Are you looking forward to the Super Bowl? I am. I’m a speech coach by day, football fan by night, and I see a lot of similarity between great football and great communication. Let me explain.
The ancient Greeks gathered at Olympus every four years hoping to witness the divine spark in man. Like you, they enjoyed hooting and hollering during the competition. But underneath their exuberance was the desire to witness something transcendent, a moment of such intensity that it could stand for the greatness of man.
They considered mankind to have four faculties: Will, Emotion, Intellect, and Imagination. Most of the time, in everyday life, these four brothers work independently, or one or two at a time. But when all four work together, you have something special. You have the State of Flow, athletes moving in the zone of peak performance, a glimpse of something transcendent.
Challenge your Opponent
The Super Bowl is a contest of will. Players who have cultivated their strength in weight rooms since high school have fixed their minds on battle. The defensive linemen will push through resistance over and over again until they cannot catch their breath and their bodies fatigue. Offensive linemen will brace themselves for the onslaught, like sumo wrestlers, using their legs, backs and arms to repel the attack. When both teams are capable of winning, and both are running on fumes, the game becomes a test of wills.
Work with Passion
The Super Bowl is a game of emotion–of controlled rage. When I played middle linebacker in high school and played with an attitude, my coach yelled from the sideline, “Way to go Simmie. Keep ya Irish up.” Running backs like to run angry, determined to bruise and intimidate anything that gets in their way, while quarterbacks try to keep an even keel, like the pilot of an airliner in the midst of turbulence. Defensive backs, threatened by six points of disaster every time the ball is thrown, abandon all doubt and play with defiant confidence. The game is a game of emotion.
Be Clear and Compelling
The Super Bowl is an intellectual puzzle. Coaches watch reams of video tape to detect patterns in opponents’ behaviors. Believe me, big data is alive and well at the Super Bowl. Quarterbacks look for any favorable match up of receiver vs. defender. Offensive coaches probe one side of the defense, then the other, to pressure test the line, looking for opportunity. And of course, the defense is probing too, trying to find a tiny advantage that could crack the game open.
Capture Attention
Finally, the Super Bowl requires imagination. Deflating the balls when playing on a cold wet day is resourceful, if not fair. Making complex substitutions of eligible and ineligible receivers is creative, and confusing to defenders. Bringing in offensive players who usually participate in running plays, and then throwing a pass to an eligible tackle is out of the box. And of course, designing blitzes, deceptive coverage, and trick plays in do or die moments is creative, risky, and thrilling.
I’m a speech coach, and every day I’m looking for a moment of transcendence. Great communicators display the same four attributes that great teams display. They have the strength of will to challenge the opposition. They speak with emotion–with passion. They make a clear and compelling case for their cause, and they do it in a novel way that catches the attention of an audience.
Let the games begin. Let the artists of the gridiron (and the artists of the presentation platform) ignite the divine spark that’s in us all, when we align our will, emotion, intellect, and imagination.
Written by: Sims Wyeth Source: www.Inc.com
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
THE MARK CONSULTING & MARKETING