What it Means to Lead by Example
I hear many times that so-and-so is fantastic, delivers the numbers, cares for the people, etc. But when it comes to Wall Street, he’s not a good communicator. The board loves his content, but he’s a lousy presenter. His reports are no good.
When the feedback is given like this, it does not go anywhere. So in this case, I was called in and I listened to the feedback which was very general. So I said, “let me see your report that is going in the next board meeting.” I took that report. It’s a Power Point. I sat with the individual who wrote it and we rewrote that report in four hours. We cut the length by two-thirds.
Like a coach, you need to show a player how to do it. That’s what I did. I showed him what I did. I pursued two more reports by him before he sent them to the board and presented. I got the feedback at the end of the year. What a fantastic job the CFO was doing in presentations!
In Their Own Words is recorded in Big Think’s studio.
Image courtesy of Shutterstock
