The Big Show Scandal
There should be a law against most internal company conferences. No… I really should!
My name is Bob Etherington and I am a veteran of at least 100 things to do in the last 40 years and almost all of them should never have been allowed! Well… let me rephrase it a bit: plenary sessions should never have been allowed. That’s the part where the audience sits row after row in semi-dark theater style, while their bosses and peers talk to them. Sometimes he admonishes them; Compliment them mostly, and generally show them PowerPoint slides every time. “This is what they want!” Yes of course!
I asked a senior manager at a large British company what his main goal was when he stepped onto the conference platform. He replied, without hesitation: “I’m trying to impress them!”
But Geoff (that’s his name so now if he reads this he’ll know it’s him) your audience doesn’t want to hear about ‘You’. They are not the least bit interested in ‘You’. And you [dear reader] they’re not the least bit interested in Bob Etherington… that’s just the way it is.
Of course, what the conference audience is asking themselves – a man – is the same unspoken question you have in your head as you read this: “What’s in this for ME?”
Your audience – any conference audience – is looking to be inspired in a general and personal way to work hard to make the company even more money in the next fiscal year. You know from all the management courses you’ve taken that the art of management is getting staff to willingly do what needs to be done anyway. So telling them about all the good and worthy deeds that YOU have completed will not get them to do anything. Remember David Brent’s (Ricky Gervais) speech to his staff in the early 2000s BBCTV sitcom ‘The Office’. “Today I have good news and bad news. The bad news is that we will be merging with the Swindon office, so some of you will be made redundant.” [Silence and shocked faces] …But the good news is… I’ve been promoted! [More dumbfounded silence] … Oh … I can see that some of you are still on the bad news!” We shudder with embarrassment because we have witnessed this kind of rude statement in the real world of business. It is not as rare as we expect .
In a recent HR survey, it was firmly established once again that what staff value most in their jobs is not what many managers think it is. The most important factors are:
1) Feel appreciated.
2) Have something interesting to do.
3) Being kept on the inner path.
4) Sympathy for personal problems.
5) Money.
6) A happy work environment.
7) Promote leads.
8) Job security.
So to inspire the tight ranks of your employees to show up early, stay late (and work hard while they work for you), tell them how great they are and give them praise. If times are tough, keep them informed by telling them what’s going on. Stop the rumors and tell them what you’re doing to fix things for them. Tell them how they will personally benefit from doing what needs to be done.
Also have the good manners to rehearse your presentation in front of a similarly positioned person in your company and ask for genuine feedback on how the message is being conveyed. Showing up with a memory card containing all your PowerPoint slides half an hour early and hoping for the best is not an inspiring move. Victorian Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli stated that “Everyone loves flattery…but with royalty it’s applied with a palette.” His staff, like my staff at the Bob Etherington Group, are royalty and nothing happens without them. His “stuff” about his department and his personal triumphs are not what most internal audiences want to hear. They are there to be inspired. So inspire them… praise them… Say: “Thank you”… “I’m proud of you”….”Well done!” (the rarest and most powerful words in the management lexicon)
Now you’re talking business!