Speaking with Conviction
In 2010, I entered a new senior leadership role with an organic produce distributor in Portland, Oregon. As part of my onboarding and development, the Board of Directors requested that I attend a 3-day class with Josh, our CEO. It was called “Speaking with Conviction.” We were introduced to our instructor and a dozen other local professionals. Initially, I thought I would gain a few key insights about public speaking to bolster my current approach. However, early into the training, we knew something was different about our instructor’s approach but were unsure why. She shared that she was not a certified public speaking instructor, but instead an actor out of New York City. Surprised by her statement, we reviewed the schedule and learned we had three opportunities to present in front of our colleagues. We were instructed to read a short excerpt from a novel we enjoyed, followed by informational and persuasive presentations on subsequent days.
I picked a passage from Tolkien’s The Return of the King. It was a short and tense exchange between Gandalf and the Lord of the Nazgul. As our training progressed and I watched others read their captions, it became apparent that it was more than reading; I would need to act out these roles with conviction. We incorporated our training and spread out as we read over the lines while walking the halls outside the classroom in preparation for the moment. While I am an effective presenter, the thought of acting out these roles on a stage in front of strangers was an enormous stretch. I made notes in the margins highlighting inflection points and mimicked different voices representing these two powerful characters. I walked out onto the stage and blew the audience away. I was nervous but found the energy to step into the roles and convey their stories. When I got home that evening, I broke out my book and took 2 minutes to perform for my wife and daughter. My daughter’s first response to me was, “That is so NOT you!” Darcy said, “Yes, that isn’t you. Where did that come from?” I wasn’t quite sure myself, but I was excited.
Most attendees picked comfortable and familiar materials for the instructional presentation, which, if done correctly, could be reformatted for the final persuasive presentation. I was thankful that I could use familiar materials and didn’t have to prepare much in advance. However, this time, it didn’t work out as well. While I find joy in presenting operational improvements and change management, I fell back into a more familiar and automatic approach of Kahneman’s System 1.[1] I was in operator mode, working through the slides with minimal effort or emotion and overconfident in the message. My performance came across as methodical and uninspiring to the audience. When I wrapped up at the ten-minute mark, the first words out of the instructor’s mouth were, “What happened to Gandalf?” I was mortified.
It was a difficult lesson, and Kahneman’s System 2 agent took over on my drive home that evening. I processed the speech over thirty minutes and explored my self-conscious behaviors.[2] I would have another opportunity to perform the next day, but I needed to accomplish some work first. Following the recommendations, I sat at our kitchen table and retooled my instructional presentation to fit a more persuasive format. As I reformatted each slide and the corresponding comments, I felt worse. By 10 p.m., I found myself bewildered and mentally fatigued. The instructor had filmed the second presentation, and I watched the first 2 minutes and turned it off. It wasn’t working, and the likelihood was it would not improve. As I prepared for bed, my wife asked, “Are you ready for tomorrow? It’s your final presentation.”
I didn’t dare share my thoughts about the video with her, but I did have a backup plan. “Not quite yet,” I told her. But I think I am close.” I had something completely different in mind. It was a bit risky, but I was willing to go there and see what happened. I set my alarm for 4 a.m. and went to sleep. I had under two hours in the morning to figure it out.
Who are you?
Reading through The Undefended Leader this week, I was reminded that “Leadership is about who you are, not what you know or what skills you have.”[3] The audience observing my informational presentation could have cared less about my experience in operations. They wanted to witness more of who I was and my performance. Utilizing Walker’s front and back stages, I was too concerned about my appearance on the stage being just right to win approval or gain success.[4] It wasn’t until I watched the video of my presentation that I gathered enough courage and was willing to show my true performance and allow my fellow performers to come backstage.[5]
On the final day of our training, I realized that success on the stage would not be measured by the power I had traditionally displayed throughout my career. Historically, I relied heavily on experience, positional power, and moments of expertise to help drive organizational change and success. Utilizing a different definition of success, I needed to shift to personality power and encourage others to follow along.[6]
To be successful on the stage at that precise moment, I would need to relinquish control of what I knew as comfort and be willing to navigate through discomfort and ambiguity. In Leadersmithing, Eve Poole defines this as one of the 17 Critical Incidents. She introduces a winning hand primarily filled with the suit of diamonds, which focuses on sharpness and the ability of the leader to deploy oneself across a full range of leadership situations. [7] Leveraging these new and different skill sets would require me to let go and experience an entirely different form of freedom.
Backstage work and the return of Gandalf
The Holy Spirit works in mysterious ways. This was one of those times. I woke up at 4 a.m. and felt refreshed as I prayed through this opportunity. I made short work of my persuasive presentation. It was unorthodox and a complete shift. The entire presentation consisted of four images, a handful of bullet points scribbled onto a 3×5 card, and a story. It met the criteria for the day. No PowerPoint deck with corporate branding, graphs, charts, or other bells and whistles. As a leader, I needed to exhibit the ability to leave the safety and familiarity of operational excellence and cast a completely new vision in this presentation.[8] It was a risk, and as it turned out, I would be the day’s last presentation—the final act.
My presentation began by sharing the need to build homes for those living on the margins. I referred to a home build our family participated in in Ensenada, Mexico, a few months prior. I also shared the importance of not underestimating the difference someone can make in the lives of others if they try. In this example, it was my 10-year-old daughter raising enough funds through Christmas gifts and her birthday to pay for her trip. But the more dominant thread was one of community and love and being the hands and feet of Jesus. Our friends who helped coordinate and lead the build had lost their youngest daughter when she was struck and killed by an automobile near their home. That young girl loved building homes, and their family continues today’s mission by building in her memory. I concluded by asking the audience a simple question, “Will you join me on this journey?”
The experience emotionally drained me. As I prepared to answer questions, I began to look more intently at the faces in the audience. Most of them were in tears. One woman raised her hand and said, “Where do I sign up for the next build? I am ready to go now!”
Lastly, I glanced at the instructor. She reached over to turn off the video camera, looked up, and asked me one question. “When did you start working on your presentation?”
I paused for a second before answering. “4 a.m. this morning.”
She smiled back at me, stood up, and yelled, “Gandalf is back!”
[1] Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, (New York, NY: Farrar, Strous, and Giroux, 2013, 20.
[2] Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow, (New York, NY: Farrar, Strous, and Giroux, 2013), 39.
[3] Simon P. Walker, The Undefended Leader, (Carlisle, UK: Piquant Editions, Ltd., 2010), 9.
[4] Walker, 29.
[5] Walker, 29.
[6] Walker, 40-41.
[7] Eve Poole, Leader-smithing – Revealing the Trade Secrets of Leadership, (London, UK: Bloomsbury Business, 2017), 184.
[8] Simon P. Walker, The Undefended Leader, (Carlisle, UK: Piquant Editions, Ltd., 2010), 10.
About the Author
Michael Hansen
6 responses to “Speaking with Conviction”
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Mike, I recognized the picture and was reminded of Olivia’s Basket. I then promptly forgot about the housing ministry when visualizing your day one performance, admittedly with disbelief. Yay for day three!
You are an operations leader. Someone has to do the job, right? Gant charts and contingency plans keep the business running but rarely inspire. How do you know when to open the curtain and reveal the heart of the GM?
Rich,
Thanks for that question. This has been a transformative process over years of intentional work, and Leader-Smithing by Poole accentuated it even more. I have become increasingly flexible in my leadership approach by purposely slowing the pace and being more thoughtful. Where an immediate answer isn’t required but could be given, I have let my team know that I would like to sit on this overnight. There isn’t a risk to performance or safety, and the few extra hours don’t hurt anything. In fact, it often seems to be more caring, which is something I never expected.
This has backfired at times because my leader has viewed some of my decision-making as slow. For me, it is not wasting my team’s time or energy on fruitless endeavors. While the methodical approach isn’t encouraged at times, it does deliver effective results. So, I continue to embrace and move forward.
Hi Mike, I felt the intensity of the experience, and boy, was I rooting for you! You did so well and it inspires me to lean into unconventional ways of communicating to galvanize and inspire! What was the most vulnerable part about this experience for you Mike?
Judith,
The transformational point for me was really twofold. First, it was how there was perceived trust in the group for the conference attendees to explore. It was unnatural and awkward, but somehow, God helped me see through that and see the overall value. Secondly, it was the speed of recognizing the need for a change on my end. God was trying to help me see something He knew was always there but wanted to unpack it. I just needed to trust and go with this very objectively. He controlled the outcome, and I didn’t need to worry about the front stage mask.
Hope that helps.
Your clarity is seen, and I’m so glad it went well, not only during your presentation but also in some of the profound things you had to unpack personally. Pretty cool.
It’s great that you took some time to reflect on your initial presentation and think about your self-conscious behaviors. How do you weave self-reflection into your continuing journey of leadership development? Has it shaped the way you tackle other challenges along the way?