This past Sunday, January 17, was a significant day. It’s the official ‘ditch your New Year’s Resolutions day’ established because two weeks into a new year is recognized as the time that people tend to abandon resolutions, goals, objectives, commitments or whatever we might call them. If you, like I, didn’t know of this cause for celebration, perhaps we’re stuck on our path to achieve or we chose to prod onward, still determined to reach our goals for the year.
Ditch day aside, we know we have a lot of hard work ahead of us to make this year our best one ever! So imagine my surprise in reading an article written by Charisma News that encouraged one to find their ‘inner’ comedian and enhance the potential of envisioned success. Really? What’s funny about our goals given the concentration and hard work that achieving them will require? How is the stand-up comedian within us going to help?
The article made an interesting parallel. The best stand-up comic we have seen has the ability & talent to stand on a stage and perform improv comedy. Such a talented artist can take a thread of an idea and turn it into a comedy routine. The stand-up artist weaves twists and turns into his routines and we go along on an enjoyable journey.
My curiosity led me to look further. Here are some of the traits attributed to doing successful stand-up work:
- be able to improvise in a way that allows you to meet your audience where they are.
- react equally well to both positive and negative responses
- possess excellent communication skills
- be quick thinking, and respond to changing circumstances and different audiences
Back to the office. With little doubt we are definitely focused on our plans. We have goals and strategies to achieve them. This IS going to be our year!! However, at some point during year, we are awakened to a reality of unforeseen obstacles. Things aren’t going as planned. It’s the stand-up comedian within us that a
llow us to:
- Make course adjustments on the fly in response to unforeseen obstacles. In doing so we will be more successful as opposed to those who wring their hands in the unfairness of something and risk fizzling out.
- Respond quickly to market conditions or other variables that call for a change of course. Our ability to do this is not an in-born skill of knowing when and how to zig-zag. It’s launching our efforts knowing that things rarely go completely as planned
- Always have a lifeboat nearby and ready to go in preparation for what could happen.
So perhaps being a successful stand-up is, in fact, no laughing matter. Who knew that it’s the skills of a stand-up comic that allow us to successfully navigate the waters on the way to achieving our goals? It’s not a funny ha ha. Rather it appears that the connection between achieving our serious goals and delivering comedy is funny through an interesting and meaningful connection. Laugh on!
Mike Dorman
I agree with the choice of studying stand up comics to improve your ability to lead as an executive. Twenty-three years ago I wanted to improve my public speaking ability. I took various courses and learned a lot of technical skills that improved my presentations but I still was putting people to sleep. I knew that no one falls asleep in a comedy club because the stand up comics grab your interest. You may not like his humor but you get it. Likewise if you watch a magician you are riveted to his performance. I chose to learn magic instead of stand up comic, but I am convinced either would have worked for me. Now, when I make public presentations I use the practical skills a magician perfects without actually performing a “magic trick.” Using the basic theory that makes an effect feel like magic I get my audiences fascinated with my public speaking. Once, when I was invited to speak to a group of forty executives about the importance of ethical behavior I took the opportunity to introduce myself. I always do a better job of introducing myself than a typical MC. After my introduction my audience was so into who I was and what I had to say that the speaking lasted 40 minutes longer and I was asked to come back the next time they met, two weeks later, to continue my presentation. When I returned there were sixty executives in the room. Two of those present hired me as their executive coach.