Speaking As a Leader

How to Lead Every Time You Speak...From Board Rooms to Meeting Rooms, From Town Halls to Phone Calls

Judith Humphrey

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781118141014
• eBook ISBN: 9781118147559
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Leadership
• Index: Business

Make every communication count—with a simple, four-step speaking model

Whether it's among colleagues at lunch or an audience of a thousand, a leader's role is to move and inspire others. It's not only the big occasions that test a leader's mettle, but the little ones as well—in a casual conversation in the elevator, in phone calls, or one of many incidental, seemingly "insignificant" interactions in everyday work life. Written by one of the world's leading communications coaches, Speaking as a Leader shows you how to make the most of your daily communications, creating a presence on the job as a genuine and constant leader.

In this eye-opening guide, aspiring (and established) leaders can enhance their reputations and influence by following a few simple steps. Speaking as a Leader:

• Shows how to structure your thoughts and message in any situation using a four-step model
• Offers tips on listening effectively, in three dimensions
• Details why you are the best visual and how to avoid "Death by PowerPoint"
• Offers guidance on taking the "numb" out of numbers
• Includes tips on moving from subject to message

With Speaking as a Leader, you'll learn to tap into your innate leadership skills at every occasion—whether small or large—and earn the sort of respect that creates devoted friends and passionate supporters.

Step 1

Think Like a Leader

Chapter 1

Begin with Vision

In Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice says to the Cheshire Cat:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

“I don't much care where—” said Alice.

“Then it doesn't matter which way you go,” said the Cat.¹

Alice discovered that having a larger goal'a broad vision'is all-important. Any leader who says “I don't much care” when asked where he or she wants to go is never going to get anywhere. Leaders need a mission that guides them and their followers. And it should shape everything a leader communicates. To speak like a leader you must have a clear sense of your larger goal. Begin with vision.

Why a Vision Is Important

A vision tells everyone in your organization, your department, or your area what's important. It shapes, or should shape, all your communications, from major speeches to the way you conduct meetings. It aligns your remarks with the overall goals of your organization. Without a vision, even e-mails can become unproductive. Recently The Humphrey Group worked with a tech company where a group of five engineers sent a total of 17 e-mails back and forth about the specifications of a screen display for a smartphone. A supplier had sent them the wrong product. Should they use it or demand a replacement? There was endless debate about the right course of action. What those five engineers had forgotten, or never grasped fully, was the company's broad vision, which states: “We have an unalterable commitment to the highest quality products.” Had they kept this vision in mind, decision making (and their e-mails) would have been far more straightforward. They could have decided'after rigorous testing'that the substitute screens met the company standards, or they could have rejected those screens as substandard. The vision would have led them to the right action.

Visions shape everything leaders say and do, whether they are running a meeting or responding to a question. And there are times when it's useful to restate that vision. One individual I coached remarked that he had begun to do so. In his words: “I find it really valuable to say, at some point in the meeting, ‘Let me take a minute to share my vision with you.—” Doing so will rally your audience around your high-level leadership thinking.

Visions Begin at the Enterprise Level

Every organization'as well as groups within an organization'should have a clear vision. These visionary statements should begin at the enterprise level. The vision of other groups must be nested inside that larger vision.

Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, explained his company's overarching goal this way: “We take all the world's information and make it accessible and useful to everyone. That's our mission, and that's a pretty important mission.”² Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, has a simple, clear, and powerful statement. He's even written his company's vision on the inside of his hoodie: “Making the world more open and connected.”³

It's not just the largest firms that have vision statements. The Humphrey Group, too, has a clear goal: “The Humphrey Group fosters inspirational leadership.” That mission helps us stand out in the marketplace'and it shapes this book.

So your mandate is to be a visionary.

Develop Your Vision

Before you speak, know the guiding vision for your company, division, or team. This will keep everyone on the same page. If your team or division does not have a vision, it's useful to formulate one. (These same principles apply if you are creating a vision for the entire enterprise.) Think about where you want your company, department, or team to be in five months, five years'maybe even five decades! To ensure your vision is inspiring, develop it with the following principles in mind.

1. Your Vision Must Be Focused

Consider the following vision statement, delivered to a board of directors:

It is time to rethink our business strategy and make some dramatic changes.We must bring more focus and discipline to our business. We have a strong entrepreneurial culture, which must operate with a better mix of discipline and aggression. We must rededicate ourselves to profitable growth, and to the overall success of this firm.

This may be an impassioned statement, but it contains at least three messages. Which one is most important? Which one is going to take priority? Multiple messages confuse, rather than inspire. If, instead, the statement had focused on one of these ideas, the speaker would have been clearer. A one-sentence vision statement is always best. Keep it focused.

2. Your Vision Must Be Positive

Lift up your listeners. Move them from “negatives” to “positives.” One of the great corporate visions is that of Kinross Gold Corporation. It reads: “Our core purpose is to lead the world in generating value through responsible mining.”⁴ This high-ground vision infuses everything with the dignity of creating value by acting responsibly'including having respect for local cultures, for employees, for the land being mined, and for everything in the work environment.

A similar positive vision should be a source of inspiration for each division or group within an enterprise. In the example above, the vision for the Finance Group might be “To help the company generate value through responsible financial reporting to all stakeholders.”

A manager of a mine in the company might have as her vision “to ensure that the mine generates value by acting responsibly toward employees, suppliers, the local community, and the environment.”

Together these “nested” visions support one common and positive corporate goal. As a leader you must always be guided by a larger goal.

3. Your Vision Must Be Attainable

“Becoming the number-one North American oil and gas producer” may be possible if you're now number three. But if your total holdings are one non-producing well, you're probably overreaching. If your vision is not achievable, then the people who work for you will become demoralized. This isn't to say that you can't reach for the moon'John F. Kennedy inspired the American people to do just that'but if that's your vision, be prepared to build rocket ships. Credibility is a well that quickly runs dry when you're stretching the truth.

4. Your Vision Should Reflect the Scope of Your Mandate

No important areas of your organization should fall outside your vision. Agrium, a global company that produces fertilizers and related chemical products, provides a good example of a broad-based mandate. Their sustainability vision is: “Agrium will make an increasingly positive impact on shareholders while helping to feed the world responsibly.”⁵ Imagine if they had left out the word “increasingly.” That would have excluded from this defining statement one crucial goal'the company's commitment to growing shareholder value by providing increasingly positive returns.

Communicate Your Vision

It is of no use to have a clear and compelling vision if you do not communicate it to all your stakeholders. Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Inc., writes in his autobiography, Direct from Dell, that “over time, we have developed a laser-focused strategy that we take great pains to communicate consistently and thoroughly throughout the entire global organization.” In fact, “at Dell, what ties us all together is belief in our direct model.”⁶ Whether you head a company, a business unit, or a team, communicating your company's vision is your responsibility. It must be burned in your mind and the mind of every employee, customer, and stakeholder.

So place yourself in the tradition of leaders who speak with a vision that is focused, positive, attainable, and encompassing, and let that vision shape everything you deliver. Commit to it in your speeches, presentations, meetings, and off-the-cuff comments. A vision is a living thing: if you broadcast it continually, in all your interactions, others will believe in it, act on it, and with your leadership turn your vision into a reality.

Chapter 2

Think beyond Hierarchies

In Anton Chekhov's short story “Fat and Thin,” two childhood friends greet each other warmly at a railway station after decades apart. The thin man boasts of his accomplishments as a civil servant. But as soon as he learns that the fat man is a much higher-ranking official, he becomes pale and nervous, and starts calling the fat man “Your Excellency.” The fat man, saddened by his old friend's sudden fawning behavior, turns and leaves.¹

This is the power of hierarchies: they can turn people into pale shadows of their former selves. I have seen managers come undone when presenting to senior executives. Instead of providing guidance, they stumble through a dull, information-based presentation and as soon as the executives begin asking questions or making comments, the junior presenters allow the executives to take over. Why? Because these individuals defer to those above them and assume that “leaders” and “followers” are determined by rank. But too often the senior executives are not impressed. Indeed, such performances can be career limiting.

Organizations still do have tops and bottoms. But leaders at all levels must be willing to influence others, even those they don't have authority over. The old structures, where a few at the top had access to all pertinent information and issued orders through a command-and-control structure, are gone. Regardless of your place in the hierarchy, you have a responsibility to lead. But leading takes a different shape depending on whether you are speaking to those who report to you, your peers, or someone more senior than you.

Leading from Above

Leading from above is the most common form of leadership and it's the one we are most familiar with. There are still old-style command-and-control bosses out there. But few are successful in the new world of knowledge workers. Those who think that position equals command run the risk of alienating employees. They don't inspire their workers, and they won't benefit from the flow of knowledge that must move freely in every direction within a corporation.

The best bosses provide a vision that helps direct their company, division, or area. They convey that vision by persuasion, not by preemptive commands. And when forming their views and guiding their employees, they listen carefully. They welcome suggestions, encourage frank conversations, and are open to constructive challenges to their views. James Gorman, CEO of Morgan Stanley, according to one industry colleague, has the ability “to form his ideas and then sell them to the people involved, as opposed to trying to use the power of the assignment to make them do what he wanted.”² It's this ability that all leaders need.

If a boss is curt or abrupt with employees, heads will shake as soon that executive leaves the room. I once observed a new CEO who was the keynote speaker at a daylong company meeting. Five hundred sales employees were in the hall, waiting expectantly for their new leader. The CEO began by saying, “I can't talk with you for very long . . . I have to go meet with our major shareholders.” Then, showing little respect for his audience, he delivered a few rambling comments. He left his audience unimpressed and uninspired.

Think of BP's former CEO Tony Hayward, who got into trouble by saying, after the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster, “there's no one who wants this thing over more than I do. I'd like my life back.”³ Public outcry over these remarks was so great that he was forced to make a second statement apologizing for his words: “My first priority is doing all we can to restore the lives of the people of the Gulf region and their families'to restore their lives, not mine.”⁴

Hayward's mistake was extreme, but not out of character with some of the attitudes I've seen when coaching executives. One vice president told me: “I am the one that has to make decisions, and people come to me to hear me say either ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Sometimes two people come and fight it out in front of me for my approval . . . I like the smell of blood!” Another executive liked to toy with his subordinates. As a young woman explained: “My boss makes me so upset. When I go in to see him he plays with me'flirts, makes suggestive comments, banters, and tries to throw me off guard. When I attempt to bring the discussion to the subject at hand, he is cold and indifferent. He could not care less about my projects . ....

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Preface
• Introduction
• Step 1: Think Like a Leader
• Step 2: Script Yourself as a Leader
• Step 3: Use the Language of Leadership
• Step 4: Achieve a Leader's Presence
• Conclusion: Always Leading, Always Influencing
• Endnotes
• Index