Author: Colin Browne
Sharing a grand vision is important, but often employees want to know they’re being led by someone who also has two feet firmly on the ground with BEER AND BASEBALL Many years back, I sat in an audience, watching my CEO hitch up his pants in between sentences, sip from his water, and mumble about […]
Sharing a grand vision is important, but often employees want to know they’re being led by someone who also has two feet firmly on the ground with BEER AND BASEBALL
Many years back, I sat in an audience, watching my CEO hitch up his pants in between sentences, sip from his water, and mumble about how proud he was to be the leader of a great team.
Except that he wasn’t. Not really. That was obvious for everyone to see. Instead, he was divorced, dissociated and distant; desperately awkward in front of the people he was charged with leading.
And for the most part, the favour was returned. In the few moments he set aside for mingling after his address, the conversations were vague with all the warmth of a maths exam.
Why? Because there wasn’t anything to hitch an engaging conversation to.
Politicians, or at least their strategists, understand that winning people’s support isn’t always about vision, strategy or a pithy articulation of the issues. There is a very clear reason why the President of the United States gets handed a baseball mitt for a quick game of catch in front of the press photographers, when Air Force One touches down on the tarmac, or why the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom pops into a local pub for a beer when he’s out gathering votes.
Without such 2 moments, those leaders are hard to separate from their wealthy families, top educations and privileged backgrounds, which themselves offer only an embarrassing comparison to that of their would-be electorate.
If they have one thing in common, leaders of highly engaged organisations are great at creating a compelling personal narrative separate from their professional roles.
Ooba sales head Bradd Bendall has built a niche as a ridiculously well informed rugby pundit. His #DearHeyneke posts during the reign of the hapless Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer earned a broad readership and nearly spun off a range of t-shirts (Meyer stepped down too soon, unfortunately).
Sage ONE boss Steven Cohen rides a motorcycle to work, is a self-avowed fan of alternative rock band Radiohead and is known for his casual dress sense and even more casual language. During his monthly addresses to the entire company, he pulls no punches in saying things exactly as he sees them.
Google co-founder Sergey Brin often joined in a game of beach volleyball on the company’s campus, with the other Googlers.
Politicians know that creating easy points of connection helps to build a narrative that is key to winning mass votes. It’s probably no different for you.
ARTICLE WRITTEN BY COLIN BROWNE,
Contact Us at WeSpeak Global and follow us on Twitter
The articles, video and images embedded on these pages are from various speakers and talent.
These remain the property of its owner and are not affiliated with or endorsed by WeSpeak Global.
When you first started your business, odds are you spent time setting goals and scheduling the components of your business plan so you can be ready to grow. But the bigger your business gets, the deeper into the weeds you go and the harder it is to prioritize these tasks. They seem “less important” […]
To unlock employee motivation, you may need to change how you communicate special requests. These are things like important changes to operating processes or customer service procedures. You need people to embrace a different way of doing things. It has to be done right and it needs to be executed right away. But you notice […]
Speakers in the virtual space during this pandemic we have heard the word pivot frequently. And now it’s typical to hear phrases like “all Zoomed out”. In the world of events and training we are seeing a mixture of virtual, hybrid and face to face. No one expected this pandemic. While we continue to navigate […]
IT’S A NORMAL DAY ON ALIWAL SHOAL. ABOVE TWENTY DEGREES CELSIUS, BLUE WATER WITH SMALL PARTICLES, A LITTLE BIT OF A CURRENT PUSHING, WE DRIFT ALONG WITH IT, WAITING FOR THE SHARKS… (THIS IS THE STORY OF MY FIRST EVER FREEDIVE WITH SHARKS) It’s a clear blue sky, warm air and a slight breeze- […]
Toward the end of 2020, I made a resolution to cut down on my intake of fast food. I was almost resolute never to bring another juicy slice of pizza to my lips ever again and Making Organizational Changes Stick I had always known the truth – it was counterproductive to my gym routine and one slice […]
Wartime British Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, said, “A lie travels halfway around the world before the truth has time to put its pants on.” Now, with the proliferation of social media, and twitter in particular, a lie can circumnavigate the globe before the truth even realises it’s not wearing trousers. And it took another […]
Our internal reward system drives us to do what we like to do for Use purpose-driven routines. What we need to do to fulfill our chosen purpose is however not always what we like to do. That’s why it’s so important to plug our “purpose fulfilling activities” into routines; behaviors driven by habit, not by […]
This week in my 3 minute leadership roles with Jones Zone, I talk about the importance in finding balance between Humility and Ambition. Why You Need To Be More Humbitious In Your Approach To Leadership Contact Us at WeSpeak Global and follow us on Twitter
Our Mission
© All rights reserved 2025. Created using VOXEL THEME
