Acting At Work

So here’s the acting tip. When you speak, choose how you want to affect your audience.

Choose a verb and choose it boldly:

• Warn.
• Seduce.
• Incite.
• Persuade.
• Reassure.

The bolder choices (incite, seduce) may seem inappropriate, but they’re effective. It’s understood that you won’t actually incite or seduce your audience, but the thought of inciting or seducing will help greatly.

Avoid weak choices: “inform”, “communicate”.

Also, ensure the verb you choose is aimed at your audience. “Celebrate” is a bad choice (unless you are actually “celebrating” your audience), but “inspire” is strong.

Then, if you like, add an adverb. Again, choose boldly:

• Warn gently.
• Seduce confidently.
• Incite warmly.
• Persuade intelligently.
• Reassure strongly.

Then, as you speak, use that action.

If you’re speaking at length, choose a different action for each section of speech. An actor, in analysing a test, might choose a different action for each few words. At work, a different action per paragraph will serve you well.

But how does this help you appear more confident, in control and so on?

The answer is: however you want to appear, place it in the adverb. If you want to appear confident, attempt to “warn confidently”. Choose related words, too: to appear in control, choose to “seduce assuredly” or “warn definitively”.

This is more effective than simply “acting confident”, because you stay focussed on your audience. If you try to “act confident”, you focus on yourself, and communication with the audience ceases. If you try to warn your audience confidently, you focus on them.

There is a side-effect, too. Many of the acts you’ll attempt (warning, seducing, reassuring) are, themselves, confident actions. By doing them, you appear confident and in control.