We Convince by our Presence

Sir Ken Robinson was a hero of mine.

He grew up in the same area of Liverpool as I did, but it was his extraordinary work in education and his rare gift for communication that I most admired.

Widely regarded as one of the great thinkers on creativity and learning, his TED talk remains one of the most watched in history. Sadly, 2020 marked his passing.

I was fortunate to work with Sir Ken on a few occasions, and I have always loved a particular photograph of him with my eight-year-old daughter. They are deep in conversation. He is not looking past her to the next networking opportunity in the room. He is present, listening, learning and laughing. He was always laughing and joking.

Everyone wanted to talk with Sir Ken, but he gave his full attention to whoever he was with. This is rarer than it sounds. As a result of my work I have met a number of prominent politicians and leaders. On the surface many are pleasant and courteous, but you can sense their attention already drifting toward the next influential person in the room.

Sir Ken was the opposite.

My eight-year-old daughter Alice had his complete attention.

He had tremendous presence. And presence, I have come to believe, is not a performance. It is a choice.

The story behind his legendary TED talk speaks to this directly. There was no script. No weeks of rehearsal. No carefully constructed narrative designed to hold the audience's attention. Sir Ken simply walked onto the stage and connected. For him, it was the most natural thing in the world.

He spoke from the heart, unscripted and genuinely himself. He spoke with real conviction. He did not attempt to second-guess what people wanted to hear. He had faith in what he offered. He did not pretend.

Affective presence is defined as the impact an individual has on the emotions of those around them. As a speaker coach and producer I witness the full spectrum of this at every event, from speakers who are genuinely, powerfully authentic, to those who perform authenticity, to those who actively manipulate.

The characteristics are not hard to read. For example, how well a speaker knows their own true feelings, the degree to which they conform to social expectation rather than speaking from conviction, their capacity to cultivate trust and their attunement to the emotional atmosphere in the room.

On every occasion I worked with Sir Ken, he was a ten.

In a room full of adults and one eight-year-old girl, everyone felt his presence the moment he walked in. He was fully himself. He was in the moment. And more than any script, any technique, any carefully rehearsed story is what made him powerfully unforgettable.