Cousins and Stones: Laughter is the best medicine

I am now reading the book Lemonade Principle. I thought I should write a summary of the book and share it with you. But I guess, you should buy your copy at the nearest Powerbooks branch. If you like reading an ebook copy, send me an email and I will share with you my copy for free, of course.

I have just finished reading the the description of the author, Bernard Smalls, of the terrific stories of Norman Cousins (the Father of Laughter is the Best Medicine) and W Clement Stone (the Father of Positive Mental Attitude). So, I cannot share with you much today. Instead, I will just copy excerpts and paste it now here. At the end of this entry, you will find some related articles you can easily find in the Net. Read them if you have more time. Else, just spend the rest of your time with your family and friends.

The Man Who Has Laughed His Way to Health

Mr. Norman Cousins is known as the man who laughed his way to health. Following is a short part of his story. “Told that he had little chance of surviving, Cousins developed a recovery program incorporating mega-doses of Vitamin C, along with a positive attitude, love, faith, hope, and laughter induced by Marx Brothers films. “I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep,” he reported.

“When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would switch on the motion picture projector again and, not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval.”

Cousins received the Albert Schweitzer Prize in 1990…having survived years longer than his doctors predicted: 10 years after his first heart attack, 16 years after his collagen illness, and 26 years after his doctors first diagnosed his heart disease.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Cousins

W Clement Stone: Father of Positive Mental Attitude

Mr. Stone was known for saying, “I feel happy, I feel healthy, and I feel terrific,” every morning when he woke up. Well, even if you don’t like the hype about being positive, Mr. Stone lived to be over one hundred years of age and died as a “happy billionaire” – THAT’S TERRIFIC! He lived a long, rich, happy life. Money is good, isn’t it? He was known as the poor kid who made it big!

You do not have to remain a negative person, because you can change your mental attitude by being renewed in the attitude of your mind. You can be happy!

Mr. Stone’s PMA philosophy has had such an impact on my life, I want to share some of his philosophy with you on a few of the following pages. Remember, he died as a happy billionaire. If you tend to be a negative person, I encourage you to draw on the life of Mr. Stone. His PMA is contagious!

MR. STONE’S PHILOSOPHY

Be Generous!

Be generous! Give to those whom you love; give to those
who love you; give to the fortunate; give to the unfortunate;
yes—give especially to those to whom you don’t want to
give.You will receive abundance for your giving. The more you
give—the more you will have!

Give a smile to everyone you meet (smile with your eyes) —
and you’ll smile and receive smiles. . .

Give a kind word (with a kindly thought behind the word) —
you will be kind and receive kind words.

Give time for a worthy cause (with eagerness)—you will be
worthy and richly rewarded.

Give hope (the magic ingredient for success)—you will have
hope and be made hopeful.

Give encouragement (the incentive to action)—you will have
courage and be encouraged.

Give a pleasant response (the neutralizer of irritants)—you will
be pleasant and receive pleasant responses.

Give good thoughts (nature’s character builder)—you will be
good and the world will have good thoughts for you.

Be generous! Give!

To get more, you have to give more!

Reference: From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved March 5, 2006

Related Articles:

A Laugh a Day Keeps the Doctor Away? by Jackie Chew

How the Marx Brothers brought Norman Cousins back to Life by Joe Guse

Norman Cousin’s Quotes

Positive Mentality

Laughter Plays Trick with Your Eyes

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Jef Menguin facilitates people skills seminars and teambuilding and leadership workshops in Metro Manila, Philippines. Visit his website at http://jefmenguin.com to learn more about his seminars.

Dealing with Your Customers

For today,I’ve decided to answer two letter senders for their concerns are interrelated. You may print copies of this entry and distribute them to your staff–of course at your own risk.

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Hello Jef,

I work in a resort. And it is not uncommon for us to receive complaints from difficult customers. Do you have any technique I can use to handle angry customers?

Thanks and more power! –Sally

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Here is the bad news Sally. there are some customers whose goal in life is to make the lives of others miserable. They demand for the moon, and when you cannot deliver what they want they think that you are lost in space.

And here is the good news. You are not likely to meet that person today. They are very few and they will appear in your resort once in a blue moon.

Another good news is that the degree of the customers “difficulty” is inversely proportional to your attitude towards them. Their difficulty decreases when your attitude towards your customer increases. Change your attitude, and like magic,your customers will change.

During my Customer Service workshops (especially when we talk about dealing with angry customers), consistently I find that most of our problems with the customers has something to do with our knowledge (or the lack of it) of our customers, our attitude towards service, our self-esteem, and others. Before I discuss the techniques of handling “difficult” customers, please read the following obvious principles in customer service. Yes, they are so obvious that most people don’t even think of them.

The customer has the right to be angry. Yes, and it does not have to be for the right reasons. Customers get angry when they perceived that they are not treated right. You don’t have to return anger with anger. Instead find out what makes the customer angry. Doing so will help you find the solution.

A complaint is a vote of confidence. Research show that if the customers think that you cannot solve their problems, they will not complain at all. Most customer complain because they believe you can do something about their problem. Encourage them to speak. Thank them when they do.

The customer is after the solution. You know what, every time I call one the customer service hotline of SmartBro, after the long series of press-this-number instructions, I get to talk to CSRs who are polite and who seemed to know what they do. They are patient enough to give me instructions. But then again, I am after the solution. Regularly calling their customer hotline 6727277 is irritating. Specially when you are told that somebody will call you in 24 hours….and that when nobody calls, you make a follow up yourself. Make sure that your people will do everything to provide the solution the customer wants even after the call.

Discover what the customers want. “Difficult” in many cases is simply an admission that we don’t know what our customers want. It is also an admission of our lack of interpersonal skills. Most of us our reactive. When customers complain, we have the tendency to defend our side. Sometimes, we accept everything because of the wrong understanding of “customer-is-always-right principle. The customers are not there to argue with us. They are there to seek help. Although some do not sound like they are asking for help, believe me that they do. Well, some customers also lack interpersonal skills. For many customers, they need to muster much courage to speak with you and tell you what they want.

You do not always have the power to solve the problem of the customer,but you can still help. In the eyes of your customer, you are the company. Do not think that they are difficult customers simply because they are in the wrong department. Find ways to help your customer when they approach you. It can be as easy as bringing them to the right person.

Also,you cannot be perfect all the time. I like this Seth Godin’s entry. Accept that you cannot be perfect all the time. Accept that every time your customers complain, they are helping you make your relationship with them more human-like.

Put the customer first, her problem second. Yes, your customer needs your solution to their problem. But before you focus on the problem, focus on your customer first. Connect with your customer first.

Keep in touch with your customers. Even after solving the problem of your customers, it helps if you can keep in contact with them. They need to know that you care. I believe this is the best way to build stronger relationship.

Have your Heard of the HEARD TECHNIQUE?

Now, let’s discuss “HEARD” technique. This is a very simple technique to help those who deal with customer conflict. I’ve been using this technique in my customer service workshops. The other acronyms are HEAT (which I used at the Farm at San Benito) and LEAP (which I just discovered recently). All are just saying the same thing. David Saxby has a good description of HEARD in his article, so I just copied and pasted it here. Participants do roleplay of this pattern in my workshops. Contact me when you need a longer explanation

H – Hear out what your customer has to say. Let them describe the problem or reason for their emotional distress. Do not interrupt or attempt to cut them off – that, in and of itself, is rude. Give them the opportunity to express their feelings about the situation.

E – Empathize with their situation. It’s very calming to someone who is upset to hear the words “I appreciate” or “I respect.” By the same token, it’s very irritating to hear “I understand.” How can one really understand if they are not in the situation?

Train your employees to stay away from using trigger phrases such as “company policy” or “it’s a computer problem” or “we can’t do that.” Customers don’t want excuses – they want a solution to their problem! Train your agents to use appropriate phrases that help diffuse the emotion rather than escalate it.

A – Ask questions to determine what can be done to create a solution. The number one question your agents should ask is “What can we do to make this right for you?” It’s one of the simplest things you can do to understand the customer.

Most management is afraid to empower their staff with that question for fear the answer will be something ridiculous or costly. Research has proven that in most situations the customer’s suggestion for resolving the conflict is less costly than what the company would have offered as the final solution.

R – Respond with a solution to the problem. Creating a solution with the customer on their first telephone call is absolutely vital to customer retention. Research by T.A.R.P.(Technical Assistance Research Program) has shown that 90 percent of customers with a problem will continue to do business with the company if they feel the person handling their complaint is genuinely concerned with resolving the situation.

But in order for that to happen, you must first identify the conflicts your agents are most likely to encounter and then train them so they have all the possible solutions. Knowledge is power! But this knowledge will be useless unless you empower your agents to take the corrective actions. They must know what the possible solutions are as well as their level of authority to institute those solutions.

D – Deliver on the promise made to the customer. Make sure there’s a clear understanding with the customer as to what will happen and when it will happen. Restate these two items in very simple terms.

If you want to truly set yourself apart from your competition, go the extra mile and call the customer after the problem has been corrected. Ask if they are happy with the solution. Ask if there is anything else you can do for them right now. Let your customer know that you care!

“You can’t teach someone to care.”
- Art Sakaguchi

This question is from Elen M.

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“…how to train my staff so they can deliver excellent customer service..”

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I am tempted to say that you get me. But that is not necessarily the best solution. When it comes to training your employees in excellence customer service, I suggest that you do the following.

Invest in people-skills training. It is unfortunate that some companies do not invest in people skills training. They don’t want to sacrifice productivity. One day of training will not only mean absence from work but also an expense for the company. So, some rely on customer service policy of the company. But you cannot put up a manual on how to handle customers, because customers are not machines. There is no one standard one of “handling” people.

People and human relationship skills are foundational. It is not something you will do simply because you have an extra on your business. You should help your people become more confident in dealing with any customer. You must provide them with the capacity to do what you need them to do–to solve customer problems, delight them, and build evangelist from among them.

Two-day training programs in excellent customer service may help. But that should just be the start since learning, most of the times, doesn’t just happen in a day or two. In your customer service training (mine is a workshop for we do role playing and other experiential activities) teach your staff the principles of customer service, service imperatives, the worst and best practices, assertiveness, empathy, building rapport with customers, phone etiquette, conflict resolutions, and salesmanship.

I wrote about this before and I think it is worth mentioning again–strive to make every employee your customer service champions–yes, even those who are not in the front desks. Every employee must understand that you are all working to make the vision of your company come true. I am pretty sure that the core of your vision says that you want to give your customer the best of your product and service. I have interviewed many managers, and 8 of 10 said that they do not know the mission and vision of their companies. People need significance. You need to inculcate your mission, vision, and values to them.

Show your employees the direction. Then allow your them to give their best to every customer.

Get in touch with your customers’ reality. When the government said that the Philippines is becoming an Enchanted Kingdom, we know that they are out of touch with the reality that the Filipinos experience everyday. For their is nothing enchanting with low quality education, graft and corruption, and lack of leadership in the government. Everything is propaganda. The government officials don’t see what their people see everyday.

The same is true with customer service. You and your people must get in touch with your customers reality. In my answer to Sally’s question above, I said that most customers are not really “difficult” they are just misunderstood. Do you realize that our government think that we are difficult to please when we demand from them to do what they ought to do? If only our government officials experienced how it is to live in the Philippines outside their airconditioned rooms. They don’t even experience how to be in traffic here. Their convoys own the roads.

Help your people to get in touch with your customers reality. Almost always bad customer service is a result of our being out of touch of customers’ reality. What do you know about your customers needs?

Have you tried calling 6727277. I do. On average three times a week. I have on and off Smart Bro connections. I cannot use the product at regularly. So, I call their customer service hotline to get help. So, what do I usually get?

“Welcome to SmartBro,the amazing wireless broadband…”

After promoting the problematic product, you will be told to press a number… and you must press that number or you won’t get their help. And when you do …

“Welcome to smartBro,the amazing wireless broadband service from Smart, now you can…”

This time, you will get a longer advertisement of a new product. Then you will be told again to press another number before you can get their help.

This is customer service hotline. Sometimes, even a private company like Smart works like the government. As of this writing (Today is Sunday), Smart is yet to fix the problematic product. Last night I received this message from 528.

“Good evening! We would like to inform you that you are scheduled for your technical visit tomorrow Sunday January 20 2007. No definite time within the day. For confirmation, kindly call us at 6727277. Thank you.”

Never mind the date of visit. Never mind that they promised to visit last Thursday afternoon and did not come.They want me now to stay at home and wait for them again. And worst, call that number and hear their product promotions once again.

You can do better. Sit down with your team. Talk about what your customers really expect from you. I even suggest that you take time to interview them. No amount of training can make your staff serve your customers well unless they are not in touched with the customers reality.

Make customer service training part of your everyday business. Surprised? For some companies customer service training is a big deal. I was talking to a manager some months back and she told me that she needed to motivate everyone to attend the training. That was the first time for the company. And they had to do it on a Saturday because training must not interrupt their regular work. Ten people attended the workshop. And they were the customer-friendly employees. How about the others? They won’t sacrifice a day.

I don’t think that you should make your employees sacrifice their Saturdays and Sundays. It does not have to be a whole day event.

And it does not have to be an event to fix your customer service.

I just learned that in one LGU, customer service is for those with unsatisfactory ratings from the customers. I think this is a wrong approach. Customer Service Training is not about fixing problems. It is about creating a culture of customer service excellence.

Unfortunately, many HR managers think of training this way. Something we need to fix something.

Would you be motivated to attend that kind of training? I won’t. It is like being sent to the Principals Office when your teacher is already sick and tired of seeing your face.

Make your customer service training ordinary. It is ordinary for an Olympian swimmer to swim everyday. Every second of improvement counts. Customer service champions train like an Olympian swimmer.

Make your training real. Posters and slogans may help. Quotes and reminders may help. But they will just be of little help when you ignore the realities that your employees experience everyday with your customers.

I have surveyed the customer service training programs being offered by some vendors in some yahoogroups and even in newspapers. They are all based on what the “experts” say about customer service. But these are also ideas that you can google today and get 40,000 entries to choose from. I believe that your employees are experts too. Help them process their experiences. And you will give each of you the best training you need to delight your customer. Yes,you can get a facilitator like me to design a two-day program for you. But you are the manager, and you can do it better because you can do it everyday.

You can train them by showing them how. And you must do it everyday.
I remember a year ago, a general manager of a health resort told me that their purpose for getting me was that they needed someone to motivate their employees. It did not flatter me. I thought that my purpose was to help him change his attitude.

The ultimate training happens when you are not in a classroom. The best teachers of customer service are the managers and owners of the company. You are the model to your employees.

Treat your employees as if they are your best customers. Give them all the respect they deserve. Take time to know them and care for their needs. Be a servant-leader to them.

Somebody said that people won’t care unless you show that you care for them. Care for them, and they will care for you and your business.

And I challenge you to take the extra mile. Think of everyone as your best customer.

Thank you.

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I encourage you to write about your concerns. Communication and leadership are very huge topics. By writing about the topics that really matter to you, you are helping me to write about topics that really matter to my audience.

Also, you can send some of your materials worth sharing with our readers. That will be great.

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Related blog entries:

Keep the Customers Happy Everyday

Johnny the Bagger

Creating Loyal Customers

Beware with Deadly Service Attitudes

Using the RATER model in Customer Service

Power of Personal Values

Functions of Vision

Anatomy of a Vision

Create A Customer-Centered Vision

Walk the Talk in customer Service

How to Make Your Customers Happy

Customer Service Resources

Look Forward to Changes in 2008

The difference between TRY and TRIUMPH is the UMPH!

Focus on Principles and Purpose

I want to write blog entries that I love reading. I want to write more articles that will persuade my readers to examine their purposes in communication and do concrete actions to attain them. Some of my readers requested me to write more on techniques. So, I did.

Principles must rule in my blog. I have long realized that when I simply teach a person the techniques of doing something that person may boost his or her performance, but doesn’t usually reach his peak for lack of creativity and purpose.

Eugene approached me to help him improve his piece for oratorical contest. On our first meeting, his first concern was for me to teach him the right gestures. He was told by many people that public speaking needs a lot of gestures. I requested him to deliver his speech, and truly, he employed gestures ala Miriam Santiago. We then discussed the secrets to speaking success: ethos, logos, and pathos. Yes, I also taught him some techniques I engaged him in some improv exercises and visualization techniques. But principles rule. When we violate the rules we just becomes robot-like individuals who will performed in front of a crowd following every step of the script. Clear understanding of the principles of communication and a worthy purpose make a person more creative with his gesture. He won the contest, with less gesture and more connection. Principles rules.

Last Saturday I was invited to judge an oratorical contest sponsored by the Philippine Heart Association-Philippine College of Cardiology (in collaboration with therapharma). All eight contestants were  high school students. All of them were great performers, but most were somewhat artificial that they failed to connect. I actually thought that their styles represented so much the styles of their coaches–those times of “four scores and seven year ago” and “Friends, Romans, and countrymen”. The winner was the girl from the School Of the Holy Spirit Quezon City. Her presentation was conversational. She was natural.She connected with the audience. A little more enthusiasm and she could have infected the audience with her message.

I want to write blog entries that I will love reading myself. And for my readers to learn more from this blog, I must focus on principles and purpose.

Involve My Readers

Every time you read my blog entries, you are actually investing your time with me. And I am very thankful to that. We are both giving and receiving from each other.

Linda told me that she subscribed to this blog through her email. She said that the articles helped her a lot . But she wondered why I need to do this. I won’t get money from all of you. I don’t even know who are the persons reading this entry today. I told her that the mere fact that she subscribed to this blog is reason enough for me to continue blogging.

I told her some simple stories of success. Every week I receive at least three letters from my readers. Some of them are asking questions about communication, leadership, training, and a few about my seminars. But many of them wrote simply to thank me for the lessons they’ve learned. One executive from the central bank told me that she kept some of my articles and she used them to teach her kids. One DSWD director compiled my newsletters. I even found printed copies of my newsletter in a library of one government owned company. I reached so many people, and I don’t know how many of them get something from this blog. But even if there are only two or three persons who will read this blog, I know I will still continue writing.

I invite you to look at at the cluster map at the sidebar. You will notice that the extent of my readership is global. Great huh! So I better write something worthwhile all the time, and involve my readers when I do. How?

For those who intend to email me and ask questions,I encouraged you to use the ASK JEF page. I realized that when I answer your question, I only answer you and my answer stays in your mail inbox. I am pretty sure that other people have the same questions as you do, but won’t write for some reasons. Every Monday, I will publish my answer to one or two questions in this blog. I know that I will still receive many questions, and I intend to answer all of them.The questions that concerns the most number of people and most relevant to this blog will be published on this page every Monday. So write a letter in ASK JEF page.

I also intend to interview some bloggers out there. You can recommend names. I visited some blogs by Filipinos and I found most of them worth reading. I intend to introduce some of them to you in this pags. Communication is everyone’s concern.

I believe everyone has something to say about the communication.This reminds of Freddie Aguilar. He was once asked of whom he thought should sing the national anthem in Pacquiao’s bout. he said that every Filipino can sing the Lupang Hinirang. He is right! Manny Pacquaio may also sing the national anthem in his next fight. Yes, I am not joking!

You have something to say about communication too! And if you feel that you can also share something about leadership, please write,and we will publish your thoughts in this blog.

I Need Your Advice

Sometime ago, I wrote about loving the voice of the customer. I hope you will help me too! Please give me your opinion so I can further improve this blog. You will find the link at the sidebar of blog. Or you can write now, just click here.

As a token of gratitude, I will share with you two ebooks worth reading.

Pay It Forward

I intend to write about things that we can do to be more thankful for the gifts we receive everyday. I intend to keep on updating the Pay It Forward page. Everyday I meet people who are doing something for others. Let me share some of the things they do and the institutions that they are helping. Yesterday for example, Kimberly told me that instead of promoting Yocard, I should instead promote World Vision. So, expect me one of these days to talk to World Vision and find for you what you can do to help them. Of course, I will get some tips on how they communicate their message to the world. This to you shall learn.

Digg It, Reddit, StumbleUpon iT! Technorati!

When you like an entry, vote for it. This is one easy way to spread the “good news” from this blog. You will find Digg, Stumble Upon, and Technorati at the sidebar. Click them and you will be placing this blog on social network pages. Share it with others. You can try it now.

I learned about Stumble Upon when one morning I was surprised to see my blog visitors increased 600 percent. I couldn’t understand why. Then I found out that my generous referrer was Stumble Upon! There are other avenues of helping people reach this blog. Your vote is really really essential. Without you, we cannot compete with pornographic pages and the like.

And Yes, you can also vote for me at the Top 100 bloggers. No pressure. Do it when you feel like it. The button is in the sidebar. It looks like this

You Can Subscribe to This Blog Through Email and RSS Feed

The long explanation is in Why I Should Subscribe to this Blog. The short explanation is that you like to be updated

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I request that when you receive your updates through email, feel free to forward it to your friends.

Mini Sites for My Public Seminars

Yes, I will create mini-sites for my public seminars where you will find more descriptions, and discover more ways you can do to promote yourself to the top. I have to juggle roles, so please be patient.For now, I simply encourage you to read the 2008 Schedule to find out which one seminar you can possible attend. You will also find in that page how much you need to invest. For some information about the program,just proceed to PROGRAMS page.

Send Photographs of Previous Workshops

I don’t have the pictures of other seminars I did in the past. So, for those who have attended my previous seminars and you have the pictures with you, feel free to send me some copies. Let us share them with our readers. I am absent in most of the photographs because I was the photographer.

Share the Toastmasters Techniques

Lastly, I intend to share with you in this blog some Toastmasters Techniques. I am now creating a wiki for Toastmasters Philippines. I will update you when it is ready for initial publication. As you know, wiki is always a work in progress. If you are a Toastmaster, feel free to send some articles that you think the public can learn from.

And I also intend to build a new Toastmasters club in the Ortigas area. If you are interested feel free to contact me. In the core team are Linda Nera, Mon Corro, Ian Madrid, Beth Agcaoili, and yours truly.

To be the first to get an update from this blog, make sure you get one in your email inbox.

Crafting a convincing conclusion 3

I learned in school that conclusion should be of the same length as the introduction. And it must be from 10 to 15 percent of your speech. When we tell this formula to students, they start counting their words and call the first fifteen percent and the last fifteen percent the introduction and conclusion respectively.

Conclusion should be just long enough to do best what it is intended to do. If consistent with clearness and effect, the shorter the better. And when you need to cut your speech, choose to reduce your conclusion over your introduction . A very long introduction usually fails. It must be short, clear, and emphatic. It will often produce a deeper, more lasting impression by its very conciseness.

Brevity is the soul of more than mere humor. A brief remark will cut deeper than a long involved sentence. The speaker who had shown that the recent great war fails unless the reconstruction to be accomplished is worthy needed no more involved conclusion than the statement, “It is what we do tomorrow that will justify what we did yesterday.”

Crafting a convincing conclusion 2

Twenty-three centuries ago Aristotle, in criticizing Greek oratory, declared that the first purpose of the conclusion was to conciliate the audience in favor of the speaker. As human nature has not changed much in the ages since, the statement still holds true.

Speakers, then, should provide conclusions for all their speeches.

The test of a good speech, a well-prepared speech, is its conclusion. How many times one hears a speaker floundering along trying to do something, rambling about, making no impression, not advancing a pace, and then later receives from the unfortunate the confession, “I wanted to stop but I didn’t know how to do it.” No conclusion had been prepared beforehand.

It is disturbing to hear a speaker miss the opportunity where he could have made a good conclusion.

Crafting a convincing conclusion

No writer of a story would start to put down words until he knew exactly how his story was to end. He must plan to bring about a certain conclusion. The hero and heroine must be united in marriage. The scheming villain must be brought to justice. Or if he scorn the usual ending of the “lived happily ever after” kind of fiction, he can plan to kill his hero and heroine, or both; or he can decide for once that his story shall be more like real life than is usually the case, and have wickedness triumph over virtue. Whatever he elects to do at the conclusion of his story, whether it be long or short, the principle of his planning is the same—he must know what he is going to do and adequately prepare for it during the course of, previous events.And the writer must secure that the ending of his book must be the most interesting part of it. It must rise highest in interest. It must be surest of appeal. Otherwise, the author runs the risk of not having people read his book through to its conclusion.Every book is written in the hope that it will be read through. A book which fails to hold the attention of its readers defeats its own purpose.

The above statements are self-evident, but they are set down because their underlying principles can help you prepare the conclusion of your speeches.

Is a Conclusion Necessary? But before we use them let us ask whether all speeches require conclusions.

There are some people who habitually end their speeches by adding some such expression as “I think thats all I can say. Thank you!”

In Toastmasters Philippines, we discouraged ending our speeches that way.

Is there any sense ending speech that way? When a speaker has said all he has to say, should he not simply stop and sit down? Will that not indicate quite clearly that he has finished his speech? What effect would such an ending have?

Ending speech with ‘that’s all” or “I guess I have to end my speech now because I have already said a lot of things and I do not have anything to say” may actually project that

1. the speaker is rude. He has just thrown his material at us, and all of a sudden he will just say that he has nothing more to throw. He left us hanging. We do not know what to do with what he has just given us. It was like him slamming the door at us because he wants to be out of us office soon.

2.The speaker is not clear, not emphatic, and not even sure of the purpose of his speech. He may have been quite plain and effective during the course of his discussion but we hear his speech only once. Can he trust our recollection of what he has tried to express? Will we carry away exactly what he wants us to retain? Has he made the main topics, the chief purpose, stand out prominently enough? Can he merely stop speaking? These are quite important aspects that will break or make his speech and his standing with us.

3. the speaker gives the impression that he has not actually “finished” his speech. No one cares for unfinished articles, whether they be dishes of food, pieces of furniture, poems, or speeches. A speech is a carefully organized and constructed product; it is always a beneficial to make a conclusion either by summarizing your points, calling to action, or both. A good conclusion gives an impression of completeness, of an effective product. Audiences are delicately susceptible to these impressions.

So, next time, observe your self when you give your conclusion. Bad conclusion kills the best intentions of the speaker. Don’t allow it to happen to you.