A question that is in the back of the mind of an executive or an executive type would be why do they need to be an effective speaker? Let’s say that they are an effective CEO. Why do they need to be an effective speaker? That goes to my belief in the whole difference of 21st century leadership. 21st century leadership is very different than 20th century leadership. I am from Akron, Ohio. When I was growing up we were the tire capital of the world. Goodyear, Goodrich, Firestone, General. Even in Akron people didn’t see the CEOs because that was 20th century.
A 21st century secret is that visibility equals viability. We didn’t see the CEOs of the Fortune 50 companies in the past but we all know who Bill Gates is. We all knew Steve Jobs. We all know who founded Facebook. Picture Steve Jobs in his black turtleneck and his black jeans addressing Apple every time there was a new product to roll out. These are 21st century leaders that understand the importance and the rewards of visibility.
Their job internally and externally is to create the vision. You have got to do that with communication – oral communication – to get buy-in at all levels. The only way to get buy-in is with communication, being effective at moving your agenda forward which means you have to both know and implement the rules of communication. When a CEO is more visible in an effective way good things happen. It may be that they attract a higher caliber of employees, that people see them speak and hear about their company and say, “I would like to work for them.” They may maintain their clients and their employees which everyone knows turnover has a great cost to an organization. Personally they may get asked to serve on boards. They may get asked to be of a national prominence. I have a client that almost makes more money serving on boards than he does as a CEO because of being an effective speaker that raises his visibility. Good things happen at all levels of the organizational chart when you are an effective speaker.
