Page 169 - Roy W. Rice - CEO Material How to Be a Leader in Any Organization-McGraw-Hill (2009)

150 • CEO Material: How to Be a Leader in Any Organization

morale, enhance cooperation, and even lower blood pressure—yours and
theirs. You connect sooner and better with other people, especially if
you’re in a powerful, intimidating role (we don’t want our leaders to be
the funniest people in the room; we just want to see them as human
beings). You minimize hubris and improve your health, from cardiovas-
cular, to memory, to weight loss (medical experts say that every time you
laugh, you add some time to your life).

Be Consistent

Present the same face day in and day out to all coworkers in a constant
manner. Avoid the description given about one CEO wannabe: “He was
riddled with inconsistency. He seemed dishonest.” You cannot be one way
one day with one persona and a different way the next.
If you are inconsistent, you create tremendous ambiguity, confuse
people, and cause them to be inconsistent back to you.

Public Speaking Communication

Leaders speak to groups to reach and influence larger numbers of
people. One CEO told me, “I made 70 speeches in 90 days.” Whether
it’s 70 or 2 in the next 90 days for you, there is an ideal situation to
positively increase your visibility.
When you’re preparing your speech, ask questions about your
audience. What’s the makeup? Who have they heard previously? What
is their state of mind? What would benefit them?
Don’t rely on professional speech writers. Or if you do, tell them
what you want to say. Before you accept a speech from a speech writer,
ask the writer if this speech says what you want it to say. At the same
time, write the speech yourself, and then marry the two at the end.
Then, as in all good communication, tell your audience what you’re
going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them.