Your opinion doesn't matter

Out of town for a couple of days, so I thought I would pass along a blog post or two featuring bloggers whose ideas I admire and will help you with your speaking!

This one is from Tony Chimento, a former client and now general all-around Web pal who I've never met in person. Tony is a pastor in Texas who writes an insightful blog that sometimes crosses over with ideas applicable to public speaking. He also came up with one of my button/magnet sayings: "I could talk till you're blue in the face." Here's a brief excerpt from a recent post about giving your opinion:

"Your opinion really doesn’t matter. Well it does. But there are times when it just doesn’t matter. And, in my opinion, here are a few reasons why it won’t matter.

1. Your opinion won’t matter if you were asked for it in a meeting, you didn’t give it then, but gave it after the meeting. Useless. You are now expressing your opinion to the wrong people at the wrong time in the wrong place. It doesn’t matter at that point....

2. Your opinion won’t matter if you give it arrogantly. You may be right. You may be wrong. But if you give your opinion in an arrogant manner, people won’t hear your opinion, they will hear your haughtiness and reject you and your opinion.

3. Your opinion won’t matter if you don’t care about the collective good. Your opinion should be given to help move the collective good forward. Will your opinion help? Will it bring progress? Will it shed light? Will you be helping to lift the discussion?"

As a speaker, you must have an opinion. You must express your opinion if you want to persuade an audience to take action. Yet many speakers are afraid to stand up, to have a voice, to engage the audience's emotions, to rock the boat if necessary (as I mentioned in Thursday's blog post). And, as Tony points out, even if you express your opinion, there are several ways you can sabotage yourself and render your opinion meaningless.

Read the rest of this post at Tony's blog Living Forward.

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