Power Play: Give an awesome pep talk

Power Players can give a pep talk as good as the one in Braveheart. When Mel Gibson’s William Wallace bellows out: “They may take our lives but they will never take our freedom,” you want to jump up and applaud.

It’s the type of oratory that makes you want to be better and do better, courageous and herculean. Power Players can give a Hollywood-sized pep talk, the type that makes its audience ignore fear, exhaustion, doubt and self-loathing. Power Players know that a great pep talk contains three ingredients: heart, encouragement and truth.

Pep talks are required at the lowest possible moments, right when everyone wants to lie down and die. Learn how to give an awesome pep talk. It’s mandatory for every aspiring Power Player.

The story

A little design business had lost its confidence and its key team was about to go into a pitch meeting to hopefully win some new business.

The CEO sensed a feeling of fear and dread had come over the team (they’d lost a few pitches in a row) and she said this: “We are winners, all of us. We each left our previous businesses to start our own and that takes real courage. We’re talented, we’re visionary and, to top it all, we’re good people too. We’re the people that other people want to talk to at a party, so for Christ’s sake, let’s get in there and show them what we’ve got!”

Immediately the mood changed, shoulders were broader, faces were happy and gaits were confident. They won the business.