I don’t know the origin of the term “all hands meeting.” Sometimes people refer to it by the acronym AHM.  Just a little advice — AHM can also refer to:

• Automated Hacking Machines
• Adaptive Handoff Management
• Airline History Museum
• Airport Handling Manual
• Anterior Hyaloid Membrane

…and over a dozen other terms, so personally I would avoid it.  Could be confusing.  As acronyms usually are.

Anyway, I would venture the All Hand Meeting term originated with the maritime phrase “all hands on deck.”  Picture the ship captain (that’s YOU!  Or the EXECUTIVE TEAM!), charting a course (the BUSINESS STRATEGY), and then calling the crew (EMPLOYEES) up top for a hearty kick in the wooly britches.  The captain urges the swashbucklers to toughen up for the voyage (NEXT QUARTER), brace for the next storm (STRUGGLING GLOBAL ECONOMY, NEW COMPETITIVE CHALLENGES), and fortify themselves for a long stretch without provisions (BUDGET CUTS), not to mention and stingy meals of stale bread and water (LOUSY RAISES AND BONUSES).   Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum! 

Ah! The All Hands Meeting.  What will you say when you get up to speak about the state of the organization?  How will you stand and deliver a talk that perfectly frames the current issues, challenging people to move forward and redouble their efforts?  

The purpose of the all hands meeting is quite simple.  Think of it as the President’s State of the Union Address.  You may not get 40 standing ovations on live TV, but your talk should stir genuine emotion from your employees.  Strive to speak eloquently, succinctly and clearly about the current and future state of the enterprise.  Paint a vision of where you have been and where you are going.  Get out the compass, set a course, and tell us how we get to that distant shore.

So, your AHM is coming up soon.  Where should you begin?

May I suggest that the first step is NOT to pull out the musty, old slide deck from the LAST quarter’s all hands meeting.  Think about starting from scratch, and preparing a fresh, new, “killer” presentation.  

What you say matters.  Every word.  Take time to make it great.  Getting people together isn’t logistically easy, and it’s expensive.  And your own professional reputation is riding on this.  You’re evaluated as a leader every time you get up to speak.  Make it count. 

One thing about this fall that’s worth noting - people are still feeling “at sea” because of economic uncertainty.  You would think they would be more motivated to work hard.  But people are actually  paralyzed by fear.  Clear the log jam and get that ship sailing.  

I do everything in my power to shut out the drumbeat of negative economic news, as I know you do.  But  most people don’t.  So it takes a toll.  They need leaders who will stand up and lead. People are only human; they’ve been resourceful for a long time, projects are demanding, and they are tired.  They need to be inspired.

My advice? To inspire, you have to BE inspired.   Ask yourself these questions and then answer them for your team: 

1.        Where are we going? And why is it the right course?  How do you know?

2.       What makes you believe it can be done?  

3.       How do you know that our team can do this?  

4.       Where can we course-correct?   

5.       How do you know we can do it? 

6.       What’s cool about our company? (Tell them how brilliant they are)  

7.       How will we know when we’ve arrived?   

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If you want to learn something about attracting great talent, a good place to start is by studying winning professional sports teams.  The complexities of salary caps, egos and free agency aside, the best have certain advantages.

For instance, the Yankees brand is singularly powerful - pinstripes and piles of money are a killer combo, even for players who have previously enjoyed being big fish in smaller ponds - spending their entire careers in a city that adores them.  My husband hates it when you say that but he’s a lifelong Yankees fan living in New England, and he’s just a little sensitive. 

The Celtics have lately been successful with another proven talent magnet -the law of attraction.  Shaq had lunch with the legendary Doc Rivers and decided he wanted to join the  green team.  Voila, a couple of good meals and he’s lined up to help them make one more run at a championship.  I have some single friends who wish dating was that easy.

However, if you’re not the Yankees or the Celtics in business, you can still attract great talent.  For instance, there’s a small but soon-to-be mighty technology company that has neither unlimited resources nor brand name.  Not yet.  But when they needed talent, and needed it fast, they found a “third way.” They took one year, and devoted 50% of their time to recruiting the best of the best. 

Since I know their story I can assure you that they could ill afford the “luxury” of being out of the office and away from business.  They did it anyway.  They decided that attracting top talent WAS their business. Talent to grow the company was job one. With adequate bank accounts and a small but interesting set of press clippings they had enough ammunition to be resourceful.  Their secret weapon was their story.

Armed with a quite remarkable account of how they started, what they’d accomplished, and where they were going, they secured meetings with their A-list players and … and wowed them.  They didn’t have a shamrock brand but they had a track record of early success, and more important, extreme commitment and firey passion for their business plan.  You wouldn’t believe the people who have said yes to them.

How did they take time away from business to focus like a laser on talent? One of their advisors explained it to me this way.  Instead of trying to keep all the plates spinning by themselves, they took their fingers off the plates, stacked them at the side momentarily, and went out to find the experts who could spin better than they could.  Now the plates are spinning like nobody’s business and they are on the verge huge success in every way you can possibly define it.  And just to take that metaphor a little farther than I probably should - had they NOT taken their fingers off the plates, they probably would have shattered into a million pieces anyway.

Think of your role as a leader in attracting talent this way.  If you want to have Brad Pitt in your movie, you need to either:

a. scare up $20 million bucks

b. put George Clooney in the cast, or

c. get a meeting with Brad, and HAVE A GREAT SCRIPT.

Movie stars, like business stars, want to be a part of an exciting company story.  They can work anywhere.  They like to be able to brag about it. 

Why do I share this in my blog on leadership and communication?  Because you can spend all day fussing with your compensation packages, but once all things are relatively equal and a person you’re trying to recruit believes it is fair enough, what they really want is to join a team with a passionate leader who has an exciting vision and a key spot for them.      

When you get out there to recruit, tell your story with passion and conviction.  Make sure your employees do the same.  They’re your best ambassadors.  Who needs pinstripes - when you have passion?    

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30th Street Station, Philadelphia, PA

The other day on my way to a lunch meeting in Philadelphia I passed by the scene of a crime - my own - some 20 years ago.   It wasn’t illegal, unethical or immoral; however, what I did was nearly fatal to my budding television career. 

Snow flurries were swirling outside 30th Street Station on a bitter cold, pre-Thanksgiving night, when I was sent out to do a live shot for the 11 o’clock news on WCAU-TV.  The music played (Where do they get those awful, self-important news jingles); the anchorman introduced me; I offered my one-line “lead-in;” they rolled the pre-recorded story, voiced from the field. When it ended, they cut back to me for the live close; I started, and then stopped.  Mid SENTENCE.  I couldn’t for the life of me remember how I had planned to throw back to the studio.  

I still wince when I imagine the panic that must have ensued in the control room.  ”What the….did her brain freeze?  What’s wrong?  BATES!  You’re ON!  Mike - CUE.  CUE!!!!! We’ve got nothing. Standby, Larry…back to you….”  After the longest 7 or 8 seconds of my lifetime, Larry Kane must have apologized to the audience.  I don’t remember.  It’s a blank. I was horrified.  And humiliated.

Trudging slowly up the stairs to the newsroom now after midnight, I encountered producer Paul Gluck who had waited for me, rather than joining the crew for an after-news beer.  

“What the hell happened?” he asked. 

“I don’t know,” I replied.  “I memorized every word.” 

“That was your first mistake,” he retorted.  “Never memorize.  Internalize.”

I have often shared that story.  The lesson is to master material without setting yourself up to be a victim of momentary memory lapse.  You can’t count on the brain to fire on all cylinders WORD FOR WORD.  Practice phrases and internalize the ESSENCE of it.   

I share the story for a different reason here.  I was struck - as I drove by that side of the building in the photo above - the scene of my  “crime” -  and felt a flutter of those old, raw emotions.  It wasn’t exactly like yesterday but I was back there, feeling something again.   

That’s when it dawned on me to write about this.  About how important it is to go back and re-live those moments as you think about sharing your stories.  Not just retell.  Re-LIVE.

Freeze frame the moment.  You’ll find a rich source of material.  Because it’s the feelings that make your story powerful.  Connecting with audiences on an emotional level is the point.  Leaders teach.  People learn when they make both an intellectual and emotional connection.  Hence, emotion is part of teaching. 

Truth be told, people vastly prefer to hear about your mistakes.  To err is human, and people want to follow human beings.  They appreciate leaders who open up.  They connect with you emotionally.  And that is  powerful stuff.

You may not relish going back to the scene of some of those crimes.  However, its easy, working with a partner, to recall emotions and imbue your presentation with authenticity. Let them prompt you. ”How did you feel about that?”  When we teach  storytelling “live” at boot camps it’s amazing how well this works.  You see the impact in the faces of the audience, as the storyteller reveals an emotion.  They soften, smile, nod, laugh, and cry.  

Yes, it is appropriate in business to share emotions.  In fact, if you want to influence hearts and minds, it is imperative.  So don’t take the detour.  Drive by the scene of the crime, if only literally.  See what happens when you allow yourself remember… how you felt.    

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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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“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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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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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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