6-7-10 Pomp and Circumstance

In the past, I’ve talked quite a bit about the need for the new executive to have outstanding communication skills. In fact, the Executive Skills and Traits Model has an entire section devoted to communication (12-30-09 Morphing to a Model and 1-4-10 Let's Talk ). If you are like me, you intuitively know how important those skills related to communication are. However, for me, reading some model or some dry explanation of a concept doesn’t really bring home the importance of it within the day-to-day business life of the executive.

One of my survey participants gave some feedback that gives an interesting view on the importance of the communication skill set -- a view that I hadn‘t considered in the past. This executive said, “I wish that I had known more about the amount of time required to be spent in ritual and ceremonial activities -- all employee meetings, service milestones, customer program visits, production milestone rollouts, community events, etc. The skill desired is to be able to speak extemporaneously in a variety of settings on a variety of topics in front of large crowds of stakeholders.”

Hmmmmm. Packed into those two simple sentences is an amazing amount of info for the new executive to consider.

First, of course, is the surprise that many executives experience when they realize how much time they will spend in activities that they perceive as having nothing to do with their job. Wrong! You are now a figurehead for your organization and for your company. That means you have to lead those ritual and ceremonial activities. That takes time -- a lot of time. You need to plan for it and you absolutely must make sure that you don’t short-change these activities.

Second, you may not like leading these type of activities, but you better learn to be good at it. For example, it is up to you to make the new product rollout celebration a happy and rewarding time for the employees that have worked so hard to make the new product happen. This is your chance to publicly say thank you to all those that have given so much of themselves.

Third, there are the large crowds that are usually associated with ceremonial activities. Ack! I know that there are some folks that truly enjoy speaking to large crowds of people. Not me, personally, of course. I was like most executives -- butterflies, dry mouth, etc. But I learned to do it. I had to. And as a new executive, so do you.

And finally, there is the whole idea of balancing planned comments vs. extemporaneous comments. When you lead one of the ceremonial events, you don’t want to stand up there and woodenly read a prepared speech. And on the other hand, you also don’t want to get up there and speak off-the-cuff. Why? Because, unless you are very good or very experienced at off-the-cuff speaking, you WILL screw it up. Trust me on this -- I’ve seen it happen many times.

So take the time, work with your support team, and script the event. Think about what makes the day special for everyone in attendance. Ponder who should be called out for special recognition. Determine the special effects needed to make the point. Write a speech. Read it aloud. Often. In other words, prepare! And then on the day of the event, you will be ready. Put the speech in your pocket and then tell people how special they are. If you have practiced, you have the words in your mind --- you don’t need to read them off of the sheet of paper. Yes, you will still have butterflies and yes, you will probably make a couple of mistakes. But that’s okay -- those butterflies and those unk-unks are what keep you sharp and on your toes.

Cheers!