“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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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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Carl-Henric Svanberg, Chairman, British Petroleum

There are easy targets and then there are easy targets.  I almost hesitate to write about Carl-Henric Svanberg, Tony Hayward and the bunch, because the entire media world has already aimed, fired and riddled the bulleseye with bullets.  What else can be said about this hapless gang? 

On the other hand, since my thing is communication and leadership, I do want to comment because there are lessons here.  Aside from how stupid can you be.   

The Chairman of BP has been nowhere to be found for the first 60 or so days of the oil spill.  when he got a call summoning him to the White House to pony up with billions for the restitution fund, he came out of his cave and spoke just like a cave man.  I am referring of course to his reference to the victims of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill as “the small people.”

It took only minutes for the thing to go viral which meant of course they had to issue the ever-popular press release apology.  Svanberg apologized for having spoken “clumsily” to reporters.    

”What I was trying to say - that BP understands how deeply this affects the lives of people who live along the Gulf and depend on it for their livelihood - will best be conveyed not by any words but by the work we do to put things right for the families and businesses who’ve been hurt.”  Nice try, but no amount of wordsmith-ing is going to make up for a blunder the size of the Gulf.    

If it had just been this one gaffe then people might attribute it to the language barrier (Svanberg is Swedish), or a stressful slip of the tongue.  However, it was only the latest of several BP executive “gaffes” during the eight-week controversy.

Tony Hayward, BP CEO

Just when it seemed Gulf residents couldn’t get any more outraged about the massive oil spill fouling their coastline, word came Saturday that BP’s CEO was taking time off to attend a glitzy yacht race in England.  The social media networks lit up as Gulf Coast residents remarked they’d like a day off from the onslaught of oil on their coasts.  What could the BP spokesman say?  It was the first “day off” Hayward had had since the April 20th oil rig disaster and he has a keen interest in this annual race.  And, this came after a misstep not long ago when he told reporters that he just wanted his life back.  He was forced to apologize.   

So how did it happen?  Of course these guys have never lived under the withering scrutiny of worldwide press and the democracy of the 24-7 blogosphere.  They’re used to coming and going pretty much as they please and saying what they think.

At the same time they seem to be utterly unaware of the impact their words and actions have on others.  As with every corporate crisis, it’s usually not the mistake that kills you  (although this one is bad).  You become Public Enemy Number One because you don’t appear to have any sympathy - strike that - any awarness whatsoever of the plight of others.  

As we speak, some adjunct professor is drafting a case study for Harvard Business School and it’s the easiest thing he or she has ever written.  Only this one won’t be that brilliant Tylenol case that everyone has studied for twenty some years.  This will be a case study in how everything can go wrong some of the time. 

It would be easy to conclude that these guys don’t just have tin ears.  They seem to have forgotten where they came from.  I have no idea whether they grew up with privilege, but they weren’t always kings of their world.  At some point along the way when people uttered the word “CEO” or “Chairman” to them you have to believe they thought, wow, wouldn’t that be great someday?  To have the opportunity to lead a company?  What an awesome responsibility.  What a privilege.

As the author of two books with CEO in the title (Speak Like a CEO, and Motivate Like a CEO) I’m often asked to “defend” those titles.  “How many CEOs really communicate well?” People will ask.  Or, “How many CEOs do you know who really motivate other people?” 

I’ve never spoken publicly about this, but my editors at McGraw Hill were also doubters - more than a little concerned about the choice of title for book #1.  “CEOs don’t have a very good reputation,” one remarked when we were debating what to call it.  I assured them that most of my clients were very interested in getting to the C suite or were already there.  That turned out to be true, as it became a business best seller. 

One reason I love working with leaders is because the vast majority of them love their companies and understand pretty clearly what an impact their words and actions have on others. They are keenly aware that they have a responsibility to those who work for them, live in their communities, and buy their products.  Unfortunately they aren’t the ones who make headlines. 

If you are lucky enough to get to sit in the proverbial corner office, fly on the corporate jet, and play golf at the nicest country clubs,  I think it’s worth cultivating an attitude of gratitude.  If you haven’t done that lately, and you know whether you have, then pour a little humility into that cup of coffee along with the milk and Splenda.  A sense of entitlement is the underlying attitude that leads to shooting yourself in the foot.  One mistake is a gaffe.  A bunch of them that occur because you are acting like the emporer who has no clothes is foolhardy.  

Don’t get me wrong, I think if you are smart and work hard you should get what you “deserve.” The good life is a good thing.  But when you run a company, every day you must to get up and thank those hard-working lucky stars of yours and be thankful for the people who make it possible.  Cultivating that attitude will prevent you from developing the mindset that gets you into trouble when your company is in peril.

I hope – really I do – that eventually things turn around for BP because of the good people who work there and the thousands who invest in BP stock in their retirement portfolios.  Nobody is rooting for BP to fail.  We need oil, we need profitable companies to create jobs and make our economy run like the wind.  I just hope as BP is writing out the check they’re remembering that in the grand scheme of the big wide universe, we’re all pretty darned small.    

 

 Svenberg's comment on "small people" : Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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I really don’t want to write this article.  You know, the one on the use of Blackberries in meetings.  Shellie, our business manager, is making me do it. 

I don’t want to write this because I don’t have all the answers.  But Shellie is right.  If the business world doesn’t get a handle on this insidious, pervasive, focus-sucking problem; we’re all going to go just a tiny bit crazy.  

So…here goes.

If your company, your group or your boss HAS RULES on the use of Blackberries in meetings, I’m willing to bet one thing - there are always people who violate the rules, and most of them get away with it most of the time.  If you DON’T HAVE RULES it’s a sure bet that your meetings are taking twice as long - and you’re getting half as much done.  

There are multitudes of reasons (excuses) why people flaunt any rules the organization tries to set forth. 

• They’re overwhelmed with work. 
• Meetings are too long. 
• Meetings are poorly run.
• They don’t know how to delegate.
• They have extremely short attention spans.
• The meetings aren’t relevant to them.
• They are addicted to the darned thing. 
• They are poor time managers.
• The organization is E-mail happy.
• Things that should be happening by phone are happening in Cyberspace.

Are you at a loss as how to tame the Blackberry beast?  Join the club. Even in our office, when it has been clearly stated at the beginning of the meeting that people should turn off their Blackberries and put them away, I see them “sneaking out.”  (Emergency with the kids, expecting an important email from a client, etc).  So, there they sit, on the side of the conference table, or worse, in laps, where they are hardly concealed and just as distracting.  

The problem is- it is hard to argue with the reasons.  Like I said.  I don’t have all the answers.

The other day I gave a four-hour workshop on Communicating Like a Leader to a leadership team offsite meeting.  I must say, I was pretty impressed with this group - only about 10% had Blackberries out on the table.  But still, I find when even a few are using them, others are sitting there thinking - “Maybe I should be monitoring my E-mail, too.  Perhaps I’m not as on-top-of-it as this guy.”  Or, “if she has it out, why shouldn’t I? I guess the boss really doesn’t care.” 

If the BOSS has the Blackberry on vibrate on the table - going off every 18 seconds - all bets are off.  It is over.  That IS the standard.  A few weeks ago a Fortune 500 company paid our firm tens of thousands of dollars to deliver several days of training.  Most of the participants had their Blackberries out on the desks the entire time.  So, what should be done?  Is this a good use of their precious time and money? Should I care?    

This morning I went searching for some “new rules” on Blackberries and found a lot of the same old stuff.  Oh, there were some nuggets - but I’m telling you that I don’t think anybody has this thing figured out.  This isn’t like getting people to comply with seat belt laws.  When people don’t buckle up - there’s a consequence - they die.  When people don’t put the Blackberries in the “holster” it’s only a meeting that is dead on arrival.

So having said all that - let me offer up 10 “new rules” on Blackberry etiquette and good meeting practice, and you tell me what you think.

1. Make a rule - Blackberries off during the meeting.
2. Allow exceptions and get agreement (real emergencies, crisis in the office, and define that)
3. Tell people they must leave the meeting not just to talk, but to type, so they don’t distract others.
4. Devices must be on vibrate, and never on the table.
5. Promise and hold firm on predictable breaks.  At least one in a two hour meeting. 
6. Use timed agendas and send them in advance, so people know when they can slip out.
7. If you’re the meeting leader - follow the rules- you cannot be the exception.
8. Get group agreement on the new norms, so that you aren’t the only one “calling people out” 
9. Make your meetings shorter and have fewer meetings.
10. Tell folks when meeting with clients/prospects/influencers, there are no exceptions.  No Blackberries.  At all.  Not in the lap, not on the table, not anywhere. 

Okay, the electronic mailbag is open for your comments.  Let me know what you think.  Maybe collectively we can come up with even better answers. 

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“Practice does not make perfect.  Only perfect practice makes perfect.”

- Vince Lombardi

 Ray Allen, Celtics

If you haven’t been following the Lakers/Celtics in the 2010 NBA finals (one of THE great sports rivalries of all time) you are definitely missing something.  You sure as heck don’t need to be a basketball fan to grasp this epic story - two titan teams- whose history dates back to the 60’s.  There is simply no matchup in sports better than the Celtics and the Lakers.    

Celtics fans believe (rightly) that as the relatively “new” leader of the team Rajon Rondo goes, so goes the game - and that’s true.  He’s incredible.  However - Ray Allen - the veteran shooter - has been a deciding factor in the Celtics wins (and losses) so far.  In game 2, Allen broke the record for the most 3-pointers in an NBA final game - and the Celtics won.  On the road.  It was incredible.

Why is this important to you as a leader or a professional who has to hit the “court” every day?  As we all know, performance is about perfect practice.  Your “game” will be judged by how well you communicate your big ideas and inspire people to achieve results.  What makes you great is what makes a player like Ray Allen great.  And it isn’t”God given talent.” 

Ray Allen’s remarkable career is a testament to his utter dedication to routine practice.  He can ALWAYS be found on the court before EVERY game, often alone, taking shots.  This dedication, which some might describe as “every day is Ground Hog Day in the NBA” has built his stellar career and positioned him as future Hall of Fame legend.  

Becoming a great “shooter” isn’t about getting it right once in awhile, when it “counts.”  You have to hit the court consistently.  Allen has it all committed to memory (both the mental kind and the muscle kind) and he works it before every single game.   I strongly recommend taking a couple of minutes to watch the You Tube video below - and listen to what he says as he shows you his routine.  It isn’t just about basketball, that’s for sure.

By the way I never apologize for sports analogies.  If there are people- male or female - who don’t get it, then so be it.  The parallels between sports and business are so right on.  Listen to truly great athletes talk about how they do it - and one thing you learn is there’s no such thing as natural talent.  

Ray Allen was a gym rat all through high school and college.  Even when he was 8, he had to make 8 lefty layups and 5 righty layups before he would leave the court.  So his practice habits were etched in stone early in life. 

At the same time, you can’t be discouraged if you didn’t start speaking well early in your career.  The legendary Michael Jordan’s work ethic is proof that you can catch up.   Coach Phil Jackson, commenting once on his former star player said, “The weakest part of Michael’s game on the offensive end was his shooting and so he obviously mastered something everyone said he couldn’t do…and he did it by shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting consistently.  This guy said - what are my weaknesses - and how do I make them my strengths - and he did it.” 

Every time you get up to speak people are sizing you up as a leader.  Every game counts. That’s why you can never take the practice time for granted.  This week, one of our clients called his coach after a major presentation to say it was just “okay.”  He’d had a “good game” a couple of months before - knocking a presentation out of the park - and then he decided he didn’t have time to prepare and rehearse the next one with the coach - and no surprise - the presentation just didn’t fly.   What Ray Allen knows (and he is admittedly almost OCD about it) is what all of us must learn - if you don’t get out there and practice, you aren’t going to have a good game.  

 

 Ray Allen on how to become a shooter: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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What’s a CEO to do when confronted with an irritating little gnat of a technology blogger who won’t let her off the hook about her company’s poor performance? 

In the case of Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz the answer is… let it rip.  She stopped the curmudgeonly interviewer in his tracks (and drew guffaws from the audience) when she dropped the f-bomb in response to a line of tough questions that compared her unfavorably to Steve Jobs.  I guess she thought it would get him off her case.  Nice try but now the world is now watching on You Tube.  

Didn’t I just write about this You Tube thing…like…. six days ago?

Bartz has a flair for colorful language and you can’t blame her for playing Mama Bear Yahoo - protecting her company cubs from the bad, bad media.  She’s been on the job 16 months.  In today’s ADD world that’s a life time.  She hasn’t performed a miracle yet.  Yahoo’s stock price has been tanking and the press hasn’t been so kind.  Pressure on. 

Then again, the Bold-Ms.-Bartz did make the decision to get on that stage.  I would assume some poor soul in the Yahoo-land communications department was savvy enough to tip her off that this dude Michael Arrington isn’t a fan.  It wasn’t gonna-be-no-love -fest.  

Bartz: I’ve been at this company 16 months. and so I’m supposed to have an iPad, iPod… I mean, c’mon. You are involved in a very tiny company [pause].

Arrington: Very tiny.

Bartz: And it probably takes a long time to even convince yourself what the hell to do. So I don’t want to hear any crap about something magical that the fine people of Yahoo are supposed to do in this short time. So f___ off.”

Interestingly, some people are falling all over themselves praising the blunt Ms. Bartz.  Guy Kawasaki, a  Twitterer-extraordinaire, tweeted, ” I respect Carol Bartz even more now..” @GlennF tweeted, “I especially like how Carol Bartz doesn’t play the marketing-speak messaged CEO. She destroys Arrington there.” Another, @Segphault, wrote in a tweet, “Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz is awesome.”

This has nothing to do with women by the way.  A few weeks ago Vice President Biden also made headlines when he slapped President Obama on the back with a congratulatory “this is a big f___ing deal.” 

I’m beginning to think I need re-examine my media training program all together.

Really.

I used to videotape executives just to show them that the APPEARED A BIT IRRITATED at the tough questions we threw at them.  I would make them to watch and advise them to keep cool.  A little passion is always good.  You don’t want to look like you don’t care.  But letting them get under your skin is generally counterproductive.  They focus on your emotion and stop hearing your message.

The pressure of running a public company with a once-glorious-now-somewhat-tattered brand-name notwithstanding, I still think it’s better when you’re in control.  And once again, I’m not claiming to be any kind of saint in the profanity department.  My dad, a common sense Midwest country lawyer always used to let it rip in the house, and tell me cussing sure as hell isn’t the worst sin.

But back to basics, people.  You are a leader.  What do you want your company’s culture to be?  And what do you want your leadership BRAND to be?  Carol Bartz seems like the kind of gal I’d enjoy having a beer with.  Her people may be mighty proud she’s standing up for them.  But the f-word will forever be tattooed on her precious executive reputation.  With an exclamation point.

Just something to think about.

YaHOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 Carol Bartz, Yahoo CEO: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Decked out in red midriff-baring tops and hot pants, performing to “All the Single Ladies,” the 8 and 9 year old dancers at a recent competition earned whoops and praise for their skilled moves, imitating the above photo.  Yet when the video hit You Tube, their gyrations launched an internet firestorm.  It sparked a raging controversy regarding the age appropriateness of those sexy Beyonce-like dance moves.   

The girls’ parents were dumbfounded, saying the video was never meant to be viewed by millions of people.  “This is taken completely out of context,” Cory Miller, father of one of the girls, told Good Morning America.  “The girls are doing something they love to do,” he added.  But “once something becomes viral it gets out of control.”  

That got me thinking about you.  Not the situation where your kids post video of you doing the air guitar routine.  More like when your employees, competitors or even perfect strangers decide to post a video of you speaking in a quasi public forum.  Let’s say you’re on a panel, or giving a conference presentation; or even speaking at an all hands meeting.  Someone with good, bad or benign intentions might just decide to create some mischief.  Are you comfortable with that?  Are you even thinking about it?  

I don’t know what percentage of cell phones and blackberries can capture digital video but it’s certainly growing.  88% of Americans have cell phones.  4 billion people in the world carry one.  I can only think of one or two places where I’ve been asked to surrender mine - mostly going into locations related to government or defense.

Ubiquitous video capability has had a fascinating impact on TV news gathering.  TV news crews no longer have to be “on the scene” to get the story.  I understand the arrest of one of three Pakistani men who may have been in cahoots with the Time Square bomber was captured by a neighbor who happened to see the FBI outside the door in Watertown, MA.  Here’s a link to the raw video  

There are ways to protect yourself but it’s confusing.  On You Tube’s web site the first thing they tell you is you can only take down a video if you uploaded it yourself.  Videos can be removed by You Tube for copyright infringement.  Other than that, after several tries, I couldn’t easily find out on line what the policy is.  

What if you don’t happen to like a video of you that someone else loaded?  I hadn’t done a You Tube search on myself in awhile.  I found most of the videos were posted by our marketing director - tips on communication and clips of speeches.  However, there are also excerpts from television newscasts (when I was a lot younger and more of a brunette - but yes, that’s me.)  No reputational harm - kind of fun to see the old news sets - but I sure didn’t post them.  No idea who did.  What if I just didn’t like them?  I’m not sure I would have recourse.  I don’t own the copyright.  This is what I mean.  It’s a brave new world.  

Not sounding the alarm bell here just yet but it’s something to think about.  

By the way, the video of the dance contest is harder to find now.  On USA Today’s site, a message pops up: “This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by YAK films.”  But you can still find it on ABC Good Morning America’s web site.

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I had failed to pack running shoes and it was going to be four long days without stress- relieving exercise at the Whittemore School at the University of New Hampshire.  The Bates team was there to deliver a Communicate like a Leader program for 25 senior executives.  By day two, my guys were sick of hearing about the exercise thing, so they dropped me at Macy’s on the way to dinner at Outback (we travel in style) to buy some Nikes.  Macy’s carries 1,973 styles but nary a thing you could remotely consider appropriate for a workout unless you like the look and feel of sexy four- inch black strap pumps on a treadmill.   The ONLY fitness category offering was the new fangled Sketchers “Shape Ups™ that Joe Montana has been so sincerely touting on TV. 

I tried them on.  The foot actually rolls in these odd shaped things.  You can’t stand still.  The rounded heel to cushy middle prods your foot forward.  It’s like walking on a workout ball.    I paid the $100 and couldn’t wait for my maiden test run; rising at 5:30 in the midst of a Nor’easter, I commandeered the only umbrella from the front desk and set off.   I felt like I was bouncing.  These Shape Ups claim to “improve poster, strengthen the back, firm the buttocks, improve blood circulation, tighten abdominals and get me into shape without setting foot in a gym” and at the end of 45 minutes I felt at least optimistic that was true.  

I don’t mean I saw immediate impact on the derriere (thought I did check the mirror); but I had an inspiration for my morning presentation.  This was precisely the metaphor I was searching for; a perfect corollary to the awkward experience of learning how to tell a good story.

 Whether you tell stories or you don’t, learning to use our five step process can put a crimp on your style at first.  It doesn’t allow you to carry on without a point, and everything you put into the story needs to lead to it.  So it can be awkward to apply the structure but eventually it is a roadmap that accelerates the process of developing a story you can use in a business presentation.

I walked into the classroom later that morning sporting the shoes (with my suit) and proceeded to tell my story; I demonstrated the rolling motion; then I related it to the storytelling process. 

Bates Story Structure  

The                    The                   The                  The                The

Set Up             Build Up             Scene              Lesson         Universal Theme

I wouldn’t be able to give you the entire storytelling course here, but here’s a quick sketc.  The Set Up is the who, what, when, where of your story - where it begins. The Build Up provides a storyline with some characters and interesting details.  This leads to The Scene; a pivotal moment in the story such as a conversation or realization.  This moment leads to The Point- a personal lesson, observation or ephiphany.  But you’re not finished.  You still have to expand that to provide relevance to the audience through The Universal Theme- how it applies to them.  

We’ve been perfecting this structure for several years and I’ve watched how executives who thought they didn’t have a story bone in their bodies embrace it and become confident storytellers.  Think of it like trying on a new shoe.  The foot is the moving part - the actual story.  The shoe is the story structure that keeps it laced up, aligned and moving in the right direction.  

I’m still wearing the Shape Ups as I write this.  I guess I’ll have to report back in a few weeks when I can tell you whether it is living up to the promise.

In the meantime, try on some new stories.  Think about how to structure them to make a powerful point. In no time they’ll be in “great shape.”

Anybody have a full length mirror?   

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“Courage is being scared to death but saddling up anyway.”  -John Wayne

A couple of years ago a good friend and mentor told me that he thought I needed to get a little more “swagger.”  Not confidence, specifically, he used the word swagger.  It’s a cool word.  Fun to say.  Swagger.  I wasn’t sure exactlly what he meant at the time, but the message was that something needed to be ratcheted up.

Was it, attitude?  Charisma?  Self-Assurance?  Sauntering into the saloon, boots jangling, John Wayne-style, ordering a double and tossing it down?  Swashbuckling onto the ship, Johnny Depp-style, to take prisoners into foreign waters and make them love it?   

I looked it up.  

 swag·ger (swgr)

As an unabashed fan of American Idol, I’m particularly intrigued by one of this year’s top three finalists, Lee DeWyze.  His musical talent has always been obvious but he looked like he was hiding his personality under a bushell.  He was kind of …well…shy.  More than once, judge Kara DioGuardi prodded him.  ”Do you believe you can win this thing?”  Wow, that’s tough on live TV in front of 35 million Idol fans.  But we got what she meant.  You can’t be a superstar unless you believe you are.

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“The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”

-Steven Covey

It’s that time of year - corporate strategy meetings, team off-sites, global leadership meetings, board of director meetings; they’re coming fast and furious.  If you’re like my clients you are preparing at least one presentation, probably a few.  Some of my clients go into this process like a Chinese fire drill (which I realize isn’t exactly politically correct - I looked it up - it’s a pejorative expression originating from the 1900’s referring to a bucket brigade that is accomplishing nothing) so if I’ve offended you then so be it.

Now I love all these clients but let me explain what I mean by the fire drill.  One of them emailed his 14 page draft with about 17 slides at 10 p.m. the night before our 7:30 a.m. coaching session.  Another sent five separate documents related to her presentation with detailed notes five minutes before our 1-hour coaching call.  A third guy just went MIA.  We were scheduled to talk the day before a ”test run” with his boss and I never heard from him.  Three days later he replied to my voice mail with an email apology - he was sorry but it hadn’t been ready, he thought it was okay, not sure, would like to talk… but was heading out for a long weekend… catch up next week… 

Let me take a step back and say it’s fine to do some things “just in time.” If you’re asked to bring a salad to the neighbor’s backyard barbeque Saturday night you can run to the grocery store at 5:45, whip it together at their salad bar and show up looking like a hero.  However, preparing a presentation is not like making salad.  You can’t just toss it all together the day before you speak.  And once you’re past the third grade, the dog ate my homework excuse just doesn’t fly.   

Whenever clients fail to meet a deadline or go right up against it, you can take it to the bank - they’re doing the same thing at work.  With a coach, they’re just flushing company money down the drain.  At work it can be their careers.  In their wake - they create chaos.  It doesn’t just hurt them - it hurts everybody who is waiting on them and counting on them.     

We all have pressure.  Unless you work for the Save the Endangered Caterpillar division of the Environmental Protection Agency and your hours are 9 to 3:30 and everything can wait, you have deadlines. If you’re not busy you’re dead.  For the sake of your career and your sanity it is time to stop pretending that you can do it all.  You have to know your priorities and be ruthless about how you use your time.        

The other day I was on the phone with a client and I recommended he make a list.  1 through 10.  What are you priorities?  What’s the next action step?  When can you complete it?  How will you know you’ve succeeded?  It’s easy to do this with a coach or mentor but you can also do it for yourself.    

1. priority -activitiy - deadline- measure of success

2. priority -activity - deadline - measure of success

3. priority - activity - deadline  - measure of success

etc. 

It’s simply amazing what happens when you write things down.  Writing engages your brain, the list stimulates creativity and checking things off gets you pumped.  You don’t need a ten hours of strategic naval gazing introspection to get your priorities on a piece of paper.  They’re in your head anyway, for heavens sake.  It took my client ten minutes.   

Of course, if making a list was the start and end of success then we’d all be Warren Buffet. Once you have the list, you have to take one more step.  SCHEDULE those activities ON YOUR CALENDAR.  What gets scheduled gets done.  You know this because if you switch over to your own calendar right now you’ll see a bunch of things scheduled today.  You’re an efficient person.  these will get done.  

So stop trying to rearrange your to do list.  Put the important stuff first.  Get it on your calendar.  Stop the madness, set priorities and put down your bucket. It’s spilling all over the place. 

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