Reading your slides is about the worst thing you can do in a presentation. Being a clueless narcissist is almost as bad – look what happened to Erlich Bachman. This arrogant person thinks it is simply amazing to be on stage, and he thinks it is just as amazing for you to have the privilege of basking in his amazing … Read More
“This bozo is reading his slides”
What’s the worst thing you can do in a presentation? Read your slides. Guy Kawasaki is hilarious on this topic. This is what he says your audience is thinking, “This bozo is reading his slides. I can read silently to myself faster than this bozo can read them to me. I will just read ahead.” And just like that, you’ve … Read More
Don’t Be That Reporter’s Bi#&h!
The most common mistake everyone makes in media interviews is this: trying to please the reporter. This is the worst thing you can do. It’s not your job to make the reporter happy. Your prime directive is to make your customers and investors happy. Media relations is part of marketing. The reporter is a conduit through which you deliver a … Read More
It’s a marathon, not a sprint!
Life as a leader can be exhausting. Maintaining your ‘CEO role’ requires a lot of energy. Actually being the leader and making those incredibly difficult decisions every day requires even more. Your work demands omnipresent clarity and stamina. Staying well-resourced is an absolute requirement for effectiveness. It’s about managing your energy a lot more than it is about managing your … Read More
You decide what they see
You know that as a leader you’re being watched all the time. You are communicating verbally and nonverbally all day long, whether you’re aware of it or not! As a great communicator you invest energy in deciding how you want to present yourself as the leader. What does your CEO role look like? How open do you want to be? … Read More
Yogi Berra was right
“You can observe a lot just by watching,” said Yogi Berra, one of the great thinkers of our time. Your team is watching you all the time. Yes, your employees are messaging each other about your mood. They observe you because you have power over them – in the same way that farmers watch the sky, looking for clues about the … Read More
You’re a meat puppet. And that’s OK.
Stepping into a C-level role is a massive undertaking. You already know that – every aspect of the business depends on you. In fact, leadership is so demanding that one vital, subtle thing may not be on your radar screen. You are playing a role. When you are in a leadership position you are the office as much as you … Read More
Your face isn’t yours anymore
If you don’t read Whitney Johnson’s Disrupt Yourself newsletter you’re missing a gem. This from last month’s issue caught my eye: “After taking over as President of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Yong Kim asked former Ford Motor Company CEO Alan Mulally for advice. This former CEO of the Year said: “You have a nice smile, smile more.” He then … Read More
Featherbedding
Layering is not just good advice for surviving a San Francisco summer, but also a great way to communicate complex concepts to your target audiences. In the early days of the David Letterman show, they would take things up to the studio roof and hurl them down onto the street below. Watching microwaves and blenders smash to bits on the … Read More
Untangling
Sometimes communicating can be complicated and torturous because you don’t realize you’re talking about two things at once. For example, you’re having an ongoing heated conversation with a colleague about whether you should do the sales dinner in Houston or Chicago. You never get to resolution, you just keep debating and getting nowhere. Why can’t you make this simple decision? … Read More