Page 27 - The New Articulate Executive_ Look, Act and Sound Like a Leader

18 THE SPEAKING GAME

spite of everything you’ve been doing to try and stop the slide. What
do you do?

That’s exactly the difficult position in which Bob Dale, who later
became president of Fieldcrest, found himself. Long before empow-
erment became a popular management strategy, Bob followed his
gut instincts: he took his case to the workers on the factory fl oor and

let them help figure it out.
He said something like: “We’ve got problems. We’re all in this
together. You guys know these machines. You’re all good at what
you do. I want you to put your heads together and let your brains
and your magic and your creativity help get us out of this mess.”
The workers had never heard a boss talk to them like that. They
went right to work with inspired gusto and shortly came up with a
brand-new blanket much thicker and softer than anything else on
the market at the time. Even the weave and the textiles were new.
The new product sold like hotcakes, and the plant and jobs were
saved.
But not every story is so upbeat. In the hard world we live in,
sometimes we’ve got to justify pain to the ones who feel it the
most.
If you are a boss in a time of downsizing, for instance, you must

dampen the flames of fear by talking about job security, consolida-
tion, corporate stability, future opportunity, teamwork, and shared
goals to those lucky ones who escape the ax. To those who must go,
there’s the message of referrals, outplacement services, retirement
options, and severance packages, and a candid explanation of why
this terrible thing had to happen. If your audience sees you as part
of the problem, at least they might also see you as a stand-up person
with a heart who wasn’t afraid to tell the truth to their faces.
One of my clients found himself throwing his prepared remarks
away after his company had taken over another company in a hostile
leveraged buyout. Thousands of people had been let go. The audi-
ence was a combination of clashing cultures. The mood was
uneasy.