Natural Born Speaker?
Steve Adubato, Ph.D.

People seem to believe that being a great public speaker is something you're born with. He or she is a "natural born speaker" I hear people say. They see speakers like John F. Kennedy, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Elizabeth Dole and Dr. Martin Luther King and say all these communicators were given a gift that the rest of us mere mortals don't possess. I don't buy it.

In the vast majority of cases, great communicators have worked hard to get to be where they are. It's just that the rest of us never get to see the effort it took to be that good.

Consider former President Bill Clinton. Like the rest of us, Clinton made some horrible speeches early in his career. Consider his nominating speech for Michael Dukakis at the 1988 Democratic National Convention. It was terrible. Clinton rambled for 57 minutes. He had lost his audience after the first 10 minutes and didn't know how to get them back. He was wed to his script.

The crowd kept booing. They begged him to stop, but Clinton lacked the experience and the know-how to cut his losses. By the time he uttered the words "in conclusion" he received a mock standing ovation from over 20,000 loyalists in his own party. By any standard, his speech was a bomb that had missed its mark. He was laughed at and ridiculed as an embarrassing public speaker who was in no way presidential material.

After that fiasco Bill Clinton made a commitment to learn everything he could about being a great public speaker. For the next decade, he worked on such skills as speaking off key bullet points and making more direct eye contact with his audience. He started using more examples and anecdotes to support his message and became more conversational and less preachy. He also learned to edit.

Also consider the late Robert F. Kennedy. At the time of his death, Kennedy was considered a marvelous public speaker who was comfortable in virtually any setting. He could touch people with his passion and emotion. But the Kennedy of 1968 was not the Kennedy of just a few years before. According to many accounts, R.F.K. was deathly afraid of speaking in public. In early interviews he was known to stumble and stutter. He admitted to being extremely nervous when having to speak. In fact, he believed his brother Jack was the natural born speaker in the family. Once he was appointed Attorney General in 1961, Bobby Kennedy tirelessly worked to improve the way he communicated in public. He learned what it took to connect with his audience on a deeper, more visceral level. Like Clinton, it was a question of practice, patience and persistence.

Remember Elizabeth Dole's innovative and dynamic Oprah-like presentation at a recent Republican National Convention? Mrs. Dole moved beyond the podium and strolled through the audience talking with and touching people in a relaxed, informal and highly conversational fashion. On television, it looked like she was born to play this role.

In fact, Elizabeth Dole had worked on that speech in countless dress rehearsals in smaller venues. She honed her skills by making numerous mistakes and by making a commitment to improve her effort. By the time she spoke to the nation on national TV, she was ready for prime time. Again, all we see is the final product and consider Mrs. Dole another one of those "natural born speakers." Like I said, I don't buy it.

Next week, I'll introduce you to Charles Hamm, a bank executive who overcame dyslexia and an overwhelming fear of speaking in public to become one of the most charismatic communicators in corporate America.

Dr. Steve Adubato coaches and speaks on the subjects of communication and leadership and is the author of the book "Speak from the Heart." Write to him at The Star-Ledger, 1 Star-Ledger Plaza, Newark, NJ 07102, visit his Web site at www.stand-deliver.com, or e-mail him at sadubato@aol.com.

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