Speak to Lead

Listening: Language of Leadership--Not Speaking It Could Be Fatal

Speak to Lead is all about how you as leaders can create and deliver persuasive oral messages. So why am I writing about listening?

First, because I believe listening is the "language of leadership." It enables you to establish rapport and build trust with those you lead. Second, you will be a more persuasive speaker if you listen to those you seek to persuade so you know what their concerns and interests are.

I frequently bike in Rock Creek Park, one of the many great biking spots in the District of Columbia. The road I was on usually has light traffic, but during the rush hours traffic volume increases significantly. And although there are bike paths most of the way, there are sections where riding on the road itself is necessary, even though the shoulder is narrow.

While waiting for an opening

Sound bites: Medill Study Finds More Diversity Needed in Newscast Sound Bites

The last sentence of the lead paragraph of the Broadcasting and Cable release was clear to me. Viewers want more diversity of sound bites. (And, I would add, in video clips as well.)

I am not a patient viewer. When watching news, I click among the 24-hour cable news stations, and if it's a major breaking story, among NBC, ABC, and CBS as well. During evening news programs, the stations generally are covering the same stories, often in the same order. And the coverage is remarkably--and boringly--the same. Same sound bites. Same video clips. If the story takes longer to report than the video clip lasts, the clip replays...and replays...and replays....

So I was pleased to see that in the recently released 91-page study "The Local TV News Experience: How To Win Viewers by Focusing on Engagement" conducted by the Medill/Media Management Center at Northwestern University, viewers identified the same problem I saw. Except,

Media Training: 'Off the Record' Warning, Part 2--It's Not Just for Interviews

Having a "There-is-no-off-the-record" (TINOTR) mindset is helpful not just when dealing with the news media. It should also apply to anything you say or write that might be of interest to the media.

Take the case of Michael T. Eckhart, president of the American Council On Renewable Energy (ACORE). Mr. Eckhart sent a letter to Marlo Lewis, senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). Here is part of what he wrote:

Take this warning from me, Marlo. It is my intention to destroy your career as a liar...

If you produce one more editorial against climate change, I will launch a campaign against your professional integrity. I will call you a liar and charlatan to the Harvard community, of which you and I are members. I will call you out as a man who has been bought by Corporate America. Go ahead, guy. Take me on.

As you might infer, Mr. Eckhart

Media Training: Off the Record Warning, Part 1--Just Cuz They Say It Is Don't Mean It's So

From "Inside Politics" in today's Washington Times:

'At a closed-door, off-the-record meeting with media mavens and corporate titans at the Time Warner Center in Manhattan Tuesday evening, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the freshman senator who just three years ago was an Illinois state senator, said he had better judgment about foreign policy than any presidential candidate in either party.' Jack Tapper of ABC News writes at abc.go.com.

Repeat after me, "There is no off the record."

Yes, it does happen at times. But if you give an "off-the-record" interview and aren't quoted, don't credit off the record. It's more likely you didn't say anything worth quoting.

Creating a Message: What Exactly Is a Message? and Why Most Definitions Are Useless

Before a media training session, I send a written questionnaire to clients asking them, among other things, to define what a message is.

Recent answers range from a paperback dictionary's:

oral or written communication sent by one person to another

to the more clinical:

A message is information (could be non-verbal or verbal) that is communicated between a sender and a receiver.

to the more public relations savvy:

A message is an idea or set of ideas that an individual or organization wants to have disseminated to the public or particular members of the public in order to advance a particular goal.

While all of these definitions are accurate, they are also useless to the person trying to create a message for a speech or media interview.

They fail to breakdown "message" into its core components. Knowing what those are gives the creator of messages a place to start.

Here then is my working definition of "message" for all those in the trenches busy crafting them:

A message is a communication specifically created to get a desired result (preferably measurable) from a targeted audience.

The starting points for creating messages are always identifying the actions you want the audience to take and defining who exactly is the intended audience.

Sound Bite Malpractice: Time to Bury the "H-word"

A sound bite is designed for two main purposes:

1. To convey a message in verbal "shorthand;" and
2. To get quoted by reporters

Unfortunately, as a technique it can, and often is, used inappropriately. The wording is highly quotable, but the distillation of the message is deceptive or the comparison is invalid.

For example, earlier this month Representative Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) equated President Bush's response to the events of 9-11 to German Chancellor Adolf Hitler's response to the burning of the German parliament building in 1933. 

"It's almost like the Reichstag fire, kind of reminds me of that. After the Reichstag was burned, they blamed the communists for it and it put the leader of that country in a position where he could basically have authority to do whatever he wanted."

After two House Republicans demanded a reprimand of Ellison, and the Anti-Defamation League asked for a retraction, "Mr. Ellison stood by his remarks...but said he did not intend to link the Bush administration to Nazi Germany," wrote Audrey Hudson in the Washington Times. "In an interview with the Associated Press...Mr. Ellison backed down and said, 'In hindsight, I wouldn't have used that reference point.'"

I applaud the congressman for his new awareness. Still, I wonder why this is an issue of hindsight rather than foresight. Using a Hitler comparison does create a sound bite that gets attention. But it's offensive. It trivializes the enormity of Nazi rule. [See a related post when Senator Durban, D-Illinois, invoked a Hitler comparison.]

Recently, the NAACP buried the "n-word." It's time for all, and especially politicians, to bury the "H-word." Limit Hitler to discussions of Nazi Germany and the holocaust. To do otherwise is to engage in sound bite malpractice.

 

Persuasive Speaking: Speechwriting for Results--What We Can Learn from Computerized Checkers

This just in from the Associated Press:

Canadian researchers report [in the journal Science] they have "solved" checkers, developing a program that cannot lose....
The program can achieve at least a draw against any opponent.

So what does that have to do with persuasive speaking?

"Clearly... The world is not going to be revolutionized" by this, said Jonathan Schaeffer, chairman of the department of computing science at the Univsity of Alberta.
The important thing is the approach, he said....Mr. Schaeffer's team started with the end of the game....

The same is true for writing a persuasive presentation; the important thing is the approach. Here are  6 steps for creating the content of a persuasive speech:

1. Start with the end. What is the result you want? What is it you want your audience members to do after they hear you? Be specific.
2. Identify and list the actions the listener will need to do to give you the result you want. Again, be as specific as you can.
3. List the next step(s) you want the audience to take immediately after (perhaps even during) your presentation.
4. Look at each of the actions of Step 2 & 3. List any obstacles listeners will have to overcome to complete the action. These could be issue specific, such as having to get permission from a boss or committee to go forward with the action. Or they could be unrelated to the issue, such as other work priorities, personality traits (indecisive, overbearing, know-it-all, etc.), or pressing family or personal issues.
5. Consider each item on the list and decide how you can help the listener overcome that obstacle.
   Note: Solutions to obstacles can be all over the board. (Weak attempt to continue the checkers analogy.) But one strategy applies in almost all situations: Make it easy ffor the listener to do.
6. List (brainstorm) anything else you think you might say that would move your audience to the desired result.

You are now ready to mold this content into a persuasive presentation.

Sound Bites: Beyond Media Interviews--Ways Sound Bites Can Sharpen Other Business Communication

I'm an unabashed, ardent, proud supporter of sound bites.

No flip-flopper here. I've been a sound-bitephile since before sound bite became a well-known (and much despised) term. One of my earliest posts on this blog (Sound Bites Get No Respect) detailed why sound bites are important in political discussion.

But sound bites have value far beyond politics. They sharpen communication, because they sharpen thinking. If you can't reduce your message to a sound bite, you don't have a message. At least not one ready to go to work for you.

Want to shorten your meetings? Have participants summarize their key thoughts in a sound bite before getting into the details of the discussion. It helps focus the discussion, and makes it easier for the discussion leader to keep everyone on topic.

Today, courtesy of a Google Alert for "sound bites," I discovered another non-media use for sound bites. In his blog, Drew's Marketing Minute, Drew McLellan describes an annual SWOT analysis of your business to "capture and communicate...the key issues your organization needs to keep its eye on over the next 12 months....These become the building blocks for your marketing tactics." Sound bites are a part of the process.

While you're over at his blog, click through to his previous post, "The Age of Conversation Is Off and Running," describing his book launch. 103 authors from 10 countries with 103 different perspectives and insights on the age of conversation. I ordered my copy immediately and am eager to see the diversity...and the overlap of thought. (Eager, but also willing to wait for a hard copy to be mailed to me. It's also available as an ebook, but I hate dislike hate reading books on a screen.)

Media Training in Your Pocket: It's in the Cards

Need a quick refresher of media training techniques just before you talk to reporters? Want an easy way to internalize the concepts learned during a media training workshop? Never had media training but you've got an interview in 30 minutes and you need a crash course?

It's all in the cards. Our just released Meet the Media & Win! -- How to Ace Every Interview card deck, that is.

I condensed the content of our Meet the Media & Win! workshop onto 26 cards. Sort of like having a condensed version of a CliffsNotes version. All meat, no filler!

Great as a refresher, review, or crash course. (You can shuffle them too, although I'm not sure why you would want to.)

For more information (i.e., the "sales" page), go to http://www.meetthemediacards.com Special introductory pricing through August 31st.