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"It takes 21 days to change a habit," according to Maxwell Maltz - and I think he’s about right, give or take a week or two.
But this past weekend we saw habit change at a high level happen in a couple of days at our Speakers’ Roundtable meeting – and there’s a great learning principle in this story.
Too many leaders, and speakers talk about "stuff" , as in "The group liked my stuff," or "I gave them my best stuff. We generically and lazily categorize specific concepts or details or material as "stuff." So Patricia Fripp, renowned public speaker, coach and sister of King Crimson’s Robert Fripp, decided to put a learning principle in place and stop this ‘stuff’ at our three day meeting this past weekend. (She calls it a crime against credibility.) Every time anyone would say "stuff" the person would have to put a $1 in a paper bag.
Don Hutson is a great speaker and author of One Minute Entrepreneur – it was a thrill to watch him share and speak at the same time here at our Speaker’s Roundtable meeting. His great presentation was not taped, (don’t miss him here) but he had a great quote with his signature Marriott story: “The image of a person, company or product is never a constant but an ever-changing variable.” Communicating constantly (and well) makes all the difference. (I also learned at our meeting to keep posts short – thanks Terri.)
Leadership is speaking to raise a people up in a crisis.
Today we are in an economic crisis, and there is no raising up. The great Bully Pulpit of the Presidency has been vacated, and it is a shame. Here we have President Bush, yesterday, lamely talking about the economy in "half full" terms.
This clip is only 12 seconds, but as he READS his speech, note the hesitancy, stumbling and lack of certainty. (For a longer version of a similar experience, see President Bush here from several months ago – interesting to note the unfulfilled promise as well.)
Interesting and profound that it takes just seconds (thin slicing) for us to have confidence, or lack of confidence, in a
speaker – to trust him or her, or to distrust his or her words. And so often our confidence is rooted more in the behavior of the speaker than in what is said. (Another example is this 7 second clip of Casper Weinberger dissembling with ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ as he tries to defend the Libya air strike of years ago.)
After President Bush speaks, we do not feel more confident or optimistic or assured. Perhaps less so. He has lost the Bully Pulpit.
Compare the Bush communication experience to that of Winston Churchill. Consider his famous Blood, Sweat and Tears speech that he gave to the English people when he took leadership as they were under bombardment by the Germans – losing family and friends in the beginning of World War II. This was a much more dire circumstance than we are in now, for sure. And yet he inspired, and thereby mobilized the people of England. When he spoke he did so with a confidence and certainty that turned the attitude and human spirit of a nation.
"You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word: Victory. Victory
at all costs — Victory in spite of all terror — Victory, however long
and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival.
"I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. I
feel entitled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all
and to say, ‘Come then, let us go forward together with our united
strength.’ "
I wish we had YouTube then to show you now how the Bully Pulpit should be used by a leader. I’m sure his behavior was as certain and forceful as his words.
furthering the dialogue about how to use PowerPoint/Keynote
presenting a myriad of vivid examples of excellence (and sometimes not so excellent)
ultimately honing in on the important differences of using in person presentation (visual, audio, person – most business presentations), audio and written design (visual, audio – webinars, etc) and written and designed decks (visual only – slideshows without sound.)
You should enter, as you can win some great prizes, including a MacBook Air, Kindle, IPods, etc. And get competitive – it will hone your design skills.
It has a GREAT panel of judges, in Guy Kawasaki,Garr Reynolds and Nancy Duarte. And I’m proud to be included with these outstanding experts on presentation and design.
A hands-on experience to boost the stickiness of your ideas... and your impact.
