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 was reading Marshall Goldsmith’s blog and came across  ”4 Tips for Efficient Succession Planning” today.  One of the world’s most trusted executive coaches has finally put his finger on a big, broken piece of Leadership Development.   

In my experience, companies are way too focused on standard assessments and planning meetings, where they sit in a room, talking about their “top talent”, and moving young hi po names around on a board like puzzle pieces.  This is all part of “succession planning,” and Goldsmith says we spend far too much time doing it.  Instead he says, why don’t we start calling it “succession DEVELOPMENT.” 

“Plans do not develop anyone,” says Goldsmith, “only development experiences develop people. We see many companies put more effort and attention into the planning process than they do into the development process.”

If we focus on “planning” instead of “development,” we end up promoting smart, technical people who can’t motivate, inspire and empower people.  These leaders have business sense but hardly a clue about how to influence others and get results.  

After years of watching young leaders succeed and fail, I’ve noticed that the missing link for most of them is what is often called “executive presence.”  Executive presence is a combination of skills and qualities that make a person highly effective with others.  It’s often described as the impact you have when you walk into a room, engage in a conversation; it’s also how you listen, treat other people, behave in work and social situations, and even the way you dress.  

I think those things are important but the definition of executive presence is much broader.  It’s the knowing your leadership view, being able to speak your mind and articulate a big idea that excites others.  Even the strongest business mind will not be able to build a collaborative, innovative, progressive organization if they don’t know how to influence others and move them to act.

What too many companies are doing is sending their high potential leaders to a few courses and calling it development.  What they need to do is provide a structured, long term learning environment where leaders can learn and apply these communication skills in real time and real life situations.

If Human Resources groups charged with “succession planning” could get their companies to focus on the long term development of communication skills as an essential part of the leadership package, they would be pleasantly surprised at how these high potential leaders could quickly assimilate into new roles.   

This is the main reason we developed our Executive Coaching in Communications program.  Few coaches or courses are able to help leaders develop this critical skill.  Too often, leaders are told they need to improve their communication without being given a structured, long-term plan and resources for doing so.

In our program we focus on working with leaders in real time on real events, so that they learn to exercise this muscle - finding their leadership voice - and making it stronger.   If you’d like to learn more I recommend reading Motivate Like a CEO especially chapters 3,4, 11 and 12.   

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There is nothing in the world that helps an executive stand out as much as great manners.  You stand apart when you know what to do and how to treat others in every business situation.  There are many elements to executive presence, including communication skill, presentation style, body language, appearance and wardrobe.  However, many well dressed, articulate, smart executives don’t know, or don’t care enough to learn the rules of manners and etiquette.

I just read that Reader’s Digest tested levels of politeness in 36 cities around the world. In each city, undercover reporters from local Reader’s Digest editions performed three tests 20 times each. Cities earned a point each time one of its residents (1) helped a stranger pick up his or her dropped papers; (2) thanked someone making a small purchase; and (3) held doors open to the people following them into a building.

New York scored highest with 80%, followed by Zurich with 78% and Toronto with 70%. The cities with the lowest scores on these three tests? Mumbai (32%), Bucharest (35%), and Kuala Lumpur (37%).

Now I’m not sure how scientific this study is, or whether they just caught some of these cities on a collectively bad day, but the larger point is - as a professional or executive, your score should be 100% on these behaviors.  This came out in the Harvard Business publication daily stat report.  click here to read about the study

You never know who is watching.  And you never know what might trip you up.  Companies usually invite top job candidates to one or several dinners and social activities.  The purpose is not only to get to know you in a social setting; it is also to test your know-do you know how to handle yourself?

In these situations, nothing is overlooked.  If you don’t thank the person who took your coat, or brought your drink; if you fail to handle introductions or wait until everyone is served to eat, if you don’t know how to carry on a great conversation, it will be duly noted.  Given two capable candidates, the one who handles himself or herself superbly gets the nod. 

There is a fun quiz on manners (actuallly several etiquette topics) at manners international’s web site.  Click here to take a quiz.

I can also recommend Judity Bowman, Protocol Consultants, who has decades of experience working with business executives on etiquette: click here to read about Judith Bowman.   

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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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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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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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