Azede Blog

Developing the Leadership Message, Delivering the Leadership Message, and Sustaining the Leadership Message demonstrate how to develop, deliver, and sustain the leadership message through words and actions. This section adds some ideas for implementation: as a leader, as a speaker, and as a communications planner. It includes

Summary Notes—the basics of leadership communications
Action Steps—what [...]

Amid the plethora of afternoon programs ranging from steamy soaps to shock-talk TV, there is a voice apart. It is one of clarity born of focus, conviction steeled by hard times, heart born of compassion, and natural ebullience that bubbles up frequently. It is Oprah. With Oprah, what you see is what you get. The [...]

Stories are important to us. From the days of our tribal ancestors, we have been sharing tales, shaping fables, and writing plays about the human condition. Why? Because these stories, with their rich context and stylized character, cast a window of light into our souls. And from that experience we learn more about who we [...]

Storytelling also can take the form of play-acting. Trainers do this very well when they create role-plays and simulations. In role-plays, participants are asked to play roles related to work situations. For example, one participant may play an irate customer, and the other play the customer service representative. In another situation, participants may act out [...]

From our earliest days, we are told stories, or parables, about the rewards of being a good child and the dangers of being a bad one. Grimm’s Fairy Tales are classic examples of the consequences of poor decision making. Little Red Riding Hood, for example, discovers the error of befriending strangers at her own considerable [...]

I’ve been an orator really, basically, all of my life. Since I was three and a half, I’ve been coming up in the church speaking. . . . I’ve spoken at every church in Nashville at some point in my life. You sort of get known for that. Other people were known for singing. I [...]

It may be a first for a professor who holds a prestigious chair at the Harvard Business School, but for Rosabeth Moss Kanter, it was a logical step—to synthesize her message into a rap song. Kanter has been writing, teaching, and consulting on change for more than two decades. “Why not take this [rap music] [...]

As a leader-communicator, it is imperative that you live your message, i.e., that you walk the talk. What can happen when leaders fail to perform in accordance with their words can be disastrous. The sexual abuse scandal that has swept through the Roman Catholic Church is a sad example of what can happen when the [...]

How do you know when the message is getting through? It’s getting through when the intent of the message is fulfilled! Sometimes it’s pretty simple to tell this. For example, if you are the leader of a customer service department and your call to action specifies that people answer the phone by the second ring, [...]

Be passionate about your communications. Watching Oprah Winfrey, you get the sense that she cares very deeply about what she does. As a communicator on television and in her publication, Oprah finds lessons that she believes will help viewers and readers live more satisfied lives. Jack Welch was passionate about his companies, and in particular [...]

Keep the lines of communication open. You have spent a good deal of time preparing for your presentation. You should get something in return for your investment. Position yourself as an expert and strive to reappear periodically. This is a good tactic for sales presenters, but it is also useful for anyone who believes in [...]

Mother Teresa collected some of her thinking into books of prayers. Colin Powell and Rudy Giuliani wrote books reflecting their leadership values. Harvey Penick collected his thoughts in a series of small books. Rosabeth Moss Kanter is a prolific author on the impact of change on management and culture. In their writings, as well as [...]

Depending upon the situation, one, two, or all of these methods may be applicable. The most important check of all, however, lies with the leader. The leader must be willing to listen. And listening can be difficult, especially when the leader has heard the complaint or situation before. In addition, many leaders are busy; they [...]

The focus of this book has been on the active process of communicating—speaking, writing, delivering, and planning. However, while it is true that communications is an active process, it is also true that much of communications involves the leader’s pausing to check for understanding. Leadership communications is a two-way process, and leaders must listen to [...]

Change requires even more communication than routine activities. Top leaders need to know what’s happening in the field. . . . Local units need role models to learn from the experience of their peers. . . . Change can be chaotic without a way to communicate what’s happening everywhere.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, [...]

When you think of leadership communications, chances are you don’t think of golf. After all, golf, even in its competitive form, is chiefly a solitary game—one course, one player. Communications are chiefly internal; players and caddies are allowed to converse, and players of course speak to one another, but the game itself revolves around finding [...]

There are times in a leader’s life when that leader is defined by what he or she does or does not do in a particular moment. Looking back at successful leaders, we sometimes assume that they were always good, always made the right decision, or always said the right thing. One such moment came for [...]

As mentioned, coaching is integral to leadership. While coaching sessions need to be planned in advance, informal coaching can occur at any time or at any place. Often this is nothing more than giving feedback, positive or negative. Keep to the rule of opening with a positive and ending with a commitment to improvement.
One [...]

Coaching should be an integral part of a leader’s job. It is not something that should be undertaken lightly. It requires preparation, critical thinking, and follow-through Action Coaching Model. Leaders also need something more—a healthy dose of emotional intelligence, e.g., the ability to understand someone else and your relationship to that individual.
Plan ahead. Identify the [...]

What is a mentor? A friend, colleague, and adviser, all rolled into one. A mentor is a friend in the sense that he or she has the person’s best interests at heart. A mentor is a colleague who is not afraid or unwilling to dispense advice that the individual may not want to hear, but [...]

The flip side of discipline is recognition. Individuals who do a good job need to be recognized. Recognition accomplishes several things: It lets the person know that she or he is doing a good job, it helps raise the person’s confidence and encourages him or her to continue achieving, and it lets others know that [...]

Not everyone responds to advice. Metaphorically speaking, sometimes the stick can be more effective than the carrot. Discipline connotes compliance with the rules, be they rules of quality control or rules of conduct. Delivering discipline, therefore, is another form of maintaining standards and ensuring that behavior has consequences. We see this often in the world [...]

Good coaches are known as masters of motivation; they prod their teams to win. Motivation, of course, cannot be imposed upon an individual; it stems from the person’s inner drive to achieve. What coaches can do is establish an environment in which individuals can thrive. They can, as mentioned earlier, provide alignment between the goals [...]

Coaches must possess a sixth sense about individual performance as well as team performance. In basketball, when one team begins a scoring run, the opposing coach will often call a time-out. He will pull the team together (physically and mentally) to focus its energies on the task at hand. He will point out both what [...]

Teaching is fundamental to coaching; providing information and ensuring that learning occurs is what coaches do. Vince Lombardi, who began his career in coaching as a high school teacher of math and sciences, was first and foremost a teacher. With a piece of chalk and a blackboard, he could talk for hours to players or [...]

The individual needs to know what is expected of her or him, and it is up to the coach to be specific about what is needed. As an extension of the goals alignment, the leader-coach needs to make certain that the department is aligned with the organizational goals. Furthermore, the coach needs to ensure that [...]

Trust is at the core of every coaching relationship. To build a sense of trust, a leader-coach must communicate that he or she has the individual’s best interest at heart, and that whatever he or she says or does is done with the individual’s best interest in mind. Once the coach and the recipient understand [...]

Coaching can be an effective means of aligning individual aspirations with organizational goals. It is the coach’s responsibility to bring out the talent within the individual and to ensure that there is a good match between that talent and the organization’s needs. For example, an accountant wants to work in a place where she or [...]

[T]he new leadership is in sacrifice, it is in self-denial, it is in love and loyalty, it is in fearlessness, it is in humility, and it is in the perfectly disciplined will. This . . . is the distinction between great and little men.
Vince Lombardi
David Maraniss, When Pride Still Mattered: A Life of [...]

Anyone who came into contact with George Marshall respected him. His sense of virtue was palpable. Throughout his long years in the military, often doing jobs he did not particularly want, he did his duty. His greatest disappointment was failing to obtain divisional command. He was a lifelong staff officer, who served the army and [...]

Another of Marshall’s traits was a willingness to listen. General Omar Bradley tells of being called into Marshall’s office in 1939, a week after the outbreak of the war in Europe. Marshall expressed his disappointment in Bradley and his fellow officers: “You haven’t disagreed with a single thing I have done all week.” The next [...]