Leaders In London

Obama, according to Kevin Eikenberry’s leadership competency test. He beats McCain on ten out of the twelve core leadership competencies and is within 1.5% of him on the other two. 750 people rated the two contenders in the test. I’m assuming Kevin took their political views into account somehow in conducting this survey. Here’s one of the key slides:

You can download the complete report here (he asks for your email address).

In leadership, the Obama experience seems to remind us, the speech is the thing. There is something about a great leadership speech - from Kennedy in Berlin way back to Lincoln and the Gettysburg address - that can define a moment, inspire a generation.

On a more mundane level, the leadership speech is a powerful mechanism, if you are any good at it, for reaching all of the people you need to reach - from employees to stockholders - and connecting with them, influencing them. The problem is most leaders are not very good at it. Most leaders are excruciatingly bad at it; yes, even you, who have been through all that expensive presentation training.

Most leaders are bad at it because they use speeches to pronounce, not to speak intimately about themselves and the people they are talking to. A stage or a camera are seen as a cue to speak ‘publicly’ rather than intimately. But, it’s the intimate, the personal, the real, that connects with people. The best leadership speeches tell a personal story about yourself that resonates with the people in the audience - It’s not about ego, about ‘me’ stories; it’s about stories that touch people and illuminate something about shared values and shared purpose.

OK, that means nothing without an example, so our Leaders in London Chairman and Facilitator Rene Carayol has a stunning one over on his website, from Steve Jobs of Apple. You need to earmark at least five minutes to read it.

Quick extract to give you a flavour:

“Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

My second story is about love and loss.

My third story is about death.”

Steve Jobs Commencement Speech to Stanford Students, on Rene Carayol’s website

Paris Hilton for President

I’ve wondered about the connection between celebrity and leadership for some time. People increasingly ‘follow’ the lives of celebrities - ‘follow’ as in read about them, watch news items about them, live their own life vicariously through the life of the celebrity. There is something of the ‘uber-you’ about celebrity culture (projecting your own life onto the more glamorous life of someone else) which mirrors some less desirable elements of ‘followership’ in leadership theory - the tendency to give up on ’self’ and instead follow the will of the leader.

So, when John McCain’s people created an attack ad last week claiming Barrack Obama’s whole persona was more celebrity than leader - likening him to Paris Hilton and Britney Spears - they opened a whole can of worms. Here’s Paris Hilton taking up the challenge by saying to “that white haired dude” that she is, like, totally ready to lead, and that she is busy looking for a vice-presidential running mate. Worryingly, her energy policy (towards the end of the clip) sounds like it’s worth a second listen.