Here’s an idea to help you foster more commitment to sharpening your public speaking skills. Reading time: 5:08

    You are tasked to lead 12 entry level employees
in a leadership development workshop on public speaking.
More than half of the class fears
public speaking and the other half
would rather be anywhere else.  What do you do?
Consider the following speech that one leader delivered to
reframe public speaking as a skill that breathes
life into you rather than scares you half to death. 

           If I were not an adult or even a child, I probably wouldn’t be standing and I certainly wouldn’t be speaking. I’d be on my hands and knees,  screaming  not speaking because I was a baby.

         And I would be an infant in more ways than one since the word “Infant” comes from the Latin word meaning “unable to speak.”

          But I am not an infant. I am able to speak. I am able to break through the sound barrier and soar higher and higher on the wings of speech. Growing from a baby, growing into a child, growing up to become a man.

        Yes. Speech breathes life.

        In the next few minutes I am going to share with you three specific examples of how speech breathes life –BREATHING life into a 6-year-old infant, BREATHING life into ordinary people who become extraordinary and memorable, and BREATHING life into depressed nation on the verge of world war.

    Let’s begin with a 6-year-old infant. Yes speech breathes life into a 6-year-old infant—someone unable to speak. That’s what Isabelle proved, personally, poignantly and powerfully.

    For the first 6 years of her life, Isabelle could not speak. She was locked in her own prison of silence. Isabelle was raised by a mom who could neither speak nor hear.

   They had few visitors in the darkened room where they lived in her grandfather’s house—all but abandoned from the outside world.

  When authorities finally rescued Isabelle from her personal prison of silence, the only sounds she could make was a grunt. But within a week, she could sound out words. In two months she was putting sentences together. In 18 months, she had a vocabulary of 2,000 words. And in less than five years, Isabelle’s IQ tripled.

Awakening to a Delicious Music

   Yes speech breaths life, especially into INFANTS –THOSE UNABLE TO SPEAK. That’s why Marie Montessori writes in her book The  Absorbent Mind.

“Shortly after birth a child
is a psychic entity
endowed with a specially refined
form of sensitiveness.
The baby is an ego asleep.
But all of a sudden the baby wakes
to a Delicious music,
a Delicious music that vibrates
all of his fibers,
a Delicious music that stirs the baby
like no other sound,
a Delicious music that resonates
from the instrument of a human voice.
Human speech stirs the baby’s soul
like no other sound.”

    Yes, speech breathes life, turning ordinary people into extraordinary characters.

    These ordinary people were actors in the ancient Rome. They wore masks to define their characters.

    Each mask featured a kind of megaphone for the actor to speak through to project his personality, to breathe life into his character.

    In fact the word, Person, comes from the Latin “per” that means “through” and “sonare” that means, “to speak.” So a Person is literally one who speaks through.

     Yes, Speech breathes life, as we have seen, UNLOCKING the doors to childhood and adulthood for a 6-year-old infant, UNLEASHING vibrant and brilliant personalities, and  now UNCOVERING a treasure chest of hope that sparkled despite the dark gloomy days of the Great Depression and World War II.

   Yes, speech breathes life.

    No wonder, historians say FDR’s fireside chats were so meaningful, so memorable, and so therapeutic to a depressed country. The president of the United States –Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke personally on the radio—so personally that his radio addresses were called chats.

    Thirty times from 1933 to 1944, through the Great Depression and through World War II, he spoke so plainly to what he called “my friends” that historians have written that many Americans felt he had walked into their living rooms, sat down on the sofa and simply explained the tense issues of the day.

   His words like so many compact presses on an open wound. Soothing and Salving. And breathing life into a suffocating nation.

   Yes speech breathes life. As FDR proved in his fireside chats, speech keeps us connected to each other, and vitally engaged with each other. Helen Keller who was both blind and deaf said that being unable to hear is worse than not being able to see.

     Unable to hear, we lose what Helen Keller called “ the most vital stimulus  —the sound of the voice that brings language, sets thought astir and keeps us in the intellectual company of man.”

     Yes Speech Breathes Life.

      Indeed, Speech turns the groping, crawling, struggling infant in all of us into a driving, thriving vying adults that is each of us.

      And so in summary we have seen that your speaking voice can: HEIGHTEN a 6-year-old’s growth out of obscurity and neglect; LIVEN a personality that turns the ordinary into the extraordinary performer on the stage of life and BRIGHTEN the gloom and doom of millions suffering through a Great Depression and a World War.

    Ah Yes,…..Speech —(take deep breath) breathes life.

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Here’s an idea to break down communications barriers. Reading time: 4:35

      “Respice adspice, prospice. See you on the 24th at 9 am.” Potius sero quad numquam.”

      That’s the entire note that a vice president e-mailed to each member of his staff under the subject line: Your Annual Review. Only the specific time changed on each personalized e-mail.

     The vice president clearly got his staff engaged—if only to force them to look up the translation of the Latin phrases.

       He knew he was late again in conducting annual reviews. He also knew his tardiness last year and the year before that rubbed off on the staff so much that annual reviews had become perfunctory minimum salary increases. They no longer bought into the management notion that the annual review served as a strategic assessment tool that would turbo-charge their personal careers and enhance the overall viability of the company.

       The vice president knew he had to change that mindset. His own leadership viability depended on it.

       His mea culpa (my fault)  rekindled new vitality in the annual review process with an e-mail note that invited his staff to really examine where they are and where that want to go in their career. The English translation: “Look and examine your past, present and future.” Then after inviting each to a specific meeting date and time, he wrote “Better late than never.”

      Chances are you can still see his staff smiling right now as they learned the translation.  The vice president was finally admitting his guilt in delaying annual reviews.  Was he being facetious? Or could he really be serious this time?  He had his staff intrigued.  At any rate he opened the door to a different experience this year with a very different way of announcing the annual review meeting. This annual  review would be anything but perfunctory.

       The vice president used a powerful leadership tactic to regain the attention of those who no longer hear or read what you say with the same sense of integrity they once had. He broke that cycle. He forced them to –discover the meaning –more than simply dismiss the hearing of his words.

      How do you help others discover what you really MEAN TO SAY? Say it with distinction. In Latin.

      Some leaders even turn their signature line in an e-mail or snail mail letter into a portal that helps their readers get a meaningful last look at you.

      When you add a Latin phrase to your signature line you add even more capability to your personal brand well beyond your personality or conventional platitudes. For example, Tony Buzan, the memory expert reinforces his brainy brand with this signature line  Floreant Dendritae  --May Your Brain Cells Flourish.

     Compare that signature line to George Washington who always signed his letters,  Your Most Humble Servant.   Indeed others could claim the same appellation albeit not as honorably.  They too could think of themselves as humble. But few –if anyone else—could link and ink his name to brain cells that flourish and leverage that Latin phrase to reinforce his value to others. And of course that’s the key leadership skill in building your brand: making your value to others memorable and meaningful.

   Here are a few other Latin phrases you might include just before signing your name

Operibus Anteire:        “Leading the way with deeds.”

Sapere Aude:                    “Dare to be wise.”

Vincit Qui Se Vincit :      “He who conquers, conquers himself.”

Semper Ad Meliora:         “Always toward better things.”

Ut Sementem Feceris It a Metesa:    “As you sow so shall you reap”

   Effective leaders can also get enhanced buy-in when they use a Latin phrase as if it were a proverb offering increased insight toward a successful outcome.

   For example, one leader wanted to preach the importance of paying attention to the details by writing: Etiam capilius unus habet umbram “Even one hair has a shadow.”

   Select your Latin signature line carefully. Your goal is to intrigue others not confuse them.  Or harm them.  Primum Non Nocere (First do no harm.) Then you’re on your way Semper Ad Meliora!

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Here’s an idea to help you think more before you act. Reading time: 4:38.

        Ah, a veranda. How inviting! How relaxing!

         You can almost feel yourself settling into a comfortable and comforting rocking chair on that veranda.

          It’s a warm summer afternoon in a small mid-Western town at the turn of the 20th century. And you’re sipping a tall, cold glass of lemonade.

         If you squint hard enough from your vantage point on the veranda you can almost see barefoot kids in the distance toting fishing poles and waving like a scene out of Huckleberry Finn.

         Time seems to slow down on the veranda. And your thinking seems to speed up.  Your conversation, problem-solving and interaction on the veranda seems to be much more insightful, much more stimulating and much more meaningful. Call it The Veranda Vitality syndrome.

       Too bad too many of today’s 21st century leaders no longer exercise their Veranda Rights.

       Too bad too many leaders don’t take the time to STOP and think of more creative options before reacting to the problem de jour in Whack-a-mole fashion.

       Too bad too many leaders are more focused on how quickly they can address –and dismiss –this one issue in front of them before the next issue pops up and grabs their attention.

Stop & Think

       Maybe today’s leaders need a reminder to stop and think every time they confront a significant new problem. Maybe they need a reminder to consult with others, to bounce ideas off others who have diverse points of view.

       Maybe they need to exercise their Veranda Rights -a signature process statement – that does for leadership what the Miranda Rights do for justice: let cooler heads prevail especially in volatile situations.

       Consider these Veranda Rights patterned after the Miranda Rights:

Miranda Rights

        You have the right to remain silent.
Anything you say or do may be used against you in a court of law.

Veranda Rights

       You have the right to stop and think. Anything you do or say right now may be used against you in the court of public opinion.

Miranda Rights

         You have the right to consult an attorney
before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present
during questioning now or in the future. If you cannot afford an attorney,
one will be appointed for you before any questioning, if you wish.

Viranda Rights

         You have the right to consult your subject matter experts before speaking and to have your subject matter experts present during any questioning now or in the future. If you cannot afford to take the time to consult with your experts, you will be given the time before any questioning, if you wish.

Miranda Rights

        If you decide to answer any questions now,
without an attorney present, you will still have the right
to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney
. Knowing and understanding your rights
as I have explained them to you,
are you willing to answer my question
s without an attorney present?

Veranda Rights

           If you decide to answer any questions now, without your subject matter experts present, you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to your subject matter expert.

          Knowing and understanding your thinking rights as I have explained them to you, are you willing to answer my questions without your subject matter present?

 Disciplined and Deliberate

       In exercising their Veranda Rights, leaders deliberate deliberately. They are like disciplined Karate practitioners who when attacked will step back first, center themselves and then engage in a defensive move.

        In exercising their Veranda Rights, leaders pay more attention to everything that’s confronting them not simply what’s in front of them.

        In exercising their Veranda Rights, leaders are more cognizant of their surroundings;  more conversant with the hopes, aspirations and ideas of others and  more concerned with the feelings of others.

       In exercising their Veranda Rights, leaders are more apt to better digest the veracity and clarity of their own feelings and dreams through the feelings and dreams of others.

       In exercising their Veranda Rights, leaders are more  apt to sip carefully and thoughtfully at new concepts and new horizons  rather than gulp down whatever comes along. On the run.

     After all, real leaders don’t lead on the run. They sit down and think.  On their proverbial verandas. Rocking chair optional.

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Here’s an idea to help you better define your vision. Reading time: 4:26

     Think of a rainbow the next time you’re developing a vision for your organization.

      Like a rainbow, a vision is not an object,  not a “thing”  despite the dismissive citation of a former US President.

      Like a rainbow, a vision is a frame of reference, a vantage point from a SPECIFIC ANGLE to see your organization in a different light.

      And like a rainbow, a vision can’t be seen and/ or developed from the top down; a vision can only be seen and/or developed from the side –no matter what kind of rose colored glasses you are wearing.

      From the side, a leader can better get up close and personal to more accurately assess key components of a vision such as competition, customers and employees.

      From the side–up close and personal –a leader can come to more personally experience their company’s strengths and weaknesses in the marketplace; threats and opportunities, and key trends for product or service differentiation.

      From the side–up close and personal– a leader can more fully listen to what the customer is NOT saying that would enhance the value-add of  their product or service.

        And from the side–up close and personal–a leader can more directly look their employees in the eye to gain and retain their trust.

        But first, the leader’s view from the side has to be precise to discern a viable vision, much like the specific 42 degree angle of vision required to see a rainbow, according to the laws of physics. No wonder the most effective visionary leaders realize their followers may have the same view but not the same vision as you; they may have the same location but not the same vantage point .

Giving Them Their Own
Vision of Your Vision

      That’s why  the most effective visionary leaders  give followers enough latitude to formulate THEIR OWN vision of the leader’s vision. Then together leaders and followers see their own personally-sighted (and sited) rainbows interwoven into one stunning spectrum of synergy. Then together they reach out farther than ever before to collectively collect their pot of gold at the end of their proverbial rainbows.

       Significantly, rainbows that pithy and powerful require a specific atmosphere to form and flourish. So do visions of leaders.

        Just as no rainbow can exist without moisture in the air –from rain or mist or air born dew or spray from a waterfall or fountain– no leader’s vision can exist without an atmosphere of inclusion, respect, and integrity toward all followers that engages their  self interests and infuses them with  a personal sense of purpose that leverages their strengths.

    That’s why the leader’s challenge is to feed that vision with an ATTITUDE baked into their hearts and souls more than so many platitudes plastered on the walls and halls.

     A vision is more than a mantra, more than a slogan. A vision is a feeling more than a destination; an aspiration more than an inspiration, an insight more than a sight.

                Discovering the Soul

        And with than insight, a vision helps others experience the soul of the organization; the beneficial difference of the organization, the competitive advantage of the organization and the significance of the organization’s institutional memory.

       With that vision, followers come to better understand the guiding force of the organization; the guiding force that governs what we stand for and more significantly what we won’t stand for; a guiding force that governs who we are and why we exist and a guiding force that governs the values, beliefs and culture fueling where we are going  and what are we doing today (the mission) to stay on track.

       Then with that guiding force, with that vision,  followers are better equipped to align their personal values, beliefs, talents, skills, hopes and desires to contribute to the lifeblood, to the collective premise, promise and purpose of the organization.

     With that guiding force, with that vision, a leader  strikes the tone and temper of the organization that energizes others with a toe-tapping resonance that quite literally moves them.

   Seeing Things
From a Different Angle

        Consider the toe-tapping, resonance-driven vision of  Henry Kaiser, the president of a shipbuilding company in the United States during World War II.

       A  flood had swept away the levee and buried Kaiser’s bulldozers and other heavy equipment in a quagmire of mud and machinery. Kaiser’s employees were devastated at the loss that turned a would-be ship-building yard into a gigantic mud pie.

    But Kaiser quite literally saw things from a different angle. Wading knee-deep in mud, he responded confidently, “ I don’t see any mud.”

    One of his employees chided Kaiser, saying, “Just look around we are buried in mud.” Kaiser looked sternly at the employee and helped his followers see in themselves what he could see in them –the ultimate origination of any vision: their souls, their meaning, their purpose. Kaiser said:

         “The difference is this: You are looking down
and can’t see anything but mud,
but I am looking up
where I can see nothing
but sunshine and clear blue sky.”

             And of course, the leader saw the rainbow– because of not in spite of –the rain.   So can you reign over your rainbows with a vision. From an angle.

      Today’s ImproveMINT

Take a look at your organization from the side to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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// //

Here’s an idea to help you gain momentum. Reading time: 2:25

        “Weeeeeee,” giggled the 6-year-old boy flying so freely on the playground swing. “My stomach tickles.”

           No wonder the little boy giggled even louder when he later saw the flying trapeze artist at the circus swinging with the greatest of ease.

          That flying trapeze artist would go on to teach all of us that day a counter-intuitive lesson in leadership: to get a stronger grip on the ladder of success, first let go.

         Watching the flying trapeze artist at the circus, the boy already knew the feeling of exhilaration from the acceleration of a swing, the sense of negative G’s that slosh your organs around to tickle your tummy.

           The boy already knew the sense of freedom in flying high on a swing  toward new vistas, new horizons, new visions, defying gravity with a demonstration of both kinetic and potential energy.

               And the boy already knew the sense of personal power he exhibited in personally pumping his legs on a swing to get higher and higher to see farther and farther.

            Swinging With the Greatest of Ease

        But no  playground swing could have prepared the boy for understanding the counter-intuitive power that flying trapeze artists exhibit to get a grip on a higher swing.

       They let go.

      They let go of a lot more than their trapeze swings. They let go of themselves. They let go of their inner tension that provokes them to resist change, to fight change, to guard against change.

       They relax. They go with the flow. They let their bodies become extensions of the changing dynamics of the swing.

        And in a pendulum-like process they built a momentum — a momentum that can swing them faster and faster, a momentum that can thrust them higher and higher—3 to 5 feet higher.

       By letting go.

        Instead of grabbing for that swing, instead of grabbing for the next higher rung, they let go to grow and counter-intuitively get a stronger grip on their situation, on their behavior, on their performance.

        Instead of forcing change, they finesse change.

        Instead of commanding “my way or the highway,” they seek out your way on the freeway.

        Instead of pushing even harder down on a personal idea, policy or position,  they pull up slowly and thoughtfully and look around inquisitively for an even more creative idea.

        Instead of driving their ideas faster and faster –even forward into a ditch or a rut, they stop and then rock their vehicle in reverse. They question the validity of their ideas; they seek out other opinions and they seem to go backward in driving their argument.  Yet counter-intuitively they build the momentum they need to go forward even more confidently to reach their higher destination.

         In letting go, they counter-intuitively gain their mojo.  In letting go, they counter-intuitively inspire a greater sense of connecting with others. And in letting go to grow their mojo, leaders swing higher on the swing of success and broaden their focus from me to we.

       With a  “weeeeeeeee.”

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Let go to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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Here’s an exercise to challenge your problem solving skills. Reading time: 2:45

        You are the marketing director for a major producer of bath soap. Sales are lagging particularly among consumers with young children.

        Research shows that children perceive that the bath soap will burn their eyes. Yet the facts are clear: the opposite is true.

       Tests confirm that the soap will NOT burn their eyes. Yet the perception persists and sales continue to lag. What do you do to enhance sales of this bath soap particularly to consumers with young children?

      You lead. Creatively. Just like Edward Bernays did in the 1920s to help
Procter & Gamble sell more bars of Ivory soap.

       Bernays, the father of the public relations profession, donated large cakes of the soap to art schools in 1925 to use in sculpture competitions sponsored by Procter & Gamble.

      Invariably young sculptors would inadvertently put their soap-covered fingers in their eyes. Then they personally discovered that the soap did not burn their eyes.

      Soap sales for bath washing (and art) zoomed after that leadership decision to spike their creative problem-solving juice.

Mirror Mirror On the Wall

       You are the marketing director for a large office building. Tenants are complaining because they have to wait too long for the elevators. However the elevators are in perfect running order.

       You realize that the owners of the building made a cost decision to build fewer elevators than would be ideal to serve your tenants.  What do you do now to quell the complaints?

      You lead. Creatively.  Just like the real estate developer who installed large mirrors that covered the walls outside the elevator doors. Then the elevators seemed to run faster when people waiting for the elevator were distracted by looking at themselves in the mirrors. Complaints fell after that leadership decision to spike their creative problem-solving juice.

Curing Cheese Creatively

       You are the marketing director for a United States -based cheese factory. Your European business is lagging.

       An analysis shows that in order for you to compete favorably in Europe you will have to build a plant there. But there is no budget to build a plant. What do you do now to better serve the European market from the United States?

      You lead. Creatively. Just like the cheese manufacturer who decided to ship their cheese around the world –the long way–on an ocean liner. After nearly 5 months of sailing and curing on the ship, the company tapped into that new market without building a plant there. Cheese sales zoomed after that leadership decision to spike their creative problem-solving juice.

      Whether it’s cheese, or mirrors or soap, leaders solve problems. Creatively. So can you spike your creative problem-solving juice. How?

     Wash your eyes out with a cleansing solution of imagination and inspiration;  a cleansing solution that helps you see beyond the current situation. Wash your eyes out with a cleansing solution that never burns your eyes, never makes you cry but always helps you defy— the status quo.

       Creatively. One spike at a time.

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Here’s an idea to check your ego to become more productive. Reading time: 2:06.

             The next time you’re stuck in a meeting where the words are flying hot and heavy –more on egos and arrogance than on facts and figures —take a deep breath.

            You’re not alone.

             Bombast and bravura seemingly have always exploded when the best and the brightest convene. Yet the most effective leaders stay alert to keep from the breathing their own exhaust.

              Consider John Adams attending the First Continental Congress that  met in 1774 in Philadelphia.  Adams soon felt a lot of hot air blowing particularly INSIDE.

       The bluster  and the braggadocio of most of the 54 delegates– who all thought they each were the smartest in the room — whipped in every speech even on the most mundane of issues. That grandstanding made Adams very uncomfortable, according to historian David McCullough’s biography of John Adams.

       In a letter to his wife Abigale, John Adams is both amazed and appalled at the assembly of the best and brightest –the framers that would begin building the framework for what would become  two years later the United States of America.

         “This assembly is like no other that even existed,” Adams tells his wife Abigale. “Every man in it is a great man—an orator, a critic, a statesman, and therefore EVERY man upon EVERY question must show his oratory, his criticism, and his political abilities.

         Cooling Off The Verbal Hot Air

        Adams thought all that verbal hot air marginalized the important work of the Congress and forced them to spend a lot of time spinning their wheels, exaggerating the trivial and drawing out the real business to what Adams said was an “immeasureable length.” So many egos, so little time.

         Adams was clearly frustrated. He said:  “I believe if it was moved and seconded that we should come to a resolution that three and two make five, we should be entertained with logic and rhetoric, law, history, politics and mathematics concerning the subject for two whole days and then we should pass the resolution unanimously in the affirmative.”

      Beware of breathing your own hot air and burning out the spirit and initiative of others. They have ideas sparking in the kindling that need to be fanned. Not blown away.

 Today’s ImproveMINT

Pay attention to others to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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Here’s an idea to enhance your ability to anticipate. Reading time: 1:56.

        You’re hungry. You wander into an unfamiliar restaurant.  You order.

The M*A*S*H* television program in the 1970′s evinced many leadership principles including the power in anticipating customer needs.

            But when the waiter serves your entree you almost need a magnifying glass to find your food on the plate.

           The beef is sliced so fine that you can read the dish pattern through it. Talk about melting in your mouth! This meat is so thin it seems to evaporate off your fork before it crosses your lips.

         The waiter notices and in the process exercises a key leadership skill: hearing what’s not being said.

         Maybe it was the way he saw your puppy dog eyes that seemed to drool all over the plate when you kept looking for more meat on the plate.

         Maybe it was the way he could almost feel your fork scraping the plate trying to get every morsel.

         Maybe it was the way he seemingly heard your stomach growling.

         At any rate the waiter came by with a second helping of that thin beef.  But this time he packed in on perhaps three or four layers high. Now it was as thick as a napkin. A paper napkin. Unfolded.

           Anticipation –The Sixth Sense

Radar O’Reilly

           That alert waiter practiced the Leader’s Sixth Sense – Anticipation.

          Give that alert waiter the Radar O’Reilly award.

          You remember Corporal Walter Eugene (Radar)  O’Reilly, the company clerk and assistant to the Colonel on the television series M*A*S*H*. The corporal anticipated the Colonel’s every need.

        Radar often completed the Colonel’s sentences.  In fact, O’Reilly earned his “Radar” monicker because he had an uncanny ability to hear helicopters flying the wounded into the military field hospital during the Korean War before others could.

         Radar O’Reilly could literally hear what was not being said.

         And that’s the kind of leadership that needs no magnifying glass.

 Today’s ImproveMINT

Anticipate the needs of others to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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Here’s an idea to think more clearly under pressure. Reading time: 3:22.

         The pioneers, circling their horse-drawn wagon trains after riding all day, would beat on pots and pans at night to keep away much more than the wolves.

         In the eerie silence, they also had to fight off even more voracious and nefarious wolves.  In their minds.

          These wolves of the mind, crying in the desolate darkness, gnawed at the hearts and souls of the pioneers with psychological spears more than merely sharp teeth.

         These wolves of the mind, moaning and groaning in the vast hinterland,  tore at the guts of the pioneers to stomach the overwhelming odds of settling the West.

        These wolves of the mind,  howling in the isolated blackness and blankness of the night, slashed and scratched at the hopes of the pioneers with a frightening, debilitating vengeance that philosopher Blaise Pascal called a devastating “nothingness.” Pascal observed:

 “All the unhappiness of men arises
from one single fact
that they cannot stay quietly
in their own chamber.

 ’Nothing is so insufferable
to man as to be
completely at rest
without passions, without business,
without diversions, without study.
He then feels his nothingness, his weakness and his emptiness.”
     

            Overcoming your deafening sounds of silence –your fears of nothingness, your illusions of emptiness– is a critical skill of the most effective leaders.

           Maybe that’s why leaders around the world have a Meditation Room in the United Nations building where they can confront their demons in their minds; where they can conquer their fears of nothingness; where they can shore up their own emptiness, where they can beat their own pots and pans.

Hearing Yourself Think More Clearly

Mediation Room entrance int the United Nations building

United Nations Building in New York City

          The focal point in that Meditation Room in the United Nation’s building is on a piece of iron ore bathed in a shaft of light as if giving birth to a decision, a decision that could result in good or bad.

          After all, that iron ore can either be constructed into plowshares or swords –or a personal set of pots and pans brimming with leadership principles and values– depending on how the leader battles those wolves in his mind.

         When the howling gets louder and louder and the isolation in the decision making process gets lonelier and lonelier, those screams in the wolves of the mind can breed a fear mongering menagerie of greed or lust for power that warps a would-be leader’s thinking,  threatens his or her integrity and challenges the long-term values of the organization.

        Maybe that’s why the most effective leaders establish their own personal meditation rooms where the howls they hear in the eerie silence are finally silenced; where their personal sets of pots and pans simmer that raw silence of screams into beams of a more consoling, a more caring, a more understanding solitude; a solitude that author Henry David Thoreau (who spent two years in the woods alone) said was more    “companionable” than any companion.  See previous post on solitude.

Meditation Medication

           Yet silence in the middle of the night can foster more enemies than friends.  That’s why soothing the strains of silence that threatens to contaminate every decision-making process, the leader’s personal Meditation Room becomes a medication room– a place where the wounds of pride and prejudice can be salved if not solved, a place where the significance, meaning and influence of the words —medicine and meditation is evident (from the same Sanskrit root word).

          But this Meditation Room is much more than a place for the medication of the mind; much more than a place for the conception and incubation of new ideas, much more than a place to reason and reflect.

          This Meditation Room is a place for leaders to THINK more clearly, where leaders can turn Pascal’s “nothingness” into SOMETHINGNESS; where leaders can turn that “emptiness”into a FULLNESS, into something FULL and FILLING,  into something so fulfilling that conflicted leaders weighing conflicting advice  tune in more than tune out to make the most effective decisions.

         No matter how eerie the silence. No matter how isolated the executive suite. No matter how loud the wolves howl.

         After all, the leader’s pots and pans are always louder. And sounder.

Today’s ImproveMINT

Mark your Thinking Place to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

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Here’s an idea to deliver the text of a speech more personally . Reading time: 1:48.

          You have a major speech to deliver. Your script is ready. But you’re not.

         You hardly have time to read over your speech let alone rehearse it. And the last time you had to resort to reading your speech the old-fashioned way your monotone put half of the audience to sleep.

        To make matters worse, you know only too well that staring at TelePrompTer makes you look as robotic as you sound.

        But wait. There’s a better way to make sure your script isn’t showing.

        Hike up your script. Shorten it. Tighten it. Gather it. Beware of letting your script slip out beyond your control.

      Think of your speech not as words on paper but as so many thoughts bottled up within you over a long time, so many thoughts fermenting in the juices of your life’s experiences.

        Then share your bottle of thoughts from the podium with your audience.  Pour your thoughts out so poignantly and personally to your audience.  Embrace your script as you would a bottle of fine wine.  And read the text of your speech the way you would read a wine label:

       AT A GLANCE.

      Your speech would then become like a bottle of fine wine —personally selected. For this particular audience. At this particular time. Your script-turned-wine label then would be specifically designed to be scanned, savored and sensed. Purposefully and personally. Not simply read, recited and regurgitated. Perfunctorily and publicly.

Fermented Thinking In a Bottle

       Maybe that’s why the most memorable parts of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech were not confined to words on paper. Dr. King had bottled his thoughts and fermented his thinking so well over the years that he didn’t need to script his speech word for word. He only needed to label his feelings over time.

     Then like all wine lovers he reflected upon it.  Sipped it. Savored it. And served it. Like a bottle of fine wine uncorked at just right time and in the right place. Cheers!

 Today’s ImproveMINT

Bottle your thoughts with feeling to keep your leadership thinking in mint condition.

SUBSCRIBE: Have a Leadership Mint delivered to your E-mail every business day. It’s free. Just click the SIGN ME UP box in the upper left column.