The Leader’s Voice

“Leadership is the art of accomplishing more than the science of management says is possible.”

Colin Powell

The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell

“Who were you leadership role models?”

Who were your leadership role models?

1. Business leader

2. Political leader

3. Community leader

4. Family member

5. Coach

6. Teacher

7. Other

How would your senior manager rate his or her communication ability?

Very effective

Somewhat effective

Not very effective

Not effective at all

Not sure

How would you rate your senior manager’s communication ability?

Very effective

Somewhat effective

Not very effective

Not effective at all

Not sure

Clarke & Crossland • 30% effective

• 70% ineffective

• 86% of followers believe that executives think they are effective.

• 17% of followers believe executives are effective.

“The State of the CIO” The personal skills most important for CIO success

Effective Communication

Understand Business Process and Ops.

Strategic Thinking and Planning

Thorough knowledge of technical

options

Negotiations skills

Ability to influence/salesmanship

Technical proficiency

70%

58%

46%

31%

19%

17%

10%

Gallup and Supplee • 71%

• Poor at communicating

• Petty and critical

• Took credit for other’s performance.

Four fatal assumptions.

1. Understand

2. Agree

3. Care

4. Take appropriate action

Channels • Factual

• Emotional

• Symbolic

“Reason without emotion is neurologically impossible.” Dr. Antonio Damasio

“The emotions are adaptations, well-engineered software modules that work in harmony with the intellect and are indispensable to the functioning of the whole mind.” Steven Pinker, MIT Center for Cognitive Neuroscience

When leaders fail to communicate in facts, emotions, and symbols, constituents will fill in the blanks.

“A leader has only his or her language as a ‘tool.’ To say language is everything to the leader is not an overstatement. It’s a fact.”

Tom Peters

“Nearly all leaders are eloquent in voice, and many are eloquent in writing as well. They do not merely have a promising story; they can tell it persuasively. When such linguistic intelligence is yoked to considerable personal intelligence, one has the makings of an effective communicator and, perhaps, a promising leader.”

Howard Gardner, Leading Minds

Leadership communication is an

inside out game.

Inside out game

Authenticity

• Genuineness

• Credibility

International Norm

21% Ambitious 40% Broad-minded 20% Caring 66% Competent 28% Cooperative 20% Courageous 33% Dependable 24% Determined 42% Fair-minded 71% Forward-looking

88% Honest 23% Imaginative 6% Independent 65% Inspiring 47% Intelligent 14% Loyal 17% Mature 8% Self-controlled 34% Straightforward 35% Supportive

Followers Want• Honest

• Forward-looking

• Competent

• Inspiring

Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge

Source Credibility

• Trustworthiness

• Expertise

• Dynamism

Leadership

Trustworthiness

Expertise

Dynamism

Honest

Forward-looking

Competent

Inspiring

“Communication which inspires, enables and

strengthens with the purpose of raising the conviction,

consciousness and competence of others.”

Factual Channel

Factual Channel• People love facts.

• Facts may not be boring, but you might be.

• Facts alone seldom persuade and rarely inspire.

“Communications Problem #10: Use of boring language and lack of interesting material.”

Roger Ailes, You Are The Message

“Every year since 1950, the number of American children gunned down has

doubled.”

The Facts

1950 10

1970 10,485,760

1973 83,886,080

1995 350,000,000,000,000

HIVNinety percent of all HIV infections are in Sub-Saharan Africa.

90% of all HIV infections are in Sub-Saharan Africa

Facts alone seldom persuade and rarely inspire.

Communicating facts well requires the same skill as good story telling.

How big is an acre of land?

About the size of an American football field.

How much pizza per/person is

served in America each year?

About 18 acres per/person.

Standard railroad gauge: 4 feet, 8 and ½ inches

Standard railroad gauge: 4 feet, 8 and ½ inches

 We follow leaders because of how

they make us feel.

Follow because of how .

Emotional Channel• Emotions give power to

communication.

• Reason without emotions is impossible.

Learning Leadership

40% Family members

26% Teacher or coach

11% Community leader

7% Business leader

4% Political leader

3% Professional athlete

2% Entertainer

7% None/Other/Not sure

Source: Public Allies Survey 1998

“Long-distance phone service, electronic mail, faxes, and video-conferencing should have made the face-to-face business meeting obsolete. But meetings continue to be a major expense for corporations and support entire industries like hotels, airlines, and rental cars. Why do we insist

on doing business in the flesh? Because we do not trust someone until we see what makes him sweat.”

Steven Pinker, How The Mind Works

A leader without symbols is like Elvis without hips.

From a rabbit’s foot to a rosary, symbols are the shortcuts to the great truths that

guide our lives.

“Telling stories, in the sense of registering what happens in the form of brain maps, is probably a brain obsession and probably begins relatively early both in terms of evolution and in terms of the complexity of the neural structures required to create

narratives. Telling stories precedes language, since it is, in fact, a condition for language, and it is based not just in the cerebral cortex but elsewhere in the brain and in the right hemisphere as well as the left.”

Antonio Damasio

“What we sell is the opportunity for a 43 year-old accountant to dress up in black leather, ride through small towns and have people be afraid of him.”Harley executive, quoted in Results-based Leadership

The language of constituents.

“Other PMS symptoms include gastrointestinal distress, headaches, rashes, muscle and joint pains, fatigue, gingivitis, heart pounding, imbalance, hot flashes, over-sensitivity to sounds and smells, agitation, and insomnia…”

WebMD

Product Brand Communication

Leaders must communicate a million

complicated things when they fail to communicate

a few simple profound ones.

Make sure the words are yours.

Push them from the very bottom of your soul.

The performance will take care of itself.

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that introduces, implements, and integrates learning to the point of results. Founded and chaired by renowned author and management guru Tom Peters.

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888.221.8685

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