Speaker Confessions | True Tales from a Veteran Public Speaker

Found this great article thanks to Doug on former Oakland A’s all-star baseball player Henderson’s preparation for his Hall of Fame induction speech.

Always a nervous speaker, he decided to get some help in the form of a speech class at the local college, and as part of the course had them critique his speech, pointing out areas for improvement.

The course instructor, Earl Robinson, gave him the following advice:

“I told him, ‘Let’s give this a live audience,’ ” he said. “So he came into the class and presented it to the students. They liked it, but they also gave honest evaluations, because that’s what they do to each other, and they talked to him about how he could improve it. A lot of times, he’d stop at a passage and ask, ‘Do you like this part?’ “

Fascinating to see a celebrity so humble and open about getting better at something. And doing the one thing many speakers never do – practice and get feedback.

You can read the full article here.