Choosing the right message for a specific occasion and audience is essential. Just as crucial is the carrier of the message. The effectivity of the message is sealed by the person whose critical task is to make the message clearly sent to the audience.
In the academic world, part of the deliberation way before the graduation is who the speaker would be. There are several criteria and guidelines as to choosing who would be the right one. It is decided unanimously or at least by the majority of a collegial body, and there is even a way to involve the graduating class in the process. For me, there are three basic criteria that one would qualify for this important task. These are knowledge, experience, and integrity.
Knowledge would help the speaker to provide necessary inputs for the graduating class. And if one has a wide range of information in his or her field, he can indisputably amplify valuable points.
There is truth in the saying "knowledge is power." Knowledge truly empowers us. It helps us make informed decisions. It is not necessarily gleaned from books in a classroom. It could come from experience. Lack of knowledge is what makes the youth brash and it is knowledge that makes the elderly smart. Its significance is often equated to common sense. The more we know about who and what we are dealing with, the better off we will be.
Staying well-informed is a daily endeavor that requires both diligence and enthusiasm. With everything around us moving so rapidly it's a challenge to keep up with it, but not to keep up would be like agreeing to check out. The important thing is to keep learning and assimilating information. We never know when it will come in handy.
The second criterion relates to the first one. The speaker's experience in a related field is one that provides him or her with the much-needed confidence to carry on the important message. Extending beyond the industry knowledge is the speaker's wide experience in life. The challenges, struggles, and eventually the triumphs would seal the effectivity of the message. His authentic life's experience makes him a credible speaker who is worthy of emulation.
The third one carries the most challenging part. This is because we want to know if the speaker is indeed living up to what he is saying. It is the honesty, truthfulness, or accuracy of one's actions. It is the congruence between what he thinks, says and does, because in one or two, we fail. It could be in the doing that we fail. It is oftentimes we fail to be consistent.
Consistency is about being the same regardless of the situation. In an article "Global Leadership: True Meaning of Integrity," So-Young Kang explains that consistency is a choice that we make as leaders every single day, even when the situation or environment is not great. If you just had an argument with someone before walking into your next meeting, consistency means that you will make a conscious choice to shift gears and release yourself from the negativity of the last conversation and not bring that to the next meeting.
As a speaker, he or she should bring all these before a bunch of young and enthusiastic individuals who are about to embark on the journey called life.