Saturday 29 July 2017

ARE YOU CUTTING STONES OR BUILDING A CATHEDRAL?






If a person is extremely successful quite often that person is perceived as being blessed with a high level of intelligence. But according to decades of research by Stanford University attitude is more responsible for that success than brains. Success isn't about the title or position you acquire in the hierarchy. It's about your impact. Whether you run a hospital outpatient or serve kebabs in the hospital cafeteria, the choice you're faced with every day is either to influence others by your example of excellence or play victim to the conditions around you. Conditions do not change; someone changes them for the better. Do you?  

Winning in life today depends on the value you contribute. Bureaucracy is no longer the decision maker on what you contribute, or when, or to whom you make that contribution. The size of your paycheck isn't the dictator either. Today it's your call. You have free license to be a philanthropist of your personal gifts. You can add value at any opportunity by applying your talents: your ingenuity, mastery, and imagination. The new world has given you the green light to give your greatness.
 
I went to Big Bazzar last night with my son to buy a couple of pairs of jeans for ourselves. When I asked for a particular brand and style of jeans the salesperson was clueless. "Not sure if we have them but the jeans section is over there," he said, pointing directly to the other end of the store. He then went back to checking his text messages on company time.

As we walked towards the jeans section, we met another salesperson. He was about the same age as the first fellow, about the same fashion sense and about the same position on the hierarchy. But that's where the similarities ended. This one seemed to be switched on to the real meaning of relation building.

"The jeans are over there, right?" I asked. "Yes they are. What exactly are you looking for - I’d love to help out," he replied with a warm smile. When I mentioned the style I was looking for, he explained that the company had stopped making them due to quality issues but was planning a re-launch in a few months. He then showed me alternatives, explained the benefits of each and basically took me through a mini-course in customer satisfaction.

So, sure environment matters and a positive, inspirational, excellent, encouraging environment is a core driver of peak performance. But if that was everything, both of these guys would have behaved in the same way. So what made the difference? It actually came down to their attitudes. The first salesman was a clock-watcher. The second was a relationship-builder. And one who I could tell understood that doing great work is one of the most important pursuits in life.

Developing an attitude that wins is vital. Our attitude will either be our greatest ally or our greatest hindrance…The greatest difference maker in your life is in you…your attitude – How you respond to difficulties and negative circumstances is the determinate as to what you will be able to accomplish in this life. Psychologist Carol Dweck has spent more than three decades studying attitude and performance and her latest research shows that your attitude is a better predictor of your success than your IQ. The key as to why some people achieve their potential while equally talented others don’t, isn’t ability Dweck found, it’s whether you look at ability as something inherent that needs to be demonstrated or something that can be developed.

Dweck’s research showed that people’s core attitudes fall into two categories: a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. People with a fixed mindset believe you either are or aren’t good at something based on your inherent nature, because it’s just who you are. These people consider their abilities, intelligence and talents as being maxed out and cannot be changed. This attitude can create problems when people with this mindset become challenged because anything appears to be more than one can handle consequently making a person feel hopeless and overwhelmed.

People in a growth mindset believe that they can improve with effort. They outperform those with a fixed mindset, even when they have a lower IQ, because they embrace each challenge and treat it as an opportunity to learn something new. “In this mindset, the hand you’re dealt is just the starting point for development. This growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts,” writes Dweck in her book, Mindset, The New Psychology of Success.

Although people may differ in every which way in their initial talents and skills, interests, or temperaments  everyone can change and grow through application and experience. The critical point measuring success in life is also how one handles failures. A person with a growth mindset approach failure uniquely, to then failure is information, or a feedback saying ‘This didn’t work, and I’m a problem solver, so I’ll try something else.’ Adopting either a fixed or growth attitude toward talent can profoundly affect all aspects of a person’s life, from parenting and romantic relationships to success at school and on the job.

So how do we develop the winning attitude? What you think about the most is what determines your attitude and this is your mindset. Mindset is a mental attitude that determines a person's interpretation and response to situations. It is the internal dialog that we have within our self on a continually basis.  Our mindset is established when we take information about the world around and that information interpreted, filtered and stored in particular way. It is worth realizing that we don’t see our eyes nor do we hear with our ears. Seeing and hearing actually takes place in our mind. The Eyes and Ears are simply transducers that feed information to our mind. Our mind interprets the information and determines what it sees and hears. So though each one of us may be seeing and hearing the same things, but it is our mind which is interpreting these stimuli separately and uniquely according to our mindset. If we have a fixed mindset a small bad news gets converted into a major setback and if we have a growth mindset even a major setback gets converted into a stepping stone for future success!

People who constantly have a bad attitude feel they can do nothing about it. They blame their parents, their Friends, their physical condition, their environment, the color of their skin and almost everything else under the sun. They always have a reason or excuse for their bad attitudes. You must take responsibility for your attitude. Your attitude is a matter of choice People who feel that they are victims and have no choice in a matter are people who never change anything. John Maxwell of ‘Do something for your growth’ fame says “The greatest day in your life and mine is when we take total responsibility for our attitudes. That's the day we truly grow up.”

You will always have positive and negative thoughts. The issue is which of these thoughts are more dominant in your mind. Because you have fear, anger, resentment, offense and other negative thoughts and attitudes does not make you nonspiritual – It makes you human! The issue is will you let those thoughts and attitudes dominate you? We live in the flesh and there are mean and thoughtless people in the world or people make mistakes…Get over it and deal with it! – We might get a low grade on a test, our bodies are attacked, our teachers get to us, we get rejected by our friends, and sometimes our families go crazy! What we think when these challenges occur determines our attitude!

Changing your attitude requires changing your thoughts, changing your associations and your attitude can change independent of your environment or circumstances. It is vital to associate with those that help build your life! Don’t let people poison your life with gossips, backbiting, complains, and doubts. Don’t allow yourself to be surrounded by negative people – You don’t have to be joyless, miserable and stressed out during times of adversity.

Your attitude will make you miserable or joyful, a success or a failure. Dr. Ben Carson, the famous Neurosurgeon grew up with no father or mother. He was raised by his grandmother and they were in abject poverty.  Poor grades in elementary school didn’t help either. When he applied to medical school, his guidance counselors told him he doesn’t have what it takes to be a doctor…..but he had the winning attitude, which the counselor failed to appreciate! Oprah Winfrey is today a Media Mogul and a philanthropist but she was born in rural Mississippi to unwed teen mother, raised in a Milwaukee ghetto then sent to live with her very strict grandmother who stressed the importance of reading and education. Very poor in her early years through early teen years, attacked by her uncle, her cousin and a family friend at age 9,  she gave birth to a son at age 14 who later died. Then she was sent to Tennessee and raised by birth father and got her first TV job at age 17 and simply followed her passion with a winning attitude! Prof. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam was born in a poor family in a village in Rameshwaram to a boat owner and his wife. He sold news papers to add to his family income as a child and was rejected when he tried to become a pilot. By sheer determination and attitude he played a pivotal role in our Nation's civilian space programme and military missile development and was known as the Missile Man of India. He went on to then become the most popular President of India!

There are no unimportant jobs in this world. All work can be infused with meaning, passion and a dedication to world-class. Remember the old story of the 3 stone cutters? The first was asked what he was doing. The reply was: "I’m cutting a bunch of rocks." The second responded: "I'm building a wall." The third smiled and said with deep pride: "I'm building a cathedral."
 

I hope you are in the cathedral building mode!

Thursday 27 July 2017

HISTORY OF PLASTIC SURGERY IN EUROPE IN TWO LETTERS



HISTORY OF PLASTIC SURGERY IN EUROPE IN TWO LETTERS

This is an unusual post, for the history buffs. Those who love to know how it all started. We know Plastic Surgery started in India in 600 BC in the city of Varanasi by a sage surgeon called Sushruta. One of these days I am going to tell his story. Today I am trying to recount how Plastic Surgery started in Europe and doing so by reproducing two letters. The first letter is written to our Plastic Surgery yahoo group by my favorite story teller Prof. Hirji Adenwalla from Trichur and the other is my response to his story, which depicts the next generation and carries forward the story from where he left.

We have all known about Harold Gillies and rightly so. He deserves to be called the father of modern Plastic Surgery. But there were others too. In these letters we describe two real giants. We hope to come back with a few more in future including Harold Gillies for sure!


H.S. Adenwalla
Emeritus Professor of Surgery
Head of the Dept. Of Plastic Surgery, Burns & 
The Charles Pinto Centre for Cleft Lip, Palate
and Craniofacial Anomalies.
Jubilee Mission Medical College and Research Institute
Trichur-680005
Member, Smile Train Medical Advisory Board (South Asia)

Gustavo Sanvenero- Rosselli (1897-1974)


A man of medium height and slim build with a broad forehead beneath which was a long face with a classical Italian nose and a strong chin. It is said that he was always immaculately dressed, loved good clothes and good food. His wardrobe was extensive, a large collection of perfectly cut suits, shoes and a collection of more than 700 neck ties. At work he wore an over sized white hospital coat in which it was said that he looked rather drowned. Rosselli looked every inch an aristocrat. He deeply read the classics such as Dante and Cicero and loved quoting from them. Besides Italian he spoke perfect French and could be understood in both German and English. In 1947 Rosselli received the shocking news that his sister and her husband were killed in a car accident. Their six month old son Riccardo Mazzola, had survived. Rosselli went and picked up the child and brought him back to Milan and brought him up as his own. The boy grew up to be one of Italy’s prominent plastic surgeons.
            Although a bachelor, Rosselli was very fond of children and he was often seen sitting on their beds, talking and reading to his little patients. Though he had an elegant home he rarely entertained there and preferred to go out to dine. Though he said he had no time for marriage, he was very popular with women of high society and was often seen at their dinner parties. Milan was known for its good food and this he enjoyed immensely. There was one thing he never missed. He was always in his box for the premiere at La Scala. This was Sanvenero Rosselli the man -a picture so incongruous from Rosselli the surgeon. He came from a family of lawyers. Rosselli broke tradition when he decided to take up medicine and become a surgeon. He began his medical studies at the University of  Genoa in 1915. For lack of money for three years he served as a medical orderly at the front during the First World War In spite of this he took his exams on time and graduated in 1921. From 1921-1926 he worked as an assistant to Professor Gavello in the ENT department of the University of Turin. Essentially like so many pioneers in plastic surgery he was an ENT surgeon. As an ENT surgeon with Professor Gavello he saw a lot of facial trauma which became his prime interest in life. To further his training he moved to Paris where he came under the influence of Pierre Sebileau and Fernand Lemaitre and it is with them that he entered the realms of maxillofacial surgery. It was here that he met the men who were the reconstructive surgeons of the day; men like Victor Veau, Gillies, Ferris Smith, Ivy, Blair and of course Jacques Joseph. Sanvenero always acknowledged that it was Ferris Smith and Sheehan who inspired him to turn from ENT to plastic surgery.
In 1929 he started a clinic in Milan consisting of 25 beds and two operating tables in one room. Slowly patients started pouring in. These were facial deformities from the first World War, burns and congenital deformities of the face. He treated about 180 new cases of cleft lip and palate and over another 100 secondary cleft cases every year. As the cases poured in Rosselli visited Lexer, Gillies, Joseph, Sheehan and Kazanjian in order to broaden his armamentarium. It is said that his work was so variegated that he even operated on trachea-oesophageal fistulae and other deformities. In 1934 it was in a book that he first described the superiorly based pharyngeal flap for the treatment of nasality in cleft palate cases. It stands today as a cart horse for various modification of his operation. Hogan and Philip Chen devised ways to line his pharyngeal flap. It is strange that only for this, is this Italian surgeon remembered today.
            In 1953 and 1955 he was appointed as lecturer in plastic surgery at the Universities of Turin and Milan. In 1962 the first chair of plastic surgery in Italy was created for him in the Universities of Turin and Milan. In 1967 he was Minister of Magic of the Fourth International Congress of Plastic Surgery, which was held in Rome.
            One of his assistants who wrote his obituary said “Professor Gustavo Sanvernero- Rosselli was not an easy man to work for. His day till the end of his life began with an operating session at 7 AM and the Professor worked straight through until 7 PM. He broke for lunch for 15 Minutes when he would eat a ham sandwich and wash it down with a small glass of red wine. He was once asked why he ate so frugally. He explained that when he was a young man his father insisted that he learn fencing. It was his fencing master who told him that when one needs both physical and mental sharpness to perform a task, one should remain hungry for “hunger sharpens the wits” and makes the body agile. Surgery is like fencing- you try and find the weakness of your enemy and then strike home. For this you have to be both mentally and physically agile. He went home at 7.30 Pm for dinner and returned to the hospital at 8.30 PM when he photographed patients till 11 PM. He expected all his assistants to attend these sessions during which he would teach in an informal manner. For all who worked for this man it was a 16 hour day. On Saturdays he operated in private and would finish by 2 PM. On Sundays he began a ward round at 10 AM and photographed out-patients until 3.30 PM at that point he would leave the hospital and would say to his assistance “I wish you a good Sunday Gentlemen”. This left his assistants smiling. (In this respect he reminds me of our own –Raja Sabapathy). Once a year he took a holiday for 15 days he went to Solda in the South Tyro and staid in the same room in the same hotel. His nephew Ricardo Mazzola also a plastic surgeon would accompany him in a hired station Wagon full of books and his favorite Olivetti potable typewriter. After his sister’s accident and death he never ever drove a car. Early every morning while on these holidays he and his nephew would go on a climbing expedition in the mountains. They would return for lunch and then there would be articles to write and lectures to prepare until late into the night.
            In his 75th year this remarkable man was as active an ever planning the next issue of the clinics in plastic surgery. In the following year he had accepted an invitation from Converse to deliver a series of lectures in New York. However, before he could go he was diagnosed to be suffering from a cerebral tumor for which he was operated. He developed a post operative pneumonia form which he never recovered, he died on the 17th of March 1974 at the age of 77.
            All my professional life I have used Rosselli’s superiorly based pharyngeal flap in its various forms , first unlined and then lined as modified by Hogan and then later by Philip Chen and all these years I knew nothing about the man, this often happens with the lives of great innovators. On a whim I decided to research into the life of Gustavo Sanvenero Rosselli and was surprised to find that he stood on a par with the great path finder of plastic surgery and was as versatile as the best amongst them. He deserves to be remembered for more than just his superiorly based pharyngeal flap, which no doubt was a remarkable innovation and has stood the test of time (nearly a hundred years). It remains me of what Claude Bernard said “Genius lies in seeing what everybody has seen and thinking what nobody has thought”


Hirji Adenwalla



Respected Prof. Adenwalla,

I do not have to tell you once again that I am the President of the Adenwalla Fan Club. My friends tell me that may training is incomplete and I will have to visit you to bring it to completion. I am trying. Today I am about to tell you about a generational shift. I am today going to introduce to you and our group members another genius whose name you just mentioned, the nephew Prof. Riccardo Mazzola. I have known him from his work on history of plastic surgery and aesthetic surgery for quite some time but it was in Berlin during the IPRAS meeting and later on in Santiago, again during the IPRAS meeting that I had the opportunity to interact with him in person and was most impressed by his fathomless ocean of knowledge of the history of our speciality, the one which we practice, live and love. The IPRAS had designated him as the official historian of the International Association and he richly deserved the honour. Unfortunately today we don't have IPRAS!

Prof. Riccardo Mazzola

While his research on the history of our speciality is documented in this article which I invite you to read: History of Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery: https://plasticsurgerykey.com/ history-of-reconstructive-and- aesthetic-surgery/  the history of European Plastic Surgery which he narrated to me in his inimitable style of story telling is what most impressed me. He said that by the end of WWI, plastic surgery had reached unexpected heights. The high quality of the work done for soldiers with facial injuries and burns, either as an emergency or as a delayed procedure, demonstrated that this new discipline was honourable, worthwhile and socially crucial, thus deserving official recognition and independence. The establishment of new plastic surgery centres, scientific societies and specialised journals were the key to success for the achievement of this goal.

In 1936, the Belgian Maurice Coelst (1894–1963) founded the Société Européenne de Chirurgie Structive, the first supranational society, with the aim of gathering once a year all those interested in this new branch of surgery and favouring confrontation of ideas by showing innovative clinical procedures. Prof. Riccardo then mentionned that a very successful first Congress with a large international participation was held in Brussels, with Coelst as the president, the second in London, in 1937, organised by Kilner and the third in Milano, in 1938, arranged by his uncle Sanvenero Rosselli. Even live surgery was performed during the meetings. The beginning of the WWII stopped the Societé's activities, which were never resumed.53 years after the foundation of the Société Européenne de Chirurgie Structive, a new European Society of Plastic Surgery was formed in 1989 to stimulate research and education at a European level and it was named the European Association of Plastic Surgeons (EURAPS). 
Though very reluctant to talk about himself Prof. Riccardo said that after obtaining his Medical Degree at the University of Pavia, a Mecca of Surgical training then, in 1967, he completed his full residencies in ENT in 1970 at the University of Ferrara and Plastic Surgery at the University of Milan in 1974 where his uncle Prof. G. Sanvenero Rosselli was the chief and the hardest task master. He was appointed the Assistant Professor of Plastic Surgery at the University of Milan in 1971. He currently runs the Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery training program of the Postgraduate School of ENT and Maxillo-Facial Surgery at the Milan University School of Medicine.
In April 1975, Prof. Mazzola established the Fondazione G. Sanvenero Rosselli for Plastic Surgery, as a tribute to his late uncle Gustavo Sanvenero Rosselli, founder of Plastic Surgery in Italy. This internationally reputed institution promotes various forms of teaching, fulfilling a continuous postgraduate training program, by arranging meetings, seminars and courses in the field of Plastic Surgery. Directed by a Board of Trustees, the Fondazione has coordinated more than 150 meetings/seminars and organized 53 courses with live surgery over the years. The Fondazione, of which Prof. Mazzola is currently President, houses one of the most important rare books collections on Plastic Surgery, with more than 3000 volumes, dating from 1490.
Founding member, Secretary General and President of the EURAPS (European Association of Plastic Surgeons). Secretary of the Italian Society of Plastic Surgery (SICPRE)  from 2001 to 2004 and President, Riccardo Mazzola is a member of over 15 national and international societies, among them the prestigious American Association of Plastic Surgeons (AAPS).
He presented his work innumerable invited panels, lectures, conferences, courses at National or International Meetings and Congresses. He has himself organized 55 Congresses and Courses. Keynote speaker in numerous International Congresses, he has been awarded the Maliniac lecturer at the 2006 ASPRS Congress in San Francisco.
He is co-Author of 3 textbooks (“Craniofacial Malformations, Churchill Livingstone 1990; “Velopharyngel Incompetence”, Masson 1995, in Italian, “Fat Injection, from Filling to Regeneration”, Quality Medical Publishing, 2009), 12 book chapters and 115 publications, 40 of them in peer reviewed scientific journals.
His primary interests includes Cleft Lip and Palate, Head and Neck reconstruction, Nasal Reconstruction, Rhinoplasty and the History of Plastic Surgery. A very simple man, he has that old world charm and is a great story teller, just like you Sir.

Regards,


Surajit Bhattacharya 

Saturday 15 July 2017

HOW TO MASTER THE ART OF PUBLIC SPEAKING?








Ideas are the currency of the twenty-first century. In order to succeed, we need to be able to sell our ideas persuasively. This ability is the single greatest skill that will help us accomplish our dreams. Remember the 2014 general elections; one leader had an idea of ‘Acche Din’ and he went ahead criss crossed the country with his confident body language and persuasive oratory to win a landslide victory! This is what good public speaking is all about. Persuasion is undoubtedly an art form, but have you ever wondered about the secrets of the world’s most persuasive speakers? They are usually tasked with steering an audience to accomplish an explicit action, or to get it to convert to a specific assumption or opinion……... to believe in the fact that ‘Acche din’ or good days are just round the corner!

People are dying because we can't communicate in ways that allow us to understand one another. That sounds like an exaggeration, but I don't think it is. When patients can't relate to their doctors and don't follow their orders, when engineers can't convince a town that the dam could break, when a parent can't win the trust of a child enough to warn her off a lethal drug, they can all be headed for a serious ending

The power of presentations is rooted in our craving for human connection. When two or more people come together to exchange ideas, something bigger is born: a shared experience that aligns their minds and moves them forward with unified momentum. Yet most presentations fall short of this promise, and so we need a methodology designed to shape ideas into presentations that shift audience beliefs and behavior. So what did Modi do differently in 2014 and then again in 2017 during the U.P. assembly elections?

I think it is a grand combination of 4 things:

Empathize: In the theater of presentations, the audience is the hero and the presenter is the mentor. We have to learn what moves audiences, find common ground, and inspire them with a compelling reason to change.

Engage: Story structures are inherently persuasive. We need to craft a narrative that uses proven techniques from oratory and storytelling traditions to ignite excitement, overcome resistance, and motivate action.

Visualize: If people can see what we’re saying, they’ll understand it. We need to use visual thinking and smart design to conceptualize our ideas and convey information clearly and powerfully.

Activate: A potent idea packaged well takes on a life of its own. We need to invite interaction and accelerate the reach of our ideas with presentations that spread content across multiple channels.


What is a successful presentation?
Successful presentations are understandable, memorable, and emotional.
Understandable. Successful presentations are free of jargon, buzzwords, complexity, and confusion. Although there are many ways to make a presentation clear and understandable, my favorite technique is what I call the “Twitter-friendly headline.” Steve Jobs always described his products in one sentence “the world’s thinnest notebook.”. Even before Twitter existed, Jobs’ product descriptions never exceeded 140 characters.
Memorable. If our audience cannot remember what we said in our presentation or recall our idea, it doesn’t matter how great it is! Here there is ‘a rule of 3’. Neuroscientists generally agree that the human mind can only consume anywhere from three to seven points in short term, or “working memory”. We must try to incorporate the rule of three in your presentations. We can divide our presentation into three parts, discuss “three benefits” of a product, or give our audience “three action steps” they can take. Packaging the content into groups of three makes it far easier to remember, and if we can rhyme it, it is even better….’Abki baar Modi Sarkar’!
Emotional. There’s a large body of research that shows the emotional component of a message trumps the analytical. Yes, you need to show data and evidence to reinforce your position, but it’s the emotional part of a presentation that often moves people to action. By reiterating the monitory losses suffered by the nation because of corruption in 2G scam, Coal scam, CWG scam Modi was analytical but the moment he started telling his electorate that this was their money which, if not looted , would have electrified their villages, provided schools and hospitals to their towns and tehsils, fed the poor and the underprivileged, he established an unbreakable emotional rapport with his audience.

Who is a successful presenter?
1. They always appear confident
Although the confidence might not be there in reality, a persuasive speaker will always give the impression of confidence. This is one of the most imperative parts of being persuasive. Unsureness on the speaker’s part will be picked up on by the audience, so it’s crucial for a persuasive speaker to have a confident demeanor.
2. They don’t talk right away.
One should never talk as one walks out on stage. A lot of people start talking right away, and it’s out of nerves, it communicates a little bit of insecurity and fear. Instead, one should quietly walk out on stage. Then take a deep breath, find his/her place, wait a few seconds and begin. I know it sounds long and tedious and it feels excruciatingly awkward when you do it, but it shows the audience the orator is totally confident and in charge of the situation.
3. Their body language is strong
In order to maximize their interface with an audience, a speaker must exhibit strong body language. Consider how much emphasis is now made on visuals in our culture thanks to technologies such as tablet computers, smart televisions, movies, video games and smart phones. We come to expect the same visual strength from the people we consider to be persuasive.
4. They make eye contact
Rather than looking out at the audience as a collective, a persuasive speaker will go that extra mile to ensure that they make eye contact with as many individuals as they can during their speech. In fact, people in an audience tend to expect a speaker to make eye contact with them, and this is a great way of building trust.
Scanning and panning is a speaker’s worst enemy. While it looks like he / she is looking at everyone, it actually disconnects him/her from the audience. It’s much easier and effective if the orator directly looks at specific audience members throughout their speech without breaking their gaze. When he/she finishes a sentence, he/she can move on to another person and keep connecting with individual people throughout the tenure of speaking. It’s like one is having a conversation with the audience not speaking to them but speaking with them. This tactic not only creates a deeper connection with individuals but the entire audience can feel it.
5. They use an emotional punch
Whether it’s highly joyful or frightening, the memories stick because they arouse our emotions Many highly persuasive speakers include a “grabber” right at the start of their presentations. Examples of a grabber are a declaration, symbol, image or other tool that is employed to immediately grab the audience’s attention. Furthermore, persuasive speakers also use emotions to gain attention and elicit a positive response from their audience.
 6. They turn nervousness into excitement.
Have you noticed what champion athletes or tennis players or cricketers say when reporters ask them "Were you nervous?” All of them give the same answer: "No, I was excited." These competitors were taking the body’s signs of nervousness - clammy hands, pounding heart and tense nerves - and reinterpreting them as side effects of excitement and exhilaration. When a speaker is up on stage all nervous in front of a crowd all he/she has to think is  “I’m not nervous, I’m excited!” This has a miraculous impact on the speaker.
7. They speak unusually slowly.
When we get nervous, it’s not just our heart beat that quickens. Our words also tend to speed up. Luckily audiences are more patient and forgiving than we know. They want us to succeed up there, but the more we rush, the more we turn them off. If we just go quiet for a moment and take a long, deep breath, they’ll wait for us. It’s kind of amazing but the best orator in Indian parliament Sri Atal Bihari Vajpai used these pauses to miraculous effect and people… would… hang… on… to...his… every… word..!
8. They always answer “why” questions
Another technique that persuasive speakers use is to answer a “why” question at the very beginning of a presentation, such as “why is it essential to discuss this subject at this point in time?” Posing such a question, then having the ability to answer it clearly is a demonstration of strong and effective communication skills.
9. They are passionate about the topic at hand
In order to persuade or convince an audience, a speaker needs to be passionate, or at least convey passion, about the topic at hand. This has an impact on the audience, which will inevitably pick up on the passion, leaving its members with a sense of obligation that they should accept what they are being told for their own good.
Great communicators read many books from a variety of authors and across a range of genres. The best communicators are readers, synthesizing ideas from different fields and applying those ideas to their topic.
10. They speak conversationally and tell stories, funny stories
A persuasive speaker will always place emphasis on talking conversationally with their audience, as opposed to giving a speech. This creates an honest and trustworthy perception of the speaker in the minds of the audience members. Persuasive communicators don’t speak in passive language. They take a stand and argue forcefully for it. Genuine humour and true, open laughter almost always lead to engagement, If they’re laughing, they’re listening. Humour comes in the form of humorous short stories, while other forms of humour are self-deprecating.
11. They build a sense of truth among the audience
The world’s best actors are prized for their ability to completely involve themselves physically, mentally, and emotionally in the role they are playing. A persuasive speaker takes on the same role whether in a rally or in the boardroom or at a conference. The more natural the delivery, the more believable the speaker’s message is.  Persuasion isn’t simply a recitation of facts. Persuasion requires connecting words to a broader theme that inspires to embrace a big, bold vision. Having a vision for the future will give hope for a better tomorrow. And hope is a powerful thing for anyone who wishes to persuade.
12. They will use repetition for emphasis
Recapping certain points a few times throughout the course of a presentation is the perfect way for a speaker to create greater engagement with the audience. This is especially effective when the speaker goes over the points covered in the presentation immediately after it has been given.
13. They share their personal experiences
In order to make themselves more relatable, persuasive speakers will share personal experiences when and where they can as they’re giving their presentation. Doing so brings the message to life, makes the presentation pleasant and wins over the hearts and minds of the audience.
14. They show up to give, not to take.
Often people give presentations to sell products or ideas, to get people to follow them on social media, buy their books or even just to like them. These kinds of speakers “takers,” and audiences can see through these people right away. And, when they do, they disengage. We are highly social animals and even at a distance on stage, we can tell if the speaker is a giver or a taker, and people are more likely to trust a giver - a speaker that gives them value, that teaches them something new, that inspires them!
15. They ignore the naysayers.
Dismiss the people furrowing their brows, crossing their arms or shaking their heads “no.” Instead, focus only on supporters - the people who are visibly engaged, enjoying the presentation and nodding “yes.” This makes the speaker much more confident and relaxed than trying to convince the naysayers.  
16. They are brief
The audience is expected to have a cascade of information coming at them from all directions. They need information fast. By stories, anecdotes and personal experiences the speaker has to convey the information effectively, convincingly and conclusively.  Condensing the argument makes it tighter, stronger, and easier for the listener to absorb.
17. They say thank you when done.

Applause is a gift, and when we receive a gift, it’s only right to express how grateful we are for it. The audience gave us their time, and they’re giving their applause. That’s a gift, and we have to be grateful. So we always end with a ‘Thank you’!