My True Confession (and Introduction)
Bonus episode: Lisa confesses her early people skills challenges and describes how she became The Public Speaker.
OK, this is a “fair warning” — this is NOT a regular episode of the show. So quickly hit the “stop” button if don’t want to learn the nitty, gritty details of my journey to becoming The Public Speaker.
In reality, this episode is both a confession and an introduction. It’s for the curious (like me) who always want to know how people arrived at their current destination.
The Confession
So here’s the confession. It’s a little embarrassing, but I think it’s worth sharing. When I graduated from college I started my career at General Electric in one of their management training programs. One day, Bob, one of the senior managers, called me into his office. And although the trainees had access to senior management it was a bit unusual to have a private meeting.
After some small talk Bob told me something I have never forgotten. He said, “Lisa, you are a big ship, like a cruise liner, coming into port. You rock all of the other small ships and you don’t even realize it. We’d like to help you with that. We want to send you to some training.”
It turns out they wanted to send me to a course to improve my interpersonal skills—yep, that’s right, to help me improve my communication skills!
So, of course, I go to the training and the first day starts with each of us taking a personality inventory. The man sitting next to me seemed unhappy. He explained that he worked for the post office and that every year there is a survey among the employees and the managers that have the lowest scores are forced to come to this course–“charm school” he called it.
Anyway, we each finished our personality inventory and self-scored them–adding up points for different measures. After hearing this story, I couldn’t help myself. I was dying to see the personality scores for my new friend from the post office, so I looked over at his paper. I noticed immediately that our scores, for each and every category, were exactly the same!
It was in that very moment that I realized I needed to change. I promised myself that I would do better, that I would commit myself to reading, practicing, and improving in this very important area of professional development. I learned a lot in the course, and that was just the beginning.
Finding My Passion
After finishing the initial two-year program at GE, I was asked to join their internal consulting group. I was a member of several consulting teams across many of GE’s businesses as the information systems specialist working along with other specialists from finance and manufacturing. This is when I first noticed that the root cause of many organization issues stemmed from problems in communication. I suppose I was now more sensitive—especially since I had been reading so much.
I was convinced understanding communication better was important for my career so I decided to get a formal education in communication and GE agreed. For me, it seemed that interpersonal, intercultural, and organizational communication were all important, so I concentrated on all three areas. GE even paid for most of my studies!
On the personal side of things…this was also when I met John. John had become HIV+ from infected blood products yet was never negative or sour about his situation. In fact, John was dying from a horrible disease, yet he was the most alive person that I have ever met. That’s why I married him.
He was full of zeal. Maybe you’ve met someone like this. He was the kind of person that naturally attracts other people–like a magnet. His passion was contagious and he inspired me to find my passion and share it with others.
During those years I received not only a formal education from the university, but also, through John, I was getting an informal education in communication and passion. I felt deeply (and still do) that communication was perhaps the most important skill for professional and personal success.
Eventually, John died. I was sad, but I never lost my passion for communication. I worked part-time building my business while working full-time as a director of systems engineering and training at software companies. In 2001, I decided to devote myself full-time to my passion for communication.
Who I am Now
I love working with smart, passionate leaders for whom good communication is critical. I’m passionate about helping organizations, institutions, and individuals transform their workplace communication skills. Oh, I’m also passionate about three big additions to my life–my husband and my identical twin daughters. Through my girls, I’m gaining a new perspective on communication–especially, as you might imagine, in the area of conflict resolution!
So, I wanted to share my story–partly as introduction, partly as confession, and hopefully, partly as motivation for those who struggle with people skills. I think that Bob would be surprised to learn that I am now The Public Speaker and perhaps he would be surprised that I remembered his words all these years. I sincerely hope that some of my words will have the same impact. That’s why I decided to do this show. I am passionate about communication and want to help you to become even more successful.
I hope you’ll listen to the show and if you have a question about how to communicate better at work, e-mail publicspeaker@quickanddirtytips.comcreate new email, leave a comment below, or follow me on Twitter. For information about keynote speeches or workshops visit lisabmarshall.com.
Microphone image courtesy of Shutterstock
About the Author
Lisa B. Marshall Lisa holds masters with duel degrees in interpersonal/intercultural communication and organizational communication. She’s the author of Smart Talk: The Public Speaker’s Guide to Success in Every Situation, as well as Ace Your Interview, Powerful Presenter, and Expert Presenter. Her work has been featured in CBS Money Watch, Ragan.com, Woman’s Day, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, and many others. Her institutional clients include Johns Hopkins Medicine, Harvard University, NY Academy of Science, University of Pennsylvania, Genentech, and Roche.
