Page 85 - Great Communication Secrets of Great Leaders

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CHAPTER 4
What difference will your leadership message make in

someone’s life?
How can you demonstrate emotion in your leadership

messages?
How do you keep the message simple?

Advertisers are good at getting people to notice what they are
6. LEADERSHIP COMMUNICATIONS PLANNING 10 63
promoting. Think of ways in which you might generate excite-
ment about a leadership message.
7. Here are some steps you can take to ensure feedback:
Develop a “meeting in a box” for managers to help them
communicate the leadership message.
Schedule a series of reminder emails encouraging man-
agers to follow up on the leadership message.
Create a page on your web site for employee feedback.
SHELLY LAZARUS—A BRAND OF LEADERSHIP
She was young, pregnant, and working late. The man whose name was on
the door of the firm for which she worked walked into her office. “He asked,
‘Are you alright?’” then sat down and started to talk. . . . He did so every
night [at six], on the dot, for the next month until I gave birth. We became
great friends.” He was David Ogilvy, legendary ad man, and she was
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Shelly Lazarus, just beginning her career in advertising.
Years later, Lazarus became CEO of the agency. Now called Ogilvy &
Mather Worldwide, the firm has offices in over 100 countries and billings in
excess of $13 billion. It handles some of the bluest of the blue-chip brands,
including American Express, AT&T Wireless, Coca-Cola, IBM, Ford, and
Kodak. Lazarus also is a member of the board of General Electric. She has
cultivated her own brand of leadership, one that is consistent with her own
values as well as with the values she gained from her agency, including
David Ogilvy. According to Lazarus, women have gone from “reaching for
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the engagement ring to reaching for the brass ring.” While she “crashed
through the glass ceiling,” her path was not without its obstacles; in particu-
lar, she recalls being told that jobs were not something to “waste . . . on a
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woman.” Still, Lazarus was prepared. She was a graduate of Smith College
and held an M.B.A. from Columbia. When Lazarus tells her story today, she
is reminding young women of their collective past as a means of educating
them about their future opportunities, a classic model of leadership commu-
nications.