Talk the Walk

It’s the third Monday of the month, newsletter time. I’m very pleased to announce that my book has been shortlisted by the Business Book Awards . Sadly, it’s not like Eurovision where you can phone up twenty times to vote for me. But how about buying 20 copies of the book? I can pass you to the right person at Kogan Page Publishing to give you the sort of discount you might think unseemly.

I promised you three business tips a month. I kind of base them on the work that I have been doing in the previous month..

**TIP ONE: Never read off a phone for a presentation. Even for a rehearsal. Why?

• The font is too small
• If it’s not too small, then you will have to scroll like a maniac
• The phone will need refreshing continually.

Maybe you made notes on your phone, while sitting idly in an airport lounge/sauna/Nandos. Fine. Then print them out.

* EBI (that’s Even Better If, should you be unfamiliar with what teachers write on children’s school work these days)... You hand-write bullet points, based on your smartphone notes.

* Even Betterer If… You 'talk your notes' into your smartphone. Just a few sentences to get the ball rolling. Then listen back and write some bullet points. This means you are thinking about the spoken word from the get-go. And handwriting means you will recall your thoughts more readily than if you've typed them.

Note: You may have spotted that I am a fan of using paper for notes. Better than a screen, which can lose power and be cumbersome. Would you rather trees weren’t knocked down to help you with your speech? Okay, then don’t take that flight. Or take a walk rather than a taxi. See Tip Three.

**TIP TWO: Do you think candor is important in business? (And how do you spell it?) Candour is about being frank, honest and sincere. Some definitions mention kindness too.

It’s sometimes mentioned by my clients as desirable in their business. When I came across the work of Kim Scott and her quadrant based on two axes - Care Personally and Challenge Directly - I was delighted. It makes total sense. It’s so easy to Care but not to Challenge. Some of my biggest, seemingly toughest, client firms tell me that they are subject to such ‘Ruinous Empathy’. And we all know moments when we succumb to ‘Manipulative Insincerity’ - when you don’t care and you don’t challenge.

I run a day called ‘Leadership in the Moment’ as part of a business school’s week long open executive education course. After a morning of learning #improv skills and their application in situational #leadership, participants volunteer forthcoming real conversations where they can test these skills. Quite often, someone shares a story of a team member who’s just not performing. Other participants act out the scene for our volunteer based on what they hear, to see if a different perspective may show alternatives for how to ‘play’ the scene.

Very often people start off with ‘how are you?/how was your weekend?’ ...Faux personal stuff which is just delaying the crunch moment that both parties know needs to happen. It all comes down to the following questions… Does this person know:-

• That what they are doing is sub-optimal?
• What the effect of that is?

And, if they would like to improve things in the future, do they have:-

• The skill ?
• The will?

Very often, thinking about these questions helps unlock how to play these conversations. But also, just seeing others play your situation helps to unlock what could actually be going on.

Sometimes even thinking about changing the location of the meeting can help. As the weather is nicer now (in some parts of the northern hemisphere) consider going outside for these moments. See Tip Three.

**TIP THREE: Go for a walk.

Have you heard of MBWA (Management By Walking About)? How many leaders actually do that? And how about the virtual equivalent?

I told one senior leader not to stay on the fourth floor all the time - where the offices of all the top brass were and the coffee machine was much better - but to come down and be seen more. ‘But why’ he protested, ‘… why would they want to see me?’ Because you are The Boss.

Being visible is important - as well as seeing others. Jimmy Mulville (of Hat Trick Productions who created Have I Got News for You and Whose Line Is It Anyway) told me that David Hatch - the legendary managing director of BBC Radio - made sure he did two things every day:-

1. He came into the building different ways (easier than it sounds at the BBC) so that he could bump into all sorts of people, in different jobs, with different perspectives.
2. He hand-wrote a card to someone congratulating them on a job well done. (Not the same person. That would be silly. It was a different person each day.)

So go for a walk with intention - as above to see who you might see by chance, but also arrange to go with someone, outdoors ideally, to have a different kind of conversation.

And go for a walk with yourself regularly. Get off the train one stop early, park a bit further away, nip out of the building and spend some time with your thoughts, be they high brow or low brow, observing others, remembering, meandering. Research says that the higher the ceiling, the more creative you feel. And what could be higher than the sky.

** Please do subscribe to this monthly newsletter. It will pop into your inbox around the third Monday. With three top tips anybody can put into practice immediately.