THE ACHIEVEMENT DIGEST   "TAD" Issue No. 62
A Unique Publication for Leaders     Gene Griessman, Ph.D. Editor
404-256-5927 www.achievementdigest.com  
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LEADERSHIP: THE POWER OF EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING   
“Let all speakers who ‘wing it’ prepare for painful crashes.  There are more winds that hurt speeches than help them.”
--Gene Griessman

“Extemporaneous speaking should be practiced and cultivated,” Lincoln wrote.  “It is the lawyer’s avenue to the public.  However able and faithful he may be in other respects, people are slow to bring him business, if he cannot make a speech.”

When Lincoln spoke of extemporaneous speaking, he did not mean making totally unprepared speeches—“winging it” we might call it today.  Few speakers can trust the moment or their wits alone for a good speech. Very, very few. 

Years ago I knew a woman who had a brief career as a keynote speaker.  Several times she boasted to me that she never gave a prepared speech.  She told me the audience deserved something new every time.  She liked to believe that it was a good thing that her every utterance was something new, something never heard before, never thought of before.  It occurred to me that she herself had never thought of some of the things she said. Her thoughts were new to her, too.     

For a while she was in demand because she was a high-energy speaker, witty and intelligent, and well informed about corporate life. 

But she relied entirely on her wits, and the moment.  Clients never knew what kind of speech they would get.  Sometimes it would be brilliant.  Other times not so brilliant. 

Today she is out of the speaking business.

I know another speaker who took a different path.   He is witty and intelligent and well informed too, but he prepares carefully-- even when he gives an announcement at a local meeting or introduces a relatively unknown guest speaker.  

“You never know who’s forming an opinion of you,” he once told me.  “I never have been able to understand how a professional speaker could even think about getting up to speak without preparing.” Neither can I.  Not surprisingly, this speaker is in demand year after year.
 

In case you’d like to acquire the reputation for giving great extemporaneous speeches, here’s a checklist of what to do if you are called upon to make a short presentation.  (A keynote presentation has somewhat different rules; I’ll discuss that in a later issue.)

One.  Know what your opening sentence will be.  If it can be witty and short and safe, good.  If not witty, then short and safe.  (By “safe,” I mean something that you know will work, not something that might ricochet.)

Two.  Create a script, if not on paper at least in your head.  Know the main points that you need to cover—when, where, and why if an announcement.  If an introduction, who the speaker is, what are his/her credentials, and why his/her message is worth hearing.  If you are called upon to acknowledge or recognize a number of people, for god’s sake,  prepare a list in advance.  You will almost certainly omit someone important if you don’t.

Three.  Know how you will conclude.  When you are getting up to speak, have in mind how you will end.  For the short presentation, the close generally is more important than the beginning.  Don’t just trail off or abandon control with Q & A.  If you do Q & A, keep back something strong for your conclusion-- a thought-out sentence or quote or a very short and apt story to illustrate your point.
 

Lincoln observed those rules.   We know because some of his notes that he used in the courtroom have been preserved.  Lincoln would prepare a rough script—how he would open, the illustrations he would use, the points he would make, and how he would conclude. 

Moreover, Lincoln spent a lifetime acquiring material that he could plug into his speeches—ready-made modules to fit the moment.    He memorized poems and Bible passages.  He immersed himself in newspapers and books and written sermons.  He knew thousands of jokes and humorous stories and even carried a joke book with him so that he could adapt traditional stories to local situations. 

Lincoln spent a lot of time preparing for his “unprepared” talks.  

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QUOTES YOU CAN USE IN PRESENTATIONS, REPORTS, AND CONVERSATION

***Dreams
“Hold fast to dreams

For if dreams die

Life is a broken-winged bird

That cannot fly.

Hold fast to dreams

For when dreams go

Life is a barren field

Frozen with snow.

--Langston Hughes (1902-1967) African-American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer 

***Is It Worth Doing? 
“A book which doesn’t leave people either happier or better than it found them, which doesn’t add some permanent treasure to the world isn’t worth doing.”  
--E.M. Forster (1879-1970) English author, best known for Howards End and A Room With A View.

***This Is What Friends Are For
“A good friend doubles the joy and divides the pain.”  
--author unknown  (This quotation--on a plaque given me by the legendary insurance pro Hervey Ross--is in my office.)

***What Experience Does To Us 
“Unfortunately there comes to the majority of those of middle age an inelasticity not of physical muscle and sinew alone but of mental fibre.  Experience has its dangers; it may bring wisdom, but it may also bring stiffness and cause hardened deposits in the mind, and its resulting inelasticity is crippling.” 
--E.F. Benson, As We Are, English novelist and short story writer, 1867-1940

***The Price Is Right

“A cynic knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.”  
--Oscar Wilde  (1854-1900) Irish playwright, author, poet; “The Importance of Being Earnest,”  

***What Will They Say?
“There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”
–Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

***The Power of Good Promises
“Making and keeping promises is at the core of what a successful business should be.” 
--Duane Knapp, author of The BrandPromise

***What is Truth?
“Nowhere has truth so short a life as in Sicily; a fact has scarcely happened five minutes before its genuine kernel has vanished, been camouflaged, embellished, disfigured, squashed, annihilated by imagination and self-interest; shame, fear, generosity, malice, opportunism, charity; all the passions, good as well as evil, fling themselves onto the fact and tear it to pieces; very soon it has vanished altogether.” 
--Giuseppe di Lampedusa (1896-1957) The Leopard.  Lampedusa’s great (and only) novel about a Sicilian nobleman tells, among other things, how difficult it is for a leader or anyone for that matter to learn the truth.  Remove the word “Sicily” from this quote and replace it with the word “politics” or the name of most any organization or town and it still will be a true statement.

  
***Seeing
“There’s a big difference between looking at something and seeing something.”  --Gene Griessman

 
LINCOLN’S LOG: THE POWER OF COMPROMISE 

Lincoln’s advice offered about 160 years ago is still good advice today.  “Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can,” he wrote in a lecture for lawyers.  “Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser—in fees, and expenses, and waste of time.”

In a soon-to-be-released study of civil lawsuits reported in the August 8 issue of The New York Times, the researchers found that “most of the plaintiffs who decided to pass up a settlement offer and went to trial ended up getting less money than if they had taken that offer.”  

Randall I. Kiser, a co-author of the study and principal analyst at DecisionSet, a consulting firm that advises clients on litigation decisions concluded:  “The lesson for plaintiffs is, in the vast majority of cases, they are perceiving the defendant’s offer to be half a loaf when in fact it is an entire loaf and more.”

Lincoln understood that compromise is necessary in everyday life.  His experience as a lawyer in some 5,000 cases taught him that half a loaf may be all one can get.  And he also knew that compromise is essential in government. 

As a state legislator, Lincoln acquired the ability to deal with individuals who had widely different interests, motives, and agendas.  He came to the presidency as a compromise candidate: at the nominating convention, Lincoln was the first choice of only a few delegates, but the second choice of many.  He didn’t win the nomination until the supporters of the front-runners faltered. 

As a wartime President, Lincoln worked out one compromise after another to hold the nation together.  Lincoln understood that saving the nation had to be his first priority, and that if he could do that, he could then effectively address the deep-rooted issue of slavery.  So he forged an unlikely coalition of pro-Union slaveholders, conservatives, moderates, and radical abolitionists who agreed on one thing: saving the nation. 

He once commented that he had a gift for keeping discordant individuals and groups together.  Lincoln achieved his most important goals by understanding the power of compromise.
 
This section contains excerpts from The Words Lincoln Lived By. For autographed copies,  www.achievementdigest.com/thewordslincolnlivedby.html

 “LINCOLN ON COMMUNICATION”   
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FEEDBACK
“Thank you so much for participating in our conference.  We had a tremendous amount of positive feedback. You certainly added value.”
--Bridget P. Martin, Director of Governmental Affairs, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers.

“On behalf of the Rural CAP Board and staff, it is with great enthusiasm that I send this letter formally thanking you for your participation in the recent Community Action Conference in Girdwood (Alaska).  Your willingness to keynote and share your expertise and experience in the workshops is much appreciated.  It’s probably no surprise to you that you received the highest score from the evaluations.”  
--Sarah Scanlan, Deputy Director, Rural Alaska Community Action Program, Inc.

TRAVEL NOTES FROM A ROAD WARRIOR: Self-Protection;  New York City
How To Avoid Getting Short-Changed
In foreign countries, I’ve been short-changed a few times by taxi drivers and merchants.  Many tourists have had the same experience.  Dishonest individuals take advantage of absent-mindedness or unfamiliarity with the currency. 

But it also can happen in the United States, even though you are familiar with the currency. 

Recently, at New York’s Penn Station, I handed a taxi driver a $20 bill.  When he counted back the change, he stopped at $10.  I then told him I had given him a $20.  But he was ready for that.   He pulled out a small stack of bills, which I am sure now was ready-made for the occasion.  There was no twenty in the stack.   Even if a policeman had been nearby—there wasn’t—it would have been difficult to prove that I had given the driver a twenty.

I was guilty of failing to follow a simple routine that I regularly use when abroad.

I say something like, “I don’t have correct change.  Here’s a twenty (or a ten or a fifty or a hundred),” as I hand the individual the money. 

The very fact that I specifically mention the denomination of the bill focuses my attention and alerts someone dishonest that I am on my guard. 

New York City
Q.  Where does one discover wonderful places to eat in New York City?
A.  In the Michelin Guide.  

I have never been disappointed with a restaurant listed in a Michelin Guide.  Never, in any part of the world that Michelin Guides cover.  It’s well worth the modest investment—The New York City 2008 Michelin Guide retails at $16.95.  That’s a small price to pay to make a great discovery, or just to avoid unpleasant dining experiences. 
 
Here’s what the Michelin Guide has to say about Mesa Grill:  “While you wouldn’t pick Mesa Grill, with its boisterous brazenly colored dining room, for a quiet evening out, you would come for zesty Southwestern cuisine.”  One of the most talked-about restaurants in Manhattan, Mesa Grill is owned by the celebrity chef Bobby Flay. 

I chose two appetizers instead of an entree: creamy wild mushroom grits with poached egg, charred serrano sauce, cotija cheese, blue corn tortilla crisps—spectacular—and a blue corn pancake with barbecued duck, habanero chile star anise sauce—memorable.  102 5th Avenue; NYC 10011;  (212) 807-7400