Page 126 - Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

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GREAT COMMUNICATION SECRETS OF GREAT LEADERS
4.
Make a list of relevant issues. Find ways to link those con-
cerns to your content early in your presentation.
5.
What story or analogy might you use to connect what you do
and the issue facing the audience to whom you are speaking?
BILL VEECK—MASTER PROMOTER
When you look at Major League Baseball today, you would be hard pressed to
find another business whose practices are so diametrically opposed to the
needs of its customers—the fans. As owners and players regularly accuse one
another of escalating levels of greed, it is the fan—the one who pays the esca-
lating ticket prices—who gets left out in the rain like the family dog as the two
sides bicker among themselves. In moments of despair for the National Pas-
time, it is useful, and hopeful, to recall that while owners and players have
always been adversaries, there was one man in the game who marched to a dif-
ferent drummer—his own! He was Bill Veeck, and the cadence he marched
to, wooden leg and all, was the same as the fans’. He loved the game as much
as they did because first and foremost he was a fan himself. He was also pas-
sionate, opinionated, fun-loving, and dedicated to the value proposition “If
you don’t think a promotion is fun, don’t do it!” 3
And for an owner and baseball executive who had teams that finished first
as well as last, no one ever had more fun than Bill Veeck. He was one part P. T.
Barnum and one part Sam Walton— a combination of showmanship and cus-
tomer value. Along the way, he irritated the plutocrats running the game and
delighted the crowds who filled the stadiums. In his own unique way, Veeck
was a leadership communicator who lived and breathed a message of honesty,
integrity, and entertainment.

BORN INTO THE GAME
In a game going back nearly a century and a half as a professional enterprise
and noted for its characters, Bill Veeck was unique. When he was 3 years old,
his father became general manager of the Chicago Cubs. Veeck grew up in the
game; in fact, he planted the ivy that adorns the brick walls of Wrigley Field.
Later, as a junior executive in the organization, he ordered a new scoreboard,
and when it wasn’t finished on time, he hired a crew—and rolled up his
sleeves—and assembled it in time for opening day. True to his character,
Veeck paid the inventor in full even though he had not completed the score-
board on time. But Veeck also was a businessman. When the inventor wanted
to bid on the exploding scoreboard for the Chicago White Sox many years
later, Veeck said no. 4