Secret 3: Keep It Simple
One problem with many speeches is that they try to do too much. Your message must be simple and straightforward to be remembered. Roger Marino, founder of the high-tech giant EMC, grew up in a working-class neighborhood on Boston’s north shore and got his electrical engineering degree from a co-op school, Northeastern University. Yet, Marino was a salesman at heart. EMC sold one of the least sexy products or services you can imagine—storage systems for computer information— but he and his two partners built a company that went on to dominate the industry. Eight Secrets of Successful CEOs and Leaders Who Speak Well • 19 Marino learned early on how important communication is in business— particularly when it comes to keeping things simple. “When I was in college and I would see one of these engineering professors talking, if I didn’t get what they were talking about, it was annoying,” he said. “I couldn’t figure out why other people thought a professor who couldn’t explain things was so brilliant.” Marino considered the brilliant professors to be the ones who could actually communicate the ideas in ways people could understand. “Communication is everything,” he said. “You really have to hammer a message
home.” Taking his lessons learned in college to the business world, Marino considers the simple message his strength. Keeping it simple is how he keeps people interested and absorbed in the subject at hand—no matter what it is. “I can teach golf or tennis precisely because I don’t have natural ability. I just explain the steps,” he said. “A CEO has to do the same thing: take people from A to B to C.”
home.” Taking his lessons learned in college to the business world, Marino considers the simple message his strength. Keeping it simple is how he keeps people interested and absorbed in the subject at hand—no matter what it is. “I can teach golf or tennis precisely because I don’t have natural ability. I just explain the steps,” he said. “A CEO has to do the same thing: take people from A to B to C.”
Secret 4: Be a Straight Shooter
Our survey on communication, discussed in the previous chapter, found that the number one quality that people want in a leader is honesty and integrity. To speak like a CEO, you must have a message that rings true. Audiences want a leader to be more than a good speaker; they want a leader to tell them the truth, no matter what. Senator John McCain is a straight shooter in politics, where that trait is especially rare. Political leaders have to win votes. They have to please everyone. This tends to keep them from taking a stand. McCain says what he thinks; he doesn’t mince words, no matter the consequences. Once in a while, he has succumbed to political pressure, but it doesn’t happen often.
The fact that he is a straight shooter helped him during his brief campaign for president in 2000. He told reporters something that wasn’t true—that he respected South Carolina’s decision to fly the Confederate flag over its statehouse. Later, he explained, “I feared that if I answered honestly, I could not win the South Carolina primary. So, I 20 • Speak like a CEO chose to compromise my principles. I broke my promise to always tell the truth.” McCain had a reputation for telling the truth, so people accepted his apology. This is important for leaders to know. People will accept when you make a mistake. They will not accept the perpetuation of the lie. Every CEO should know that honesty is the secret to winning trust and being a real leader. A reputation for honesty can take you all the way to the top. Sallie Krawcheck was appointed CEO of Citigroup after the corporate scandals that hurt so many businesses in 2001. Citigroup needed to prove its independence, so it shunned big-league brokerage experience and named Krawcheck for her honest reputation, which she had earned at the independent, boutique investment-research firm Sanford C. Bernstein, first as a top analyst and later as CEO. Krawcheck had actually been dubbed “the Straight Shooter” by Money magazine, and Fortune magazine’s headline about her had said, “In Search of the Last Honest Analyst.”
The fact that he is a straight shooter helped him during his brief campaign for president in 2000. He told reporters something that wasn’t true—that he respected South Carolina’s decision to fly the Confederate flag over its statehouse. Later, he explained, “I feared that if I answered honestly, I could not win the South Carolina primary. So, I 20 • Speak like a CEO chose to compromise my principles. I broke my promise to always tell the truth.” McCain had a reputation for telling the truth, so people accepted his apology. This is important for leaders to know. People will accept when you make a mistake. They will not accept the perpetuation of the lie. Every CEO should know that honesty is the secret to winning trust and being a real leader. A reputation for honesty can take you all the way to the top. Sallie Krawcheck was appointed CEO of Citigroup after the corporate scandals that hurt so many businesses in 2001. Citigroup needed to prove its independence, so it shunned big-league brokerage experience and named Krawcheck for her honest reputation, which she had earned at the independent, boutique investment-research firm Sanford C. Bernstein, first as a top analyst and later as CEO. Krawcheck had actually been dubbed “the Straight Shooter” by Money magazine, and Fortune magazine’s headline about her had said, “In Search of the Last Honest Analyst.”
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