I took accounting in college, got a C, and was grateful to make it through.  It just didn’t come easily.  At 19, I couldn’t envision a time when I would need to read a profit and loss statement.  The best thing about it was it was a summer course so I could study at the university pool, and the boy who volunteered to tutor me was pretty cute.

It wasn’t that I didn’t enjoy courses outside my major, journalism.  I loved biology, for example.  My semester project was to research and write a vegetarian cookbook with original recipes (fairly radical back then.)  I discovered that I detested the lentils and tofu.  It’s a texture thing.  I grew up in the Midwest where we eat steaks and burgers for breakfast.  But I digress.

As I look back, I realize that that I’ve always liked learning through experience.  History is replete with stories of people who did, too.  When Apple’s Steve Jobs dropped out of college he enrolled in a caligraphy course, which he credited with helping him to develop the deep appreciation for design that now characterizes every Apple product.

Some things you can learn in a book, others you can’t.  The other day, a friend emailed to ask me to recommend some books on public speaking.  She was distraught about a business presentation and writing a to do list - did I have suggestions?  I told her to forget the books- and get busy speaking.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m the author of two, soon to be three books, so I believe in reading. But books are just the first step in speaking well.  Get your head out of the book and get up on your feet.  Schedule a talk.  Practice.  Take  a course.  Give another speech.  Take another course.  Join Toastmasters.  Give another speech.  Speaking is something you learn by doing.

Many of our clients love to read.  So do I.  But this proclivity can be an obstacle if you don’t take the next step.  At a certain point, reading one more book won’t help you improve one iota.  

Every leader I’ve ever worked with who is a great speaker tells me they started speaking early in their career - and kept going.  You can learn later in life.  You just need to put some muscle into your plan.  If you do the same thing with the same result, it’s like going to the gym and doing curls with two pound weights; no matter how much time you spend, you’re never going to have Popeye arms.  No pain, no gain.  Raise the stakes.  Then, practice like mad.     

It’s also important to get clear about the difference between “preparation” and “practice.”  Preparation is the thinking and writing and editing of your script and materials such as slides or handouts.  Practice is getting up and saying it out loud.  Many times.  Many, many times.  

Sometimes clients will say, “I’ve been working on this for weeks,” or “I’ve spent hours on this presentation.”  However, upon further examination of the above statements, I find they’ve been dinking around with the slides, rejiggering the bullet points, creating four quadrant process visuals that you couldn’t read with a magnifying glass.  As far as “practice?”  The night before the presentation, at 9 pm, they get in bed to review the slides, until their loving spouse or significant other roles over and begs them to turn off the light.  This, my friend, is not practice.  

So if you love books, keep buying books for heavens sake.  Support your favorite authors.  Just don’t stop there.  As Gloria Estefan sang,

Get on your feet

Get up and make it happen

Get on your feet

Get up and take some action  

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I used to be a devotee of the CBS show “Survivor.”  It’s fascinating the way that human beings adapt and live through horrible, if contrived circumstances.  In the corporate world, the equivalent of Survivor is the dreaded business meeting.  You don’t have to be wearing a loin cloth and eating worms to feel like a contestant.  Running from meeting to meeting, you must learn to outwit, outlast and outplay.

Like travelers in a jungle without food, water or time to think, people are desperate.  It’s not just physical deprivation.  It is the emotional toll.  When meetings routinely start late, run long, are badly managed, and accomplish little, you go a little insane.  To survive, you must outwit.  Come late; schedule calls during the meetings on purpose; duck out to answer “emergency” email; or just don’t show up.  Manipulate people to make them think you’re with them; leave the meeting and shoot them down behind their backs.  It’s a brutal, brutal game.    

Yesterday I was coaching a leadership team, and decided to throw down the gauntlet.  The topic was leading great meetings.  Something had to be done to shake things up.  I said, “Name one routine meeting that you could cut out altogether, or cut in half.  Add up the hours you would save.”   In the room: 11 leaders.  These are their numbers: 45, 45, 200, 10, 45, 25, 25, 45, 45, 90, 25.   That 600 hours a year.  For 11 people. 

Take it macro. The company has roughly 27,000 employees.  Imagine 20,000 of them routinely attend these types of meetings.  I could be flip and say “you do the math,” but what the heck - let me get out my calculator.  Hold on … it’s 12,000,000.   That is not a typo.  12 million “man hours.”  By cutting out one meeting. 

12 million is the record number of the famous posters Farrah Fawcet sold.  12 million is a lot of hours.  Hours that could be spent productively doing the work that drives your company forward.

Is it really possible to save this much time?  Of course!  There are three aspects to meeting “management:”  

• Planning - how you prepare for the meeting
• Conducting - what happens when you get into the room
• Leading  - the vital role that a meeting “owner” plays

The secret to success is commitment.  Learn the skills, commit to a new path, develop guidelines.  Come back in a month.  Take stock.  No excuses. 

Pretty soon, meetings start..going well.  You know how on Survivor when they get to take the luxury sailboat cruise around the island and get a hot shower, a burger and a beer?   People feel human again.  They want to get off the island.    

Here are a few “get off the island” tips:

• Decide whether or not to have the meeting - how else can you handle it?
• Eliminate people who don’t need to attend - the more people, the more time things take.
• Communicate the purpose of the meeting - if you don’t konw why you’re here, it expands.  
• Send a written agenda in advance so people come prepared and stick to the topics.
• Get rid of the “optional” and “tentative” invitations- commit or don’t have the meeting.
• Get decision makers and stakeholders to the table - otherwise you’ll be having another meeting.  
• Always go by the agenda; time for each item, owners, next step, outcomes.
• Set aside ten minutes at the end of every single meeting to assign tasks and deadlines.
• Plan shorter meetings. 10 minutes instead of 20. 20 instead of 30.  50 instead of an hour.

Don’t tell me “It’s not our culture,” or We’re a very inclusive group, we like to discuss things.”  Culture schmulture.  Anyone can do this.  

Or not.  That’s okay.  Back to the island for you.  Pass the worms.  

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If your audiences could vote with their feet, what would happen?  

Interesting question, isn’t it?  Most of the time you’re speaking to a captive audience.  What if they didn’t have to stay?    

I had the opportunity to stand at a podium and watch the room empty out.  It was as painful as you might imagine.  

This was right after I left television news and started my business. The event was the American Bankers Association Conferenc in Bermuda.  Early in my new venture, I was thrilled to be asked to be the ”warm up act” for the main program.  The session ran from 9 to 12 so that the bankers could get afternoon tee times.  And just to remind those attending the conference what it was really all about, the ballroom had a scenic vista of the oceanfront course.

The keynote speaker (following me) was Howard Fineman, the legendary Newsweek Chief Political Correspondent.  I was a little nervous but okay until I checked in with the meeting planner.  She sheepishly informed me that Mr. Fineman’s schedule had changed- he needed to catch an earlier flight back to Washington - and would I mind if he spoke before me.  Like I had a choice.

Now, Howard Fineman is no Jerry Seinfeld, but he is a very good speaker and he’s collected a lot of inside stories on the legendary political figures he’s covered over the years.  As a new speaker, I was still pretty sure that the audience was not going to laugh when I presented the “10 Steps for Success with the Media,” or whatever I was talking about.  

You know how people try to make you feel better by saying, “How bad could it be?” or “What’s the worst thing that could happen?”  In this case, it happened.

As Fineman left the stage, the mass exodus began, and it was as if the fire alarm had gone off.  Two thirds of the room emptied before I was even behind the podium.  I felt like a little tiny person with a little tiny speech. I was visibly rattled and utterly convinced that those who were stayed did so because they felt pity.      

I wish I’d had my wits about me.  I considered “fainting” but had no idea how to make it look real.  I could have come up with a room-emptying line and caught the next flight to Boston. “Good morning, before we begin I wanted to announce that Titleist golf balls are 75% off in the lobby for the next 10 minutes.”  Or, “If any of you are interested, Cameron Diaz is giving autographs on the beach.”  

Instead, I just started the talk, as planned.  I cut half of it out but it was still an eternity.     

That got me thinking.  What would happen if every audience could vote with their feet?  What if they always had a choice? Would they stay or would they go?

Pretty intriguing question, isn’t it?

Whether you’re the featured speaker, the speaker following the featured speaker, or the only speaker,  everyone in the audience is exactly like you.  What I mean is, they all walk into the room wishing they were someplace else.  

This is still what scares me and thrills me about speaking.  If professional speakers are honest they would tell you the same thing.  It’s not the fun, it’s the fear. That’s why they work so hard to tell some stories and add a little humor.   All to avoid the humiliation.      

When speaking to a captive business audience, remember your audiences DO have a choice, if only in their minds.  Even if the occassion is a mandatory all-hands meeting, they only have to physically be there.  Mentally they can still check out.  That’s why it’s important to take another look at your material and be ruthless.  Can you make it more interesting?  Tell a few stories, make them smile?   

Last week, one of my clients did just that.  He didn’t have to.  He gave an engaging, personal, 18 minute presentation to introduce us to the sales team.  His stories worked, the photos were funny, everybody loved the T-shirts he passed around, as well as the show and tell props.  It was the perfect set-up and the best introduction anyone has ever given me.  

The effort he put into it paid off.  Not only did he engage them from the start.  He modeled the communication skills he was asking them to develop.  It was obvious he put time into it - exactly what he expected them to do - as they learned to engage customers and prospects.  It set up a great 1.5 day session.      

I’ve never actually met Howard Fineman and he hasn’t a clue who I am, but all the same, I want to thank him.  It was really good to get that nightmare over with.  And it taught me to think about audiences not as bodies in chairs, but as people with ”feet.”

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Bill Clinton Greeting Rudy Giuliani

I’ve never met Bill Clinton but many of my friends have, and all say the same thing about him.  He’s so … in the moment.  When he shakes your hand he focuses on you like you’re the most important person in the world.  For that fleeting moment – 30 seconds or a minute- you believe you’re his nhew BFF.  Even if you’re a Republican.     

That got me wondering – what would Bill Clinton do if his cell phone rang while he was locked in a conversation with you?  Would he pull the phone up and look, raise that right index finger, and say “just a sec.”?  Would he check to see if it was Chelsea?  Hillary?  (“Sorry, she’s boarding a plane to the Middle East and I need to catch her.”)  Former presidents do have “people” who take care of the routine “incoming,” but he must have a Blackberry or an I-Phone for personal use. What would he do?

How do you make people feel important when you’re always trying to do two or three things at once?  The other day I was wrapping up a call with my husband (delivery of furniture was late… etc. etc.) while on my way to meet colleagues in the towering lobby of a beautiful old Chicago hotel.  It was so loud that I could barely hear him, he had more to say, but they were waiting, so I weakly mouthed “Sorry, just a second” to them – and then, “honey, I’m sorry, they’re waiting,” and felt bad about all of it.    

Timing your calls is impossible.  No matter how well you plan, communication events collide.  You have two choices;  end the call (like a jerk), or keep other people waiting  (like a bigger jerk).  For example, the other day in the airport I thought I had ten minutes to wait for my luggage.  I returned a call to my friend Annie,  The bags showed up two minutes later.  I had to cut it short because my colleague had now been forced to snag the bag off the carousel and was rolling both his and mine toward the cab stand.          

We feel justified when we are the ones who “have a conference call,” needs to “take the call” or “get back to the guy” right away.”  But when that shoe is on the proverbial other foot, when you’re the one being sidelined, its funny how we feel so … well… small.  

And sometimes if we’re honest it makes us a little angry. 

Maybe not as angry as Glenn Close’s character Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction (”You won’t answer my calls, you change you number.  I mean, I’m not going to be IGNORED Dan.”)  But it feels bad all the same, to be… second choice.

The other day at the hair salon, the owner, who I am loyal to because she wins Best of Boston every year for color, answered three calls and carried on lengthy conversations – while highlighting my hair.  I mean, pretend I’m important for ten minutes before you charge me $145 dollars.  The same day, I went to the manicurist who took two calls from her daughter.  I don’t suppose you can tell employees not to answer calls if you don’t live by the same rules.    

Bill Clinton became president before cell phones ruled our lives.  I couldn’t find any photos of him on a cell phone, even current.  However, he is famously in perpetual motion, with dozens of pet projects around the globe, so I have to believe that he’s had to consider how to maintain his brand image without compromising connectivity.  

In my own firm, the policy is no mobile device in front of the client.  We take breaks and leave the area to return quick calls or answer email.  My feeling is that clients are paying us a lot of money and they sure as heck prefer we not take care of other client’s business on their dime.  However, this policy flies in the face of our other policy to be highly responsive.   Welcome to juggling in the age of Modern Mobile Mania.    

Multi-tasking communication is a little like driving through the Grand Canyon and reading a good book.  You’re missing the scenery and you’re also distracted from the story, unable to fully appreciate either. Multi-tasking is the opposite of a conversation with Bill Clinton. Instead of completely absorbed, vaguely distracted.  

This is an interesting issue for any executive who wants to build as brand a connected, focused leader.  You can’t turn it on and off.  Your behavior has to be consistent.         

Many of my friends or clients have unspoken 24/7 cell phone policies - as in - you’re expected to have it on at all times.  You pick up or respond immediately to the CEO and other key people.  What’s not clear for all of my friends and clients is where the boundaries lie.  While some CEOs would never suggest they want you to walk away from your kids baseball game, others wouldn’t even ask where you are or what you are doing.  That raises another issue - clarity of your policy on 24/7 connectivity.  If you decide on connectivity at all costs, then the leaders who work foryou are going to find themselves in conflilct.  They may have to interrupt their employee in the middle of a difficult conversation.  They may have to duck out of a customer meeting.  You may not mean to create that conflict, and they may not be using common sense, but it’s going to happen.    

Common sense has to rule, of course.  A smart leader needs to figure out how to stay connected and also be in the moment with people.  But the interruptions and overlaps in our movement from one communication event to the next are simply inevitable.

Again, I wonder, what would Bill Clinton do?   

Maybe someone who knows Bill Clinton could ask him for me.  I’d really like to know.

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“Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes, but no plans”

-Peter Drucker

A few years ago a client of our firm who had just wrapped up a three hour coaching session was walking out the door of our office.  “Don’t forget to e-mail it to me by Friday,” I overheard the coach say.  “Gee I don’t know when I’m going to do it, I’m so busy this week, but I will try to get it to you,” replied the client.

What do you think happened on Friday?  Three guesses and the first two don’t count.

As an eavesdropper in a conversation, it’s easy to pick up on whether people are committed.  You’ll hear phrases such as “I’ll have it by,” or or “you can expect it by x date.”  People who make commitments use verbs such as “will” and give you a time and date.  ”By Wednesday at ten,” or “on or before July 22nd.”  They say, “By Friday at noon,” instead of “by the end of the week.”    

You can develop this powerful skill - the language of commitment, and it is really vital to your success.  People who make and keep commitments rise to the top of their industries.  I think it’s because it is so rare.  We like and trust people who make a promise and deliver on it.  We promote them, follow them, and believe in them.

Those of you who have my books know my mantra: set the intention, schedule the intention, and honor the intention.  The key to the first step, set the intention, is to use the language of commitment.  Start today, with your first interaction of the morning that requires an action step. 

If you’re not sure how to be better at it, start by listening to leaders you admire.  Then practice what they do so naturally.  Use commitment language in conversation and e-mails.  Be clear about what you’ll deliver, choose the commitment action verb, and let people know when to expect it. 

The language of commitment is really valuable in project management.  For example, if you’re writing a memo or e-mail to several members of your team, instead of saying, “let’s try to wrap this up and send it out tomorrow, why not say, “Margie please complete your part by 10, Craig, your part by noon, so I can review and send it to Shellie to edit by 4 pm today.”  It leaves no doubt as to who needs to do what, when, and everyone is able to plan their day.  

A good way to evaluate whether your team is making real commitments is to watch as well as listen.  Do they readily commit verbally to deadlines and actions” or do they nod their heads and say “Sure, no problem.”?  Do they say look overwhelmed and say ”I should be able to,” or do they look you in the eye and promise, ”I’ll have it for you no later than Thursday afternoon.” 

The way to encourage the behavior is to prompt people to be specific.  If they say, “I should have it by the middle of the week,” you can ask, “So Wednesday you’ll have it to me by 2″ and make sure they say, “Yes, by 2,” or “Well I have a meeting, so I’ll have it to you by 4.”  Instead of using the fatal phrase “ASAP,” or “As soon as possible,” set a time on the calendar.  ”Could you bring this to a meeting on Friday at 9 A.M.?”  This verbal agreement makes life easier for everybody.  It reduces tension and helps you create a high functioning organization.  

There are some excellent books out there on getting things done.  These books focus on techniques for setting priorities, breaking things down into smaller tasks, and managing your calendar.  All great advice.  In my experience those techniques only work if you have first made the commitment.  And commitment starts with what you say to someone else.  Intention is expressed through language.  If we don’t practice the language of commitment, we haven’t made a commitment.  It’s too easy to fudge a “commitment” that is only in your head.

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You learn a lot from the savvy traveler who has to fly coach.  Of course they all carry on; and they’ve learned to stand as close to the miserable airline representative collecting boarding passes as is socially acceptable.  This way they are positioned to sail forth with alacrity onto the jetway when their row is called. 

This is critical because it guarantees a prized overhead luggage spot  - you’re two steps ahead of the vacation travelers bearing overfilled diaper bags and scary-looking back packs with metal paraphernalia hanging off the sides.  Fail to position yourself at the gate, and you go straight to on-board luggage check .  Which of course means arrival purgatory.

This is a classic example of thinking through your strategy and executing flawlessly.  Good practice for business.  Execute well and someday you’ll be enjoying that scotch in a real glass in the first-class seats.  It’s precisely what you need to do today if you’re thinking about using social media and social networking to market your business. Today you can get onto the “jetway” very quickly through all the new channels but to win the prized spot you have to be there with a powerful message.            

The  myriad of new media channels for communicating with customers - is the equivalent of marketing on a “coach” budget - it’s cheap and easy to fly.  However, you’re not going to secure your spot unless you get your customers’ attention.  Setting up a Twitter account is easy; it’s what you say that’s hard.  Blogging is a matter of setting up Word Press.  The hard part is what to write about.  

One of my summer reads has been David Meerman Scott’s best-seller, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, second edition.  Meerman’s book sites how savvy organizations are blowing by competitors with smart use of cyber-marketing.  No longer tethered to the money-pit of traditional advertising, they are publishing cool stuff and their customers are finding them on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, You Tube and through direct news releases (which don’t go to the press, but to customers, online publications, etc, avoiding the “middle guy”).  With all that viral buzz they’re generating on a small “coach budget” they can probably afford to buy their own corporate jets.  

But just like maneuvering onto the plane, execution is everything.  The message must be right.  It can’t be self-serving.  It can’t be about you.  It has to be about your customer.  If you think like a “publisher” as Meerman suggests, as a “purveyor of information,” you write articles, blogs, white papers, e- books, webinars that are of real value to the people who might buy your product or service.  Good social marketing gets your customer thinking about you as a problem solver, not a pusher.  

We just completed a project helping one of our clients start a library of  customer “stories” - to use in their sales presentations.  To be sure, these will be a powerful new tool in getting a real conversation going with customers.  What’s great is that if they wish, this client could easily repurpose the stories in a social media strategy.  They could turn them into white papers, articles for online publications (third party endorsement), or on their own web site.  Taken a step further, their CEO or SVP of sales could record a video and post it on You Tube.  Or they could write about it in the company blog.  

The point is that stories like the ones we developed have multiple purposes in cyber marketing.  On a coach budget, you can get great results.  Just remember to tell a story.  Give your customers a real-life example of how you can help them.  You don’t need a “first class” marketing budget to look “first class” all the way.  A good customer story will get people to pay attention, faster than you can say “tweet.”  

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The other day at a Starbucks on Cape Cod my colleague Dave seemed distracted.  “I’m sorry, I just can’t take my eyes of this group of kids.”  Four boys who I’d guess were between the ages of 14 and 16 sat facing each other - their high end laptops open to separate gaming or Internet sites.  45 minutes later when Dave and I got up to leave they were still locked in this activity.  As far as I could observe they hadn’t spoken a word to each other.       

Did they miss the adorable girls who had walked right past them in bum skimming cut-offs to order iced lattes?  They tapped on the keyboard, and didn’t discuss it but they also had cell phones out so my guess is they were also texting.  To a baby boomer, this is- different.  If you came of age when computers were the size of a football field, you lived life out loud.  You spent summers sharing french fries and cokes at the snack bar and talking about - what else - boys and girls.  To ask a girl on a date you had to pick up the telephone.  Today, you would text her.  ”What r u doing 2-nite?”    

I call these - “lap-versations.”

“Lap-versations are the conversations taking place electronically - right under your nose.  With this generation, it’s primarily through texting and Facebook.  With Boomers” and some Gen Xers, it’s still email.  ”Lap-versation” doesn’t imply there is less communication.  On the contrary, there is more.  It’s just brief and to the point.  If your kids are between the ages of 12 and 25 you have seen this.  They are in constant touch with each other.  That’s why you need an unlimited texting plan, right?   

So what does this mean to leaders who are now interacting with and trying to influence  Gen X and Gen y?  The “lap-versation” generation demands that leaders become even more adept at all things electronic.  They expect to hear from you - directly - and immediately.  You can call an all hands meeting and give a great talk (as you must) on the state of the organization, but some will secretly feel it’s a big waste of time.  Why not just send out a quick text and let them get back to work?     

The fact is that most of us are changing our communication habits - so this advice isn’t just about reaching younger generations of workers.  This morning as I write the blog, my husband and I are having our own “lap-versation.”  He’s across the room checking his usual sites and blogs on our wireless internet.  No longer tethered to separate home offices we commune in the same space, occassionally reading the morning headlines to each other.  We used to sit on the couch and read  the newspaper.  That is so - yesterday.  Why read one  when you can get them all on line?  And if we want to share an article, we can e-mail it.  Some spousal conversations that used to take place out loud - are now happening in Cyberspace.  

Now, back to the Millennials.  They believe in fast, efficient communication.  Take my daughter.  She’ll Facebook when she wants to make plans - go straighten her hair - and monitor the responses.  It’s multi-tasking for 20 year olds.  Spelling and punctuation are unimportant. 140 characters is a full message.  Just get to the point.  (What R we doing 2-night?)

As leaders we have to be better than we are at getting to the point and we absolutely must embrace the many channels of communication available to us today.  The message needs to be clear and very, very timely.  And it needs to arrive in a channel that your people are actually monitoring.  If you think you need to communicate something today, it was probably yesterday.  Rumors flying?  You don’t have until Tuesday to respond, because people are already talking - digitally.  They no longer have to hide in the bathroom to gossip.  They can do it via computer.   So you must reach them that way, too.

What about those boys having a “lap-versation” at Starbucks?  They are the young guys you’ll be hiring in about 7 or 8 years.  By then Facebook and texting may have gone the way of IM (instant messaging), which as far as I can tell is headed for the same fate as the 8-track cassette tape.  You can be sure whatever it is will be faster, more efficient and still digital.  

I’m interested in your experiences in the workplace with ”lap-versations.”  Have you become more digital, timely and brief in your communication?  E-mail me at info@bates-communications.com or hit reply on my blog. 

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President Obama needed a win.  Coming off of one of the worst speeches of his career, the Oval Office “tough guy speech,” his words were ringing hollow with Americans, drawing howls even from supporters.  But the President’s ratings soared when he gave a swift kick in the military britches to General Stanley McChrystal, relieving him of command in Afghanistan after the interview he gave to Rolling Stone. 

McChrystal sealed his own fate when during a 10-day interview with Michael Hastings he and his senior aides poked fun at just about every civilian at the top.  He left Hastings no choice to write, and the reader no room for interpretation, by assailing the President, Vice-President, and National Security Advisor James L. Jones -who they dubbed a “clown.”  

The president’s announcement was applaued by the media like the chorus in a Greek play.  Hallellujah.  Top network anchors and pundits on CBS, NBC, CNN, and MSNBC all used the same phrase: “brilliant move.”  (But they never talk to each other, wink wink.)  I guess it’s just because they stand  shoulder to shoulder on the White House lawn with six inches of room on each side.  Or perhaps it’s just because they’re all drinking from the same political water cooler.  And the water is very blue.

In spite of that, Mr. Obama deserved the praise for his decisiveness.  He showed a side we have been longing to see – Decisive Leader.  It was a bona fide Commander in Chief moment.  And we haven’t seen many (some toughies would say any) of those.  He deserved our genuine praise.  One swift decision is hardly a pattern, but Americans are truly, mady, deeply hoping to see more of THAT president.     

Decisiveness is cool.  Decisiveness is sexy.  And it’s in short supply- not just in politics, in business.   The C -Suite could use more leaders who can say yes to this, no to that.  Personally as the CEO of a small company I would not dare cast the first stone.  Some decisions are hard to make.  You get tied up in knots.  When you can’t make a decision however, you drive yourself and everyone else nuts. 

What people long for are leaders who can make the call and communicate to the troops.  Like every great general, your job is to decide and then get everyone aligned and moving in the same direction.  People who work for you just want to know what the game plan is so they can get on with it.

I certainly have moments of indecisiveness.  But I also have no tolerance for people who can’t get out of their own way.  For example, it drives me loopy sitting in a restaurant when people take 15 minutes to decide on a dinner selection.  They wave off a polite, well-paced, patient waiter four times while debating the merits of salmon encrusted in almond flakes versus steak au poivre.  If you’re my mom you’ve earned the right to take your time.  Otherwise, please, make your choice.  You won’t even remember what you ordered tomorrow morning.  And by the way if you’re eating at McDonalds you can just order the Chicken McNuggets and change up the sauces - they have 8 of them.  And, it’s very scary that I know that.  

You are going to screw up.  But make the call and tell everybody anyway.  99.8 percent of the time it won’t be the end of the world.  And whatever happens people won’t be sitting on their hands waiting to DO SOMETHING.  Make the decision, move on.  Next?  

Why is that important?

Imagine Obama had taken weeks to decide what to do with the general? The media circus that would have surrounded the “decision” would have been a joke.  It’s over and done with and we can go back to wondering why BP is acting like idiots.  Hallelujah.

Baby boomers have trouble with this.  We (and I know not everyone reading this goes into that baby boomer “we” but go with me for a moment) are the generation who were suddenly given more than chocolate, vanilla and that crazy three-flavor ice cream combo our grandparents served (was it strawberry?)  We were given mint chocolate chip, rocky road, and eventually Oreo.  Soon there were 437 flavors.  Today, our kids have even more choices.   

Yet all these choices have not improved our skill at CHOOSING. 

So let this be a lesson to all of us.  Decisive is in.  Go out there today and make a decision - even if you’re not sure.  Pretty soon your staff will be saying things like — “brilliant move.”  And hey, even if they don’t, at least they won’t be confused. 

 http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2010/06/23/media-praise-obamas-brilliant-decision-fire-gen-mcchrystal#ixzz0s91zgomJ

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We have seen many a company withering under the watchful eye of angry consumers and relentless press.  Toyota and BP come to mind, but you can look through the newspaper for the last year and find countless others.  How can you be certain that your company is ready for a crisis and your C-Suite Communication team is up to the task?  And, forget about a crisis.  How can you be sure that the people in charge of your corporate communications are leveraging your brand and your message to position you in a highly competitive marketplace? 

The three biggest mistakes in C Suite Communications are: 

1.  Getting the core message wrong

2.  Failing to spot the landmines

3.  Leaving holes in your execution plan

In other words, C-suite communication is high-stakes communication.

Which is why we are going to devote a full hour to this topic in a Teleseminar this Friday, June 25th at 4 pm EDT. 

In this session, Margie Myers, an expert on corporate communication strategies, will discuss why it is harder than ever and more important than ever to get it right.   She’ll discuss how you can make sure your company’s message is heard above today’s noisy, distracted environment in which everything is conveyed in the space of a sound bite.   Even the most experienced communicators will learn from this session how to develop an exciting message that is instantly understood by people who know nothing about your company, your products or your industry.  And since nothing ruins a great communication plan like bad execution, Margie will discuss how to avoid making your CEO really mad, a mistake that can be fatal to your career.    

When Margie joined Bates Communications at the beginning of 2010, we were absolutely thrilled to find a first-rate, seasoned C-Suite expert who could take the communication strategy offering of our company to a whole new level.  Prior to joining Bates, Margie spent 20-years in communications with her career spanning multiple industries and corporate structures, including private and publicly held companies ranging from start-ups to multi-billion dollar global organizations.  She has worked extensively with C-suite and senior-level executives throughout her career, leading communication strategy and implementation for such situations as acquisitions and divestitures, financial reporting, CEO transitions, corporate restructuring/reorganizations and numerous corporate crises/issues. 

Prior to joining Bates Communications in 2010, Margery was the Senior Vice President, Communications for Dunkin’ Brands, the $6.6 billion quick service restaurant franchisor, with more than 13,800 franchised Dunkin’ Donuts and Baskin-Robbins restaurants in 44 countries. She built a comprehensive, cross-functional communication program to align and engage a global audience of franchisees, employees and the media. She directed communications efforts to introduce major company initiatives such as Dunkin’ Donuts’ entry into China and Dunkin’ Brands’ divesture of Togo’s Eateries, manage regulatory threats and position the company and its brands in the press to drive increased customer traffic and franchise sales.

 Prior to joining Dunkin’ Brands, Margery built and led the communications function at Talbots, the women’s specialty retailer.  During her tenure at Talbots, the company grew from $879 million in annual revenues and 395 stores to $2.3 billion in annual revenues and over 1,300 stores. As Vice President of Corporate Communications and PR, Margery guided communication for the acquisition and integration of The J. Jill Group, Inc., the launch of five brand concepts, entry into U.K market and the launch of the company’s e-commerce channel, serving as spokesperson for all business initiatives. She was also executive speechwriter for the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.  Her additional responsibilities included fashion publicity, employee communications, community relations and philanthropy.  Margery founded the Talbots Women’s Scholarship Fund for women returning to college later in life.

This is a session you will not want to miss if you want to take your company’s corporate communication to a new level.  Please call Jay Ryan at 781 235-8239 or sign up by clicking here: http://www.bates-communications.com/boot-camps/teleseminars.php 

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Rome wasn’t built in a day, but imagine if those Romans had had the internet.  They would have loved it.  Log into Monster.com and hire the team; order supplies and get overnight delivery from Lowes; Google winning city architectual plans and then go to Amazon to choose business best - sellers on project management.  Way cool.  

Yes, it is incredibly comforting to know that many of our needs can be met in an instant.  I’ve just started to wonder what impact this has on leaders.  If we all are conditioned to expect it now, is that a good thing or a bad thing? 

I’ve never been a patient person so this is my era.  The Easy Button from Staples?  That’s a potent fantasy.  I love Google.  The other day I googled Mika Brzezinski chatting about ”working with the White House on talking points on the Gulf oil spill,” and watched the video clip before my Keurig Single Cup Coffee Maker finished brewing that cup of Chocolate Glazed Donut coffee - which we ordered because it takes too long to brew a whole pot.    

If our parents thought we wanted everything yesterday, they should see us now.  We are truly, madly, deeply in love with instant gratification.  I don’t have to go to the bookstore or even go online and order a hard copy from Amazon.com (and wait 4 days to receive it.)  I can fire up my Kindle, press three buttons, and download any one of 500,000 books in 6 seconds.   

In today’s world, is patience still a virtue as your grandmother said?  I don’t know.  It would be foolish to judge our generation as better or worse.  We are a product of our environment.  However, the question is how to harness the good part of impatience and get things done without driving people crazy.  

You know what you must do.  Set goals.  Assemble the right team.  Get them working together.  Engage them and keep them motivated.  Hold them accountable and measure success.  If you want to do that faster then you must cultivate one additional skill- one that every leader must have.  That is - the ability to communicate what you want in a way that engages and motivates others to do it when it needs to be done.  

If it’s all in your head - you’re just wishing you could push that Easy Button  –then good luck to you.  If nobody knows what you want, then how can you expect quick results?  

Think about it like Google.  Capture it in a key phrase. Articulate a clear, succinct powerful idea.   It’s harder than you think.  Recently, while working with a group of leaders I challenged them to use our “Big Idea” process to clarify what must be done and why.  The trick is they have to do this in 25 words or less.  They worked for 2 hours and were still debating it.  Like I said, it isn’t easy.  As Mark Twain once famously said, I would have written a shorter letter if I’d had more time.  

So the Easy Button is just a chotchke, but you can get faster better results when you get specific and clear in your communication.  Get it right and watch those results populate like Google filling your search page.  Good stuff in, good stuff out, at the speed your business needs to move right now.

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