Page 137 - Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

Ch08_Baldoni_141496-7 5/22/03 1:09 PM Page 115
Ask questions. If you want to know what is on people’s minds, ask

them. Good leaders are always asking questions as a means of gauging
interest as well as finding ways to connect the offering to the individ-
ual. Engage the people in your audience in conversation. Find out what
they are thinking. And don’t be afraid to ask for feedback; it’s important
to know how you are coming across.
Make the benefits real. People need to see, hear, and experience the
CHAPTER 8 DELIVERING THE MESSAGE 115
leadership message. The leader needs to connect the message to the
individual. Show each person how what you are asking her or him to
do will benefit her or him personally. Rich Teerlink made the benefits
of a transformed Harley-Davidson real to employees, dealers, and cus-
tomers through constant repetition. Give people a reason to believe, and
they will. Human nature predisposes us to belong to something larger
than ourselves.
Echo the values. All communications from the leader need to echo the
values of the organization. The leader’s interpretation of those values
transforms them from platitudes to behaviors. For example, if a com-
pany prides itself on being people-focused, the people in the company
need to see that behavior echoed by the leadership. When employees
see a leader spending time with a customer or lending a hand with an
employee, the rhetoric of “we’re a caring company” becomes real.

Ask for the sale. Never leave ’em hanging. Ask for support. The call

to action close to a presentation is a perfect example. As we said in
Chapter 6, be specific about what you want your people to do. You can
employ the same method when speaking one-on-one. Ask people to get
behind what you want them to do. Statesmen such as Colin Powell ask
for support for government initiatives. Business leaders like Jack Welch
ask for an employee’s commitment to a business objective. The very
asking makes the person feel important, as if he or she has been singled
out to do something special.
Leadership communications—in contrast to the sales cycle, which has a
definite beginning, middle, and end —never really ceases. Messages may
have cycles, but the communications process continues.

PLAY FOR PASSION

When you were a youngster learning to write, no doubt you were instructed to
write first about what you know. Leaders elevate the stakes. They are required
to communicate what they know through their words and actions. But they
need to do something else as well: They need to demonstrate passion—the