The Leading from the Heart Workshop®

                       

YMCA MICHIGAN KEY LEADERS’ CONFERENCE 2005

fortyninepercent

Less than half of all employees understand the steps their organizations are taking to reach new business goals.

Source: Watson Wyatt’s WorkUSA 2002 Survey

Sixty percent of surveyed executives listed getting

people to work together as the biggest hurdle they

currently face.

American Management Association SurveyOctober 2003

THE softer SIDE OF SEARS

1992 NET PROFIT = -$3.9 BILLION

What is your primary job

function? “To protect company assets.” (50 percent)

“How much profit do you think Sears nets on a dollar

of revenue?”

Median answer:45¢

Correct answer: 2¢

1. Honesty

2. Integrity

3. Individual respect

4. Teamwork

5. Trust

6. Customer focus

What do you value most?

Survey of 80,000 Sears employees

“Make Sears a

compelling place to shop.”

Merchandise sales

up 9 percent

Shareholder return

up 56 percent

One year

later:

Without an inspiring vision from their leaders,

employees will struggle to discern any link between their private ambitions

and the company’s actual mission.

Old story:Two stonemasons, working on the same project, are asked, “What are you doing?”

The first stonemason replies:

The second stonemason replies:

“I’m cutting stone.”

“I’m building a great cathedral.”

“The age-old secret to generating buy-in is to

strategically design, target, and deliver a story that projects a

positive future.”

Mark S. WaltonGenerating Buy-In: Mastering the Language of Leadership

[6]Have a Vision and Convince Others To Share it

values-based leaders:

We often describe children as having wild or active imaginations. The best leaders

never outgrow their imaginative gift.

vital integrities

“Third quarter earnings per diluted share were $.60, an increase of 11 percent over $.54 per

diluted share for the same period in 2004. Third

quarter net income totaled $84,224,000, compared to

third quarter 2004’s net income of $79,656,000.

ROA was 1.75 percent and ROE was 21.6 percent,

compared to 1.66 percent and 19.3 percent in 2004’s

third quarter.”

Have a

Vision

Good leaders have a vision. They

hold in their minds pictures of what is possible.

Vision is the power to

conceive a future that’s better

than the present.

ConvinceOthers to

Share It

Great leaders convince others to share their visions by articulating them in memorable and inspirational ways.

Guided by their visions, values-based leaders are so intent on reaching their goals that others are simply compelled to follow.

mission single

“A unified force of people made whole by the belief in a

has the ability to improve the human condition.”

-Billy Starr

If you think that conveying ideas effectively is an innate ability—a

talent reserved for naturally gifted orators—then you are probably

neglecting your role as a communicator.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’”

“I have a dream that one day this

nation will rise up and live out the true

meaning of its creed: ‘We hold

these truths to be self-evident: that all

men are created equal.’”

Martin Luther King, Jr.Delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial

inWashington D.C. on August 28, 1963

Why was it so effective?

Emphasized Common Values

Described the Importance of the Values

Disparaged the Vision’s Opponents

Forecasted Success

Selected Emotional Language

Emphasize Common Values

An inspiring vision embodies values with strong appeal for its entire audience. The vision then calls

attention to those common values and illustrates how—and why—all

the individuals in that audience can connect.

MLK: “It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are

created equal.’”

“The 140,000 of us were connected on something that was not about money, and it was not about doing something for the company. It was about demonstrating in a tangible way that we could achieve incredibly important goals that were meaningful to individuals.”

Paul O’Neill, former CEO of Alcoa

Martin Luther King, Jr.

“

”

Many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our

destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably

bound to our freedom.

Describe the Importance of the Values

Explaining why the organization’s values are important helps people

connect emotionally with your vision. Visions with the greatest impact depict the status quo as

intolerable, and alternative values as unacceptable.

And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

MLK

“”

“Our capital system is haunted by the demon of error, error in determining guilt, and error in determining who

among the guilty deserves to die. The legislature couldn’t reform it.

Lawmakers won’t repeal it. But I will not stand for it. I must act.”

George Ryan, former governor of Illinois

Disparage the Vision’s Opponents

Typecasting your opponents as lacking those values your

organization deems important helps underscore your vision’s

significance, creates passion and competition, and fosters

commitment.

vision’sopponents “I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.” –MLK

disparagethe

“I realize it will draw ridicule, scorn and anger from many who oppose

this decision. They will say I am usurping the decisions of judges and

juries and state legislators. But prosecutors in Illinois have the

ultimate commutation power, a power that is exercised every day.”

George Ryan

Forecast Success

Predicting the successful realization of your vision builds employee confidence in your leadership. Alluding to past

triumphs helps to confirm the likelihood of this vision’s success.

“Vote for me because there’s a 50-50

chance I’ll balance the budget!”

-campaign loser

“When she is confirmed by the Senate, I am

confident that she will leave a lasting mark on

the Supreme Court.”–George Bush, announcing his

nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court

“He’s scholarly, fair-minded and principled, and these

qualities will serve our nation well on the highest

court of the land.” –George Bush, announcing his nomination of Sam Alito to the

Supreme Court

Never a doubt

“When we allow freedom to ring…we will be able to speed up that day when

all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,

Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free

at last!’”

Select Emotional Language

The right language is critical to creating an emotional impact. Symbolic words enhance your

vision’s meaning. Metaphors and analogies help clarify your vision while stimulating your listener’s imagination. Repetition adds a

mesmerizing rhythm to the message, making it unforgettable.

“…we will not be satisfied until

justice rolls down like waters and

righteousness like a mighty stream.”

Adapted from Amos 5:24

There are several ways to repeat yourself

without seeming like you are, uh,

repeating yourself.

“…we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is

bankrupt.

“…their destiny is tied up with our destiny.

“…from every village and every hamlet,

“…the motels of the highways

We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.”

…their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.”

from every state and every city…”

and the hotels of the cities.”

Parallels

A figure of speech in which you

reverse the order of words in parallel

clauses.

chiasmus

“And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” John F. Kennedy

“In today’s climate of

uncertainty, when our neighbors and

friends and customers see our

brown package cars rolling down

the streets of Manhattan…or

small towns across the

country…they take comfort in

knowing that the daily rhythm of

life…and commerce…moves

on.”

Mike Eskew

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marvelous matchless mind-blowing notable outstanding peerless praiseworthy premium

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“The quiet heroes of American

commerce.”

Mike Eskew

“Let the nation and the world

know the meaning of our

numbers…we are not a mob. We

are the advance guard of a

massive moral revolution for jobs

and freedom.”Asa Philip Randolph

August 28, 1963

“No one could remember an invading army quite as gentle as the two hundred thousand

civil-rights marchers who occupied Washington today.

The sweetness and patience of the crowd may have set some

sort of national high-water mark in mass decency.” Russell Baker

“George wears his passions on his sleeve.

He needs to learn to hide his emotions from

his employees.”-From every performance review I’ve ever gotten

“Before you can inspire with emotion, you must be swamped with it yourself. Before you can move their tears, your own must flow. To convince them, you must yourself believe.”

Churchill

The Leading from the Heart Workshop®

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