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GREAT COMMUNICATION SECRETS OF GREAT LEADERS
graphical user interface (GUI), featuring mouse commands. Curiously, their
wives joined them for the presentation. The story goes that the senior man-
agers saw no need for icons or pull-down menus. Their wives, however, many
of whom had been secretaries, instinctively liked the computer interface. Their
intuition did not prevail, and management passed up the development. Later,
young Steve Jobs, on a tour of Xerox Parc in Palo Alto, saw the GUI, instantly
recognized its applicability, and used the interface for Apple Computer prod-
ucts. Stories such as this illustrate the peril of ignoring the future for the com-
fort of the past. Willingness to take risks is essential.
REASSURANCE
A counterpoint to risk taking is reassurance. You need to make people feel
comfortable. Baseball manager Joe Torre learned all about reassurance as a
young man in basic training during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. He was
put in charge of some 50 recruits, and rumors of possible war were swirling
around. Things were very tense, and the guys asked Joe if there would be a
war. To which the young man replied, “Don’t worry, we’re not going to war.”
As Torre puts it with the wisdom of hindsight, “What did I have to lose by
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reassuring them?” In other words, worry about what you can control, and
forget about what you cannot control.
INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGES
The stock in trade of leaders is the human-interest story, the one that takes the
listener from the valley of despair to the heights of redemption. While many
may scoff at the triteness of these stories, it is not the story itself that is trite.
What is trite is the way in which the speaker uses the story to manipulate
emotion. If used appropriately and with honesty, stories of redemption truly
do inspire.
The story of Oprah Winfrey is an inspiration in itself. There is a misper-
ception that celebrities, once they make it, are on easy street. Oprah’s ups and
downs are living proof that every step in life can be a challenge. Oprah was
born poor and black. She became a television newscaster at 19, but failed as
an anchorwoman at 22. She hit her stride in talk television, first in Baltimore,
then in Chicago, and then nationwide. She made it on the big screen with an
Oscar nomination for The Color Purple, but flopped at the box office with
Beloved. Her touch in the media business has been golden, but from time to
time she has been the target of gossipy negative stories in the popular press.
And through it all she has battled her weight, up and down. Once she said that
she had lost 550 pounds over the course of her many diets. Over and over
Oprah has persevered and continues to succeed on her own terms, the very
model of self-inspiration. 3