How to show up powerfully and authentically
My new book, The Good Communicator, hit the shelves and became an Amazon Bestseller in two categories, Environmental Issues and Occupational Psychology.*
*[Let's address the elephant in the room: I know how you feel about Amazon and its tech bro founder, especially this week... I feel the same, believe me, especially after what I said in the previous article. However, I had to play a little bit of the game to ensure this book reaches people who would not usually look at sustainability content (the doctor needs to cure the ill, not the healthy, right?), and the more exposure it gets on the biggest selling platform out there, the better it can help our own people, the sustainability professionals and leaders, to do their jobs with real impact. Do you agree? I'd love to hear your view on this sticky issue.]
Then on Thursday last week, I had an amazing evening of celebrations at MAPP's offices in London, where a room full of incredible people, clients, friends and perfect strangers helped me launch the book into the world with a bang.
I had an opportunity to give a little presentation and that's where this week's tips come from:
- I challenged myself to think outside the box: I drew cartoons to illustrate the journey from caterpillar to butterfly as a metaphor for the five steps to becoming Good Communicators (I wish I thought of it as I was writing the book!). It was going to be one of the defining moments of my career and yet I did something that could have been perceived as silly or unprofessional. But I fully believe in myself, in my capacity to speak publicly, to rise up if I fall. My life so far has taught me so much about failure and resilience that I now know that failure is not that bad and that it's worth the risk if the outcome is that I contribute to changing and disrupting the status quo. Plus I am a creative person, and the cartoons screamed ME a lot louder than a slide deck would.
- I realised that everything about me had to embody my message. I had to dress up as I wanted to show up, so I bought a bottle green suit and a zebra print top from Vinted, and I asked my daughter to make me a pair of butterfly earrings to match the cover of the book. Do you know what? It might just been a small, insignificant detail, but I felt powerful. I felt I owned the stage. I was in complete alignment with my ideal self that night.
- I rehearsed my presentation at least twice in full, jokes included. Did everything go to plan? Of course not. I could not read my notes and the choice of Canva instead of PowerPoint was a challenging one, but because of the time I spent preparing, I could do a bit of improv and make it look natural.
- Instead of preaching, I offered a few games for the audience to try in practice, there and then, the concepts I wanted to convey. People quickly bonded and seemed to have a really good time. in fact, I never had so many compliments at the end of a speech. Afterwards, my audience chatted and networked for way longer than I expected.
So here are a few questions for you to embody sustainability communication:
- How can you prepare in advance for a conversation or presentation?
- What do you need to do to show up as authentically you?
- What can you do differently from last time to have a better outcome?
This article was originally written for the Green Gorilla weekly newsletter. If you liked it, subscribe to receive more articles like this and learn how to communicate sustainability better, how to be more productive without selling your soul to the work devil, and how to make an impact in the world. Here is the link: https://newsletter.thegreengorilla.co.uk/