-Sam Walton (founder of Wal-Mart)

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The other day I was talking to the head of leadership development for a global company.  “What does it really take, when you have 30,000 employees and only 350 senior positions?” I asked. 

“The differentiation is around leadership behaviors,” she replied.

“What does that mean to you?”  I asked.

“It’s the everyday things you do that demonstrate you have it, beyond your technical abilities,” she said. “Like your management style, your leadership style, and if people trust you- if you’re well respected.  And all of those things come down to your ability to communicate.”

Too often, executives focus on how to make a big impression; the big project, the big deal, the big customer, the big whatever.  It’s not that those aren’t important.  But  the people who are making the decisions about your future are watching how you communicate every single day. 

Just something to keep in mind - on your way to the top.

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I just read a great interview with Ram Charan on ceoforum.com.  Charan, an acclaimed management consultant and author, studied CEO succession planning, wrote about it in the Harvard Business Review and later discussed it on the CEO Forum. 

Charan found that across the corporate world, succession planning is not very sound.  That could explain why (in a study that he cites) 40% of CEOs fail in the first 18 months.

“One … study found that almost half of US companies with more than $500 million dollars of annual revenue had no meaningful succession plan,” says Charan.  And when CEOs fail? ”The direct and indirect costs of this to both individual companies and the economy as a whole are simply enormous.”

Charan says any board or company that fails to put in place a decent succession plan is ignoring one of their most important responsibilities. At minimum, the board should ensure that at least two sessions a year are devoted to reviewing a minium of five potential candidates - both internal and external.

He also observes, in my view very importantly, that in preparing executives for the next big job, a classroom is not a management development program.  Executives need real experience.  ”Management training develops awareness, provides tools and resources, and helps people develop strong professional networks, but the real learning occurs on the job.”

This is such an important point that I can’t let it pass without comment.  Often our firm is asked to come in and provide a “classroom” experience for high potential executives, largely because it is perceived as good “bang for the buck.”  We have developed some very fine programs for leaders on communication strategy and skill.  While we certainly konw there is value in the classroom experience, we know that to make a lasting impact we have to work “with” the executives while they’re “on the job.” 

That’s the whole philosophy behind our executive coaching program–we work in “real time” with the leader on the projects and communication issues that are on their plate in the moment.  Over a six month or one year engagement, the executive has a partner in the process while “learning on the job.”  We can accelerate learning around leadership and communication, because they’re problem solving key issues, learning to communicate more effectively and build skill at the same time. 

Charan accurately points out that “while companies can provide the opportunity and resources to develop, development is a function of the individual, and their own motivation and capacities.”  And I think that’s why “on the job” learning in real time with the partnership of a coach provides the perfect blend of experience and training.  You know immediately who is motivated and has the capacity.  Those who are motivated have an opportunity to get something else that is rare, and essential, according to Charan - “Basically people need three things to develop: on-the-job learning, rigorous appraisal, and clear performance feedback.”

To read the article, go to: http://www.ceoforum.com.au/article-detail.cfm?cid=6172 

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The great American writer and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson said,

“All the great speakers were bad speakers first.”

You didn’t become a leader overnight.  You don’t become a great speaker the first few times you get on stage, either. Don’t be afraid to invest time and effort.  It will pay off.

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Suzanne Bates’ interview with the Business Editor at McGraw Hill regarding her new book Motivate Like a CEO: Secrets to Communicating and Driving Strategy Forward.

 

 Standard Podcast: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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I’m wild about a brand new, beautiful, and absolutely brilliant book on how to create memorable visuals for presentations.  It’s called Presentation Zen, Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery, by Garr Reynolds (New Riders, 2008).

You only have to flip through the pages to immediately grasp Reynold’s provocative mix of inspiration and practical guidance.  As a presentation designer and internationally acclaimed communications expert, he shows how  thoughtfully designed, graceful, efficient visual imagery can make you look good as a presenter.  He has of the most popular Web sites on presentation design and delivery on the net — www.presentationzen.com.

The book is filled page after page of examples of how creativity, photos, large size font, and cool graphics can transform your PowerPoint from dull to dynamite.  Just one example - picture this - the slide on the left shows a full page photo of a runner slogging through the desert with a simple message - Less than 33% of U.S. adults are at a “healthy weight.”  Not bad.  But the slide on the right? It shows the midsection only of an overweight man grabbing his belly fat, with the caption in large print: 66% of Americans are obsese or overweight; below that a simple chart on the numbers of all adults, women and men.  It’s so much more memorable!

Garr Reynolds is a writer, designer and musician who currently holds the position of  Associate Professor of Management at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan. http://www.kansaigaidai.ac.jp/asp/

 Hence, his zen-way of seeing things.

His real message: Simplicity Rules.

How good is it?  Seth Godin  http://www.sethgodin.com/sg/ the marketing guru of gurus quips, “Please don’t buy this book! Once people start making better presentations, mine won’t look so good.”

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Here is a definition of honesty that I think every leader should read.  This isn’t my definition; I found it on the web, but I think it captures the essential nature of truth in communicating with others.

Honesty is the human quality of communicating and acting truthfully related to truth  as a value. This includes listening, and any action in the human repertoire — as well as speaking.

Superficially, honesty means simply stating facts and views as best one truly believes them to be. It includes both honesty to others, and to oneself and about one’s own motives and inner reality. Honesty, at times, has the ability to cause misfortune to the person who displays it.

Source: Wikipedia www.wikipedia.com

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Media mogul Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazines (Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar and O), www.hearst.com  spoke to the same New York conference I mentioned in an earlier post — the National Speaker’s Association www.nsaspeaker.org.  Her closing keynote was a light, breezy affair, where she shared a few tales from her guide to career and life, Basic Black (Crown Business 2007) available at www.amazon.com  

 While she didn’t win a lot of points for her presentation style ( virtually glued to a script that by now you’d think she’d have memorized) — she connected with  her charm and earnest advice. 

It’s funny, but something (Cathie Black) said stuck with me.  While it is now Friday afternoon, and her speech waas on Monday morning, it’s still in my head:

“Happiness has more to do with success, than success has to do with happiness.”

Now whether you agree, or whether you think it’s a little too sentimental, the point is this — it’s memorable.  And for every speaker, that’s one of the tests - if your audience can remember it hours or days later, the message has staying power.  Try it out.  Test a message - on your own staff - and see if they remember it the next time you get together.

As you probably know, Black was one of the first women to take a major role in American magazine and newspaper publishing. She came to Hearst by way of New York magazine, where she was the first woman publisher of a weekly consumer magazine, and USA Today, which she helped build from a small upstart into one of the country’s most widely read daily papers.

So she’s no stranger to the world of words - and we can all take a page out of her book.  Don’t be afraid to keep the message simple.  

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This weekend at the National Speakers Association convention in New York, www.nsaspeaker.org Steve Forbes took the stage.  He had 1,800 professional speakers on the edge of their seats as he shared his insights about the future of the US economy.  Forbes, President and CEO of Forbes, and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes Magazine, www.forbes.com as well as a former Republican candidate for President, can actually be a little awkward on stage, yet people who get paid a lot of money to speak to corporate audiences were mezmerized; in a room full of people who love to talk, you could hear a pin drop.  Why?  Forbes was funny and smart –he made economics accessible to all.  And, even more important he told us things we really really didn’t know. 

What’s the real state of the US economy?  Not bad at all!  But don’t ask the media, says Forbes.  They would rather stand in front of a gas pump talking about $4 a gallon gas than actually do research on the the dry stuff that matters, like US monetary policy. And he’s right. (Full disclosure, as many of you know, I was a reporter for 20 years.  I know how it really works.)

Forbes spoke eloquently about the real drivers of our economy, and I was convinced after he spoke–we still have the largest most resilient economy in the world.  He pointed out that as voters we’d better start asking better questions of the people running for office. For example, how will they approach monetary policy?  Because according to Forbes, it wasn’t oil companies or mortgage lenders that brought this on, but by the Fed, which four years ago, and again last year, started printing money like there was no tomorrow.  In an overreaction to the credit crisis, both times, it did more harm than good.

But back to executive presence.  What makes Forbes so powerful on stage?  Wit, intelligence, and the ability to explain something that dry and dull and make it fascinating.  What else did we like about him?  Smart as he is, he didn’t swagger onto the stage or lord his fortune or his smarts over us.  He was hilarious really, as well as respectful.  He treated his audience as the intelligent citizens they want to be. 

Something else– he obviously wasn’t reading someone else’s talking points.  He walked away from the podium five minutes in, and stood center stage for the better part of an hour, speaking eloquently.  If you’ve seen him speak, you know that sometimes his gestures seem slightly out of sync with his message.  Yet he transitioned beautifully from gas prices to the mortage crisis, tax policy to monetary policy, government to politics, all without notes.  He even threw in several funny lines about the speaker who had immediately preceded him on stage.  That’s confidence.  

You also can’t argue with Forbes success, even if he did inherit the company started by his grandfather.  Forbes is still on the cutting edge.  In 1977 they entered the new media arena with the launch of Forbes.com. The site now attracts over seven million unique visitors a month and has become the leading destination site for business decision-makers and investors.

For a copy of his speech, contact the National Speakers Association at www.nsaspeaker.org - I highly recommend you watch it, and take notes.

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