It's difficult for many employees to find out what makes them tick. Why do they want to be the best? Why do they want to advance? What do they want to produce?
Some feel that by working for someone else, there's no way they can express their true passion. This isn't usually the case, and it's my mission, when working in corporations, to help each employee realize that.
At my firm, the most effective way we've found to help employees tap into their fire, their passion and their hunger for success is through a specific public speaking method that focuses on the personal narrative. In the process of uncovering their own passion and expressing it to others, they come to own and embody it. I'm not telling them what their passion is; they're announcing it to the world.
The moment an employee can stand in front of the room and express their passion, they become a leader. It's that simple. To be an effective leader, I believe that one needs to represent something — an idea, a message, a mission. Steve Jobs represented innovation, creativity and great design. Jeff Bezos represents an excellent customer experience.
To lead others, I believe you have to clearly know what you stand for and what you're passionate about. However, one need not be a CEO to be an effective leader.
Through our public speaking exercise, we've found that the ability to communicate a message affirms for the speaker that they're worthy of delivering a message. No one comes into this world with a fear of public speaking. This is a learned trait born from the insults, injustices and daily grind of life.
To start the exercise, I ask employees to give me a billboard headline. I ask them, "If you were driving down the highway, and you saw your face on a billboard, what would the message on the billboard say?" This is a personal mission statement, something that I believe every person should have. I ask them, "Who are you? What do you represent? What is your personal mission statement? What are your passions?" I'm often met with blank stares. People don’t think about these questions, because they're never asked these questions.
Eddie is an employee we were working with who wanted to speak about his late father who passed away from melanoma. It's a subject he's passionate about, although he wasn't completely clear on his message at that point.
Eddie lost his father before he was born. He passed away when his mother was seven months pregnant.
So what do you do with someone who has a gripping story but doesn't know how to convey it? He feels so connected to his father, but he never met him. "Give that speech to your father," I told him.
He wasn't able to wrap his head around that idea. "I want you to stand on stage, and I want you to start with 'Dad, I'm talking to you,'" I said.
"I can't do that," he responded.
“Why not?" I asked.
"I don't know. It feels weird, like I'm acting," he said.
"Maybe it feels weird because it's too real," I responded.
That's when I used my performance technique: "I want you to go into character."
"I'm not going into character. That’s fake. I’m not going to put on an act," he said.
"Let me ask you a question," I said. "When you have to give a presentation at your company, do you go into character?"
"No," he said.
So I asked him, "Do you speak the same way to your kids as you do to your co-workers? Of course not. Each of us has a character we go into every day. Some of us are conscious of that character, and others aren't. The beauty of public speaking is that you go into the character of the person you've always wanted to be. This is someone who's in control. This is someone who's tough enough to be vulnerable. This is someone who will allow us to see his emotion."
Eddie trusted me. He stepped out onto the stage with a lone spotlight. “Dad, I don’t know if you can hear me, but I’ve always heard you,” he said.
Eddie was able to have a dialogue with his father. We were the invited guests. And the audience was able to learn and benefit from Eddie’s story. Eddie remembered something he was told his father said when he was dying: “Focus on the health.”
This turned into his leadership message for the company and Eddie’s passion: "Even when dying, and there's so much pain, focus on the health that's still there. Focus on the good, the positive." This is his sphere of impact. The sight of Eddie on stage talking to his father with such a profound message stole the evening. It was a moment that Eddie will likely never forget.
After that talk, Eddie represented optimism and a focus on the positive. He stood for the ability to see the light in the darkness, and it's a message he has since repeated often. It didn't take the CEO title for him to exercise leadership.
When speaking with business owners, I encourage them to create settings that allow their employees to express themselves on a personal level. A 100% separation between business and their personal lives doesn't usually work. One of my clients had a lower-level employee who was passionate about sports and competition create a company sports league. On the field, he's a leader, and that translates into how he shows up to work.
When we make room for the personal to be brought into the workplace, we make room for passion to be brought into the workplace. It is from that passion that great work is done and true leaders are born.
