As part of the Cancun conference V's company brought in 2 motivational speakers. The first guy was cool, especially as he was a Minnesotan so I got all of his references to places/events/customs here. The second person was a complete dud. The program said that a PhD cultural anthropologist would inform us about Mayan culture and history, but he focused mostly on personal encounters and challenges in the field. Even worse, his discussion of present day Maya people could be summed up like this: "These people have nothing, but they are at peace." Where did they dig up this fool!? Doesn't he know that "the noble savage" hasn't been in vogue for, what, 30 or 40 years? After we left that B.S. early, we visited the Mayan ruins at Tulum. Our guide was a Mayan woman who had a nice mixture of knowledge, humor, and people skills; SHE should have been the 2nd motivational speaker! I doubt that a Fortune 500 company would ever hire a local to do a keynote, though, but they can definitely find an anthropologist who lives and thinks in the 21st century, like my home grrrl Bianet Castellanos. I'll have to write a letter to V's company with that suggestion....
Posted by wrjacobs at May 9, 2006 12:42 PM | TrackBackAs a guide, it is really important to have people skills. Her communication skills could have helped her to be more effective because that's what she needed most. This will help her improve her people skills especially if they are of different cultures.
Also, a speaker should have good communication skills as well. He needs to provide useful information to the audience - ones that the audience needs and wants to know. He should also deliver it in a way that the audience would want to listen to him.
Posted by: Communication Skills at December 19, 2007 02:31 PM