Page 132 - Leadership Secrets of Hillary Clinton

MAKING YOUR WORDS COUNT

their jobs. This business leader wanted to create a sense of
hope and encourage resilience and commitment through-
out his organization, and he knew that the usual business
presentation of facts and figures wouldn’t do that. So, we
put together another approach.
He scheduled a “town hall” meeting, and we created two
PowerPoint slides for it. The first slide showed a stream of
valleys that kept dipping lower over the course of the year.
The second slide showed a beautiful picture of mountains,
with each one getting taller, and on the highest peak there
was a circle indicating where the company was—at the top!
As he addressed his team at the meeting, he showed the
slides and explained that over the next several months, there
would be hard times, and that they would all have to work
hard, but that he firmly believed that their common values
and strong work ethic would prevail. He spoke confidently
when he said that they had the power to move beyond the
current situation and that they would, together, reach the
mountain peak that represented their shared vision for the
company. Then he explained his short-term plan in order to
provide them with some immediate direction, and finally he
told them about a series of meetings he was going to hold
to get everyone’s ideas on the best way to move forward in
the longer term. People are still talking about that meeting.
They call it the “peak” meeting, and I call it inspiring action.
Here are some things to remember when you want to
inspire action:

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