I recently received a call from a student entering a top Ivy League business school in the fall. She wanted to thank me for my books and columns, which she said helped her land a spot in the competitive program. Her grades were good, but not great. Her work experience was good, but not great. Her in-person interview, on the other hand, was exceptional. She stood out.
“The unusual person will jump out,” Warren Buffett once said. “And it’s not because they have an IQ of 200 or anything like that. You will jump out, much more than you can anticipate, if you get really comfortable with public speaking. It’s an asset that will last you 50 or 60 years and it’s a liability if you don’t like doing it.”
The 20 million students who are returning to a two-year or four-year institution this fall have an opportunity to learn the skills that will help them jump out. In a recent New York Times essay on getting the most out of the college experience, columnist Frank Bruni offers his advice based on several years of campus visits, interactions with graduates, and interviews with education experts.
“Regardless of major, there are skills to insist on acquiring because they transcend any particular career,” Bruni writes. “Communication — clear writing, cogent speaking — is one of them, and many different courses can hone it. Another of those skills, frequently overlooked, is storytelling…Every successful pitch for a new policy, new product or new company is essentially a story, with a shape and logic intended to stir its audience. So is every successful job interview. The best moment in a workplace meeting belongs to the colleague who tells the best story.”
Bruni recommends that students learn “the art of persuasion” before they leave campus. While most colleges offer electives in public speaking, rhetoric or communication—which you should take—I’m a strong believer in learning the art through the stories and examples of those leaders who are among the world’s great persuaders. I agree with Bruni who writes,
“Take a course in Greek mythology, British literature, political rhetoric or anything else that exposes you to the structure of narrative and the art of persuasion.”
Bruni’s on the right track. Students should think more broadly about where they can learn communication, storytelling and persuasion skills.
In a class on Ancient Greece and Athenian Democracy, you’ll learn about Aristotle who gave us the 3-part formula for persuasion that all great presenters and speakers use today (Ethos, Logos, Pathos).
In a statistics class, you might learn about Florence Nightingale, a statistician and mathematician who used data to reduce the rate of death by infection during the Crimean War. She made a convincing case to change sanitation practices by creating the first pie-chart—or infographic—more than 160 years ago.
In physics class, you might learn about Stephen Hawking who wrote his mega bestseller, A Brief History of Time to reach a mass audience. Hawking included only one mathematical equation in the book, joking that each additional equation would have slashed sales in half.
In American history class, you might learn about Thomas Paine’s Common Sense, a pamphlet that used simple words, convincing arguments and emotional appeals to stir people toward revolution.
In nearly every class, you’ll learn about leaders who moved their fields forward, or inspired others to do the impossible. In most cases, transformative leaders were master communicators.