The Power of Conviction in Improv, Business, & Life
Conviction is one of Life’s Super Powers, making it a skill and a practice that will make us better humans. Conviction will get you far in improv, business, and life.
The Power of Conviction in Improv
In improv, the best scenes are scenes with strong and confident characters. What I mean by that is not that all the characters have to be confident people, but rather, the character CHOICE must be confident. You can play a shy or insecure character, but if you’re not confident about playing that shy or insecure character that will come across to the audience as a weak choice. You can confidently play a shy or insecure character. Have conviction about your character choice and your character and your scene will be strong.
How to have conviction in improv
Don’t ask questions. Make statements! Make declarations! Every time you ask a question in an improv scene you’re putting the pressure and the power in your scene partner’s hands.
For example, someone saying
“What are you doing?”
versus someone saying
“I see you’re mowing the lawn there”
By asking “what are you doing?” we’re putting our scene partner on the spot, asking her/him to come up with the activity versus stating it. There’s a give and take in improv and by making a statement you give your scene partner the gift of knowing what’s going on!
The Power of Conviction in Business
In business, conviction is part of the not so secret sauce to developing partnerships, selling a product, hiring great people, and raising capital.
Imagine walking into a sales meeting lacking confidence in the product you’re selling. In reality, a lot of times there truly is a lack of confidence in the product, but that doesn’t mean that insecurity is shown. Great sales people don’t go into a sales meeting questioning whether the product is good, works, or isn’t the best thing since sliced bread. If you aren’t excited about the product you’re selling, why should anyone else be?
For example, a salesperson saying,
“What do you think about this? Are you sure you want the product?”
versus that salesperson saying
“We’re really excited about the product and it’s great for addressing this problem”
How to have conviction in business
Similarly, in business, make statements to exude confidence. If you’re in a meeting with an investor, for example, and you’re asking them for validation, you’re going to lose.
If you don’t have conviction about what you’re doing why do you expect anyone else to? Have conviction. Believe in what you’re doing, truly, and that will shine through. And if you don’t believe in what you’re doing, do something else.
The Power of Conviction in Life
In life, we’re drawn to people who exude confidence. To illustrate, read about person A and B below. They are identical twins wearing the exact same outfit. The only difference between them is their mannerisms…
Person A:
Nervously pulling at clothes. Unsteadiness in voice. When responding to a compliment seems unsure and tends to respond with reactions such as “You really think so? I tried combing my hair a different way and I wasn’t sure how it would look.”
Person B:
Cool as a cucumber. Speaks confidently. When responding to compliments responds simply with “thank you” and occasionally returns a compliment.
Who do you want to spend more time with?
How to have conviction in life
Like yourself, or even go so far as to love yourself.
Get your mind out of the gutter. I mean care about yourself in a way that makes it so what or how others treat you doesn’t effect your self-worth. If your self-worth comes from within you’ll have a more sustainable confidence than if your confidence is dependent upon the validation of others.
Trust yourself. Building trust with ourselves is equally, wait, more, important than building trust with others. If we don’t trust ourselves we won’t be able to trust other people. And if we can’t build trust with other people than we won’t be able to build trust among groups of people.
Believe in yourself. If you believe in something, believe in it and don’t be afraid to share your beliefs. You have a right to your beliefs and no one can take those away from you.
Improv for Developing Conviction
Improv training helps us not only develop courage during improv scenes. It also helps us develop confidence in business and our lives. Improv teaches us to make statements, to make strong choices and be fearless about making those statements and strong choices.
If you have something to say, don’t be apologetic, don’t be shy, don’t second-guess yourself, be confident. Go for it!
*A Disclaimer. Now, don’t get me wrong. Asking questions is a great way to learn about someone else, show empathy, and otherwise connect with people in business and life. There is a time and place for questions, just like there is a purpose for questions in an improv scene too. We’ll get to that later :-)
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Improv4 takes improv outside the theater, applying improv exercises and techniques to helping people improve their businesses and lives. Learn more and book a training for your group at www.improv4.com

