Do We Have to be Articulate to be an Executive?

How Do We Become Articulate?

You know, this entirely depends on many factors of your situations – there is no magic formula. One method I know works in most cases is PRACTICE. That is, put yourself in situations where the objective is to convince and influence, as often as you can. The more you do it, the more you will learn. You won’t get it right first time. Or the second. Or the third. Eventually, your confidence will increase. And that’s the key. Confidence. The people we meet every day who can’t articulate well have one underlying characteristic – one evidence by mumbling, and repeating, and broken sentences – it’s lack of confidence. This might be YOUR starting point, as it was mine; but over time and with lots of practice, you’ll overcome it, like me.

I do recommend the book I mentioned: The Articulate Executive in Action: How the Best Leaders Get Things Done, if you consider yourself an already confident speaker, and you want to learn how to make the next leap up. It’s a business book in a business context, so it won’t tell you how to articulate yourself from first principles, but it’s a very good book if you’re looking to step up the career ladder quickly by several rungs. Look out for the ‘POWER formula’ (no it’s not a food supplement for body builders!) and you might also like the specific and deliberate use of humor as an articulation tool, too.

If you’re starting out in your career then I recommend this fantastic book, too: How to Develop Self-confidence by Dale Carnegie – it’s where I started on my journey, and it’s one of the most important books I have ever read!