammed Rafi gave him 500 rupees which was a lot of money in those days. But that the magnanimity of Mohammad Rafi. When Laxmikant Pyarelal got their first film for music direction, the producer put a condition that they must bring Mohammed Rafi to sing all the male songs. Further that only Rs2000/= fee would be paid for each song. At that time the fee for Rafi Rs.10000/=. After the recording was over the producer did not have courage to give an envelop containing the paltry fee. He asked Pyarelal to do it. Mohammad Rafi noticed and he said to Pyarelal to distribute the money between two of them. “I will be very happy”, he said. These are some of the interesting anecdotes from the life of the great singer Mohammad Rafi, who has been one of the greatest singers of his time, possibly for all times to come.
Thanks for reading.
Language
Hi,
Today, I’ll talk to you about ‘language’. Language is the only difference between animals on one side and by humans on the other. Its importance therefore can hardly be exaggerated. Great leaders and great thinkers have talked about language and its importance differently.
Karl Kraus, the German philosopher said that the language is the mother of thought. How true? Imagine if we did not have the facility of language, how we would think. It’s just not possible. Another thinker, Samuel Johnson said that the language is the dress of thought. Both are right. Indeed the language is the mother of thought and it is also the way the thoughts are dressed and presented.
Grammar is helpful in creating the sentences. But the speakers don’t have to worry about technical details of the grammar. In any case, the spoken language is different from the written language. The written language has to be correct grammatically as far as possible. But the spoken language essentially has to convey the idea that the person wants to express. Technical details of the grammar may have to be compromised for the sake of brevity. If you tend to be verbose, the objective of communication may be lost. Most listeners cannot pay attention to the speaker who is verbose and who uses too many words to say something which can be effectively conveyed in a few words.
The word of a man/woman is the most durable of all materials. It lasts longer than one can think. Some time ago, when I was conducting a program for the lecturers of a college, one of the participants said “the tongue is one of the strongest organs in the human body. The tongue does not fall sick normally. And if it does, it heals itself quickly. But the wound that the tongue may create sometimes are not healed in the lifetime. It is indeed true. So, one must use the tongue with great care and discretion. And, it’s not only the words but it’s also how you speak these. Your tone is extremely important. If the same words are said in an inappropriate these create undesirable effect.
Like everything else, language also has its own limitations. It can describe all the situations that you may have gone through vividly; it may create the leaves of the book of your life neatly, but it cannot describe one’s character. Character can be recognized by the person’s behavior, his conduct and so many other personality traits. It is said that one should never react. He/she should only apply mind to face whatever be the situation; whatever be the circumstances. Likewise if any person behaves in an uncivil manner you should not react. Use your mind. Application of mind will guide you how you have to face the situation. Here again, the most appropriate language with proper modulation (tone) will be found very useful.
But there are some languages which everyone understands. These are universal. Language of smile is the same throughout the world. Language of kindness will be understood by the deaf as well as by the blind. So let’s use the universal language of kindness and let’s always wear a smile.
Thanks you for reading.
Enthusiasm
Peace of Mind – It’s Free!
It’s difficult to conceive the vastness of the ocean. But it is even more difficult to imagine the vastness of the mind. Sea is often very calm only sometimes it is turbulent. While an ocean is turbulence only at some occasions, the mind is at peace on only sometime. The confusion of the mind primarily arises due to the contradictions experienced in the fast paced life today. There is nothing that we can do for turbulence of the ocean. We can certainly tame our mind to achieve calmness and peace.
In fact peace of mind requires only your focus and consistent reminders to yourself. It has no tangible cost. It’s free
Nature – what it does? When it does? It remains unknown to mankind. Though there is no doubt that extensive study of nature has given us the knowledge and power to predict.
But when we talk of mind it is our choice to train it to be at peace most of the time. We have to understand the difference between peace and bliss. Peace is not bliss but peace offers you an ability to get into state of bliss when you want.
At work place, if you are doing something that you don’t like to do yet you have to do it under compulsion, your mind cannot be at peace. When you are lost in your work and you know that the work is important for you, you are a peace with yourself. Further, if you enjoy your work then every milestone that you achieve will give you bliss. There are the number of Dos and Don’ts which help you to gain peace of mind.
First, let us enumerate the don’ts:
- Don’t get too much involved in reading the negative news. Our newspapers and electronic media are full these. You may scan through the headlines to be abreast with what is going on.
- Avoid spending too much time with people having negative attitude. Interaction with them will sink their negativity into your subconscious mind.
- Regard each person as an individual. They are entitled to hold their opinions. Do not be judgmental. Negative emotions like envy, jealousy, criticism of others will affect your peace of mind. So avoid these.
- Past is history. It does not have any significance except the lessons you have learnt. So don’t dwell on your past.
- Become friends with members of your family. Children are very intelligent today and they should be treated as friends. Likewise you should be friendly with your spouse.
- Your speech controls your relations with others including members of your family. Therefore use your words with care and discretion. The way you say something is as important as what you say.
- Don’t be too much attached with your possessions. Practice detachment. What we have today, we may not have tomorrow.
Now about the dos!
- Learn to focus your mind. Cut the clutter. On and average there comes as many as fifty thousand thoughts in one day. Try to reduce this number by focusing your mind.
- Practice meditation. It will help more than one can imagine.
- Cultivate a habit to enjoy only healthy food. Decide that you must eat slightly less than your hunger.
- Go on vacation periodically. The cycle of routine work needs to be broken as often as possible.
- Give yourself some quality time. Talk to yourself. Talk about what you like about you. And, further improve the same.
- Make it your habit to consider that challenges are your opportunities. When you face these challenges with success, it gives you happiness and your mind becomes peaceful.
Thanks for reading.
Sail Seven Streams to Enjoy the LinkedIn Jaunt!
- Be Very Selective
LinkedIn is a professional platform. So, be sure to carve out your Professional Objectives. Evidently, you need to be very selective in building your connections. Your efforts should be focused on quality and not quantity. It is necessary to find commonality while inviting people to connect. The proposed connections should be beneficial to both. For example if you are selling a service or a product all those who are decision makers to buy your products would be the most appropriate connections.
- Personalize Connection Requests
Send a polite email for the invite after going through the profile of the person. Describe briefly how the connection will be beneficial to both of you. If you have met the invitee at a social event, you may refer it. However, brevity is extremely important. Nobody likes to receive a verbose mail or any kind of message. The words chosen and the sentences constructed should delight the receiver of the message. It can happen only if you speak from heart. It means you need to be your natural self while communicating. Write to express but not to impress.
- Group participation
There are many groups formed on the LinkedIn. Some of these are active, others not so. Identify the group which is most suitable to your professional needs. In the beginning it will be easier to participate in a group where most members are from the place around. Unless you are a high profile professional, joining a group with participants from different countries may not be very effective. We must understand that the cultural background plays an important role in people coming together.
- Publish Posts
Create content of your niche expertise and publish in LinkedIn. Your post will be seen not only by your connections but by everyone on the LinkedIn. You have to be very careful about the ease of reading and comprehending by the people who view your post. It must add value. While content is the king, simple language which is easy to understand, will be appreciated. A long sentence with many clauses may not be appropriate for your story on the LinkedIn. Further, sentences of different lengths when put together in a paragraph make reading very interesting.
- LOINs
Loin means LinkedIn open networkers. They are the people who want to network with as many people as possible. One can search by using the group search feature. There are open networkers who will welcome you. Some groups cater to specific locations. There are other groups serving various industries and services. You have to select the group which is most suitable to your professional interest. In the search features if you specify the criteria you will be able to find out the group of your choice.
- Post status update daily
You need to establish that you are active on LinkedIn. It is therefore expected that you post something of interest to your connections and people at large every day. You may spend only 15 minutes daily. But use these 15 minutes with great discretion. As said above every post that you publish should be found interesting at least to some of your connections. It is understandable that you can’t please all. Therefore don’t even try to do that. Your focused approach on subjects of general needs or special interest to your connections will be highly appreciated.
- Your Profile
What you write on your profile is particularly important. It should give a clear message about your background and your profession. Instead of writing in a traditional chronological fashion you can be more innovative. Consider you are speaking to a large group of people. While you are addressing all to inform about yourself, it should clearly indicate your intention and interest. Take special care to choose a nice photograph. Give information and links to your website/websites, blog sites etc so that people can easily view. Recent events that you may have created or participated in would also be newsy and of interest to your friends.
I am sure that you will find that your sailings in the above seven streams will bring you a lot of joy with success on your ‘LinkedIn Jaunt’.
Thanks for reading.
Six Parameters to Analyze your Audience before Preparing your Speech
Whenever you’re preparing a speech, it is necessary to know your audience thoroughly. After all, you deliver the speech to help your audience in one way or the other. It could be a speech to inform. It could be a speech to convince or influence your listeners. It could also be to entertain the audience. You cannot succeed unless you study the audience beforehand. We have chosen six most important parameters which will enable you to know your audience well enough. These are as follows:
- No. of People:
You need to know approximately how many people you’re going to address. A speech which is meant to be delivered to a small group of 10 people may not be valid, for example, for 40 people. When the no. is small, you have to be personal. This is not possible or feasible if you are speaking to a large crowd. Even the language you may use will have to be different for different groups.
- Gender Composition:
It’s also necessary to know the gender composition of the audience. Treatment of your speech should be different for a group of male or female or both mixed males and females. Your message should crafted according the majority of the people you are going to address. The way you handle ladies only group may not be suitable if you’re addressing an all male crowd. Women and men react differently to various topics at most of the time.
- Purpose of Speech:
The general attitude of your listeners should be known to you. This is particularly so when your objective of speech is to convince or persuade. Application of mind on the issue will provide you sufficient information about the reaction of audience. For example if you are addressing an uninformed group, you will have to be more detailed and rather basic in expression. Further, if you expect your audience to be more apathetic or against the subject, you will have to modify your speech accordingly. Such knowledge beforehand will also help you to determine the language and the method of delivery of your speech.
- Age of the Audience:
It’s equally necessary to know to which age group your audience belongs. Younger people will react in a certain way to a topic. It may be totally different from the response of elderly audience. If the crowd does not represent a particular age group and has both young and old, you have to write your speech accordingly.
- Formal Education:
It may also be required to know the formal education of your audience, generally speaking. When the audience is highly educated, they will look for a trainer to speak in their language. Undoubtedly, this will be quite different from the language you will use to address a group of people who may be doing well in life but whose qualifications are much lower. The objective of the speech will not be served if the listeners don’t understand the implications of the message involved.
- Specialized Group:
Whenever you are speaking to a group of people who specialize in one subject or the other you have to be sure of many things. Superficial knowledge of the subject will not work. Your definition of the topic should connect with the level of the specialized knowledge that this group may process. More of professional jargon may be expected from you, lest you appear to them too elementary. The language of the specialized group is best used as their own.
All the parameters detailed above will come in handy for formulating an approach which would be most suitable for the audience you are going address.
Thanks for reading!
