The best communicators love what they are talking about more than they love talking about it.
In his creative short book on communication, Kirk Byron Jones observes, “With all due respect to my affection for preaching, it is the story as opposed to the act of preaching that keeps me preaching. If I ever get over the story, I think I will stop preaching, maybe” (The Jazz of Preaching). Think about it, history’s most compelling communicators moved people not so much by their words, but by the sheer love which fueled their words. Who could forget Sojourner Truth’s classic, “Ain’t I a Woman,” where her love for women’s rights and freedom urged her to rail against the abuses of misogyny and racism; or President Franklin Roosevelt’s love for America when he reminded his nation they had nothing to fear but fear itself? You couldn’t listen to Winston Churchill talk for more than five minutes without being struck by his deep affection for England. It’s not so much what these communicators are saying, as much as it is the love they have for what they are saying that drives us to action.
The Greeks understood this principle that the best communicators love what they are talking about more than they love talking about it. These ancient lovers of oratory said all great speakers possess a quality they called pathos. In a nutshell, pathos is passion, but remember these are the Greeks who are talking, so they cannot mean animation- you know the kind of energetic, sweat inducing presentation where the speaker is in a frenzy (though there certainly is more than enough room for that). I mean, how could the Greeks mean animation when they were the nation which gave us the Stoics? Instead, when they spoke of pathos, what they meant was speaking from one’s gut, and not just from one’s mind. When you listen to a compelling communicator there’s this sense they really feel and love their subject. And you can also tell when they don’t.
You want to grow as a communicator? Love what you are talking about more than talking about it. Keep throwing wood on the flames of your passion.
Here’s some helpful tips:
Take inventory of your pain, because many times it is our pain which will feed our passion which drives our communication. Frederick Douglass and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., knew the pain of being discriminated against, and they harnessed this energy in their communication. Used positively, wounds can turn into words which ultimately turn people for the good.
Spend time with people. Sometimes we struggle with pathos because we spend more time with content than the people we are communicating to. Yes, communicators deal with content on some level, but that content is useless unless it’s connected to people. Coming out from behind the computer and immersing yourself in the lives of others is essential for nurturing passion. If you are an educator, when you speak it should be obvious you love students. If you are a pastor who spends significant time with the people you serve, you should not only be able to see faces as you prepare your weekly messages, but your love for these people will leak through in your communication.
Guard your heart. There’s an ancient proverb which says, “Above all else, guard your heart for everything you do flows from it” (Proverbs 4:23, NLT). As communicators we bring more than our minds to the presentation, we bring our hearts as well. Nothing kills pathos more than a distracted or divided heart. On the way to a presentation I don’t need to hear the air conditioning just went out, bats have been discovered in our attic (really did happen once, by the way) and my wife wants a fourth kid (never will happen by the way- her words). The hours before a talk are prime moments for me to get focused, and do the work of getting whatever junk out of my heart that needs to be removed.
Find something else to do. If you just can’t get to a place where you love what you are talking about; if you are only doing it for the money or notoriety, then find something else to do. People’s time is too precious for them to listen to a speaker whose not all in on what they are attempting to get you to do. I know that’s a bit abrupt, but…Happy new year!
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