Don't forget, leaders - you're always on stage

November 4, 3:51 PMLeadership ExaminerSteve Arneson

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There’s never a bad time to remind you about this - as a leader, your every move is being watched, analyzed and interpreted by employees, the press, your peers, your boss, etc.  It’s a fact of life at the top – you have to watch what you say and do, because you never know who’s going to take issue with something and make your life miserable for awhile.

Frankly, every week there are dozens of leaders in the political or business world making stupid statements they’d like to have back as soon as they walk off stage. Happens all the time in the sports and entertainment world, too. Just this week there were several examples, including:
 

• Bob Griese, a sportscaster for ABC, made a racial slur while broadcasting a college football game, and was suspended for a week
• Jimmy Rollins, shortstop for the Philadelphia Phillies, predicted the Phillies would win the World Series in 5 games (oops - Game 6 is scheduled for tonight)
• Cole Hamels, a teammate of Rollins’ on the Phillies, said in an interview that “he couldn’t wait for the season to be over” – a comment that might not endear him to his teammates as the continue to battle the Yankees this week

OK, so the Rollins comment might seem pretty harmless in the context of posturing that is part of a big sporting event. Those types of predictions happen all the time in sports. But what if your CEO was making specific, boastful statements about taking down the competition, or guaranteeing a certain financial performance for the year? Think that might get them in some hot water if the company was unable to deliver? Certainly the Griese and Hamels comments would be out of bounds in business or the political arena, too. Can’t have leaders running around saying stupid things or publicly talking about packing it in for the year… (oh wait, Sarah Palin already did that).

I’ll never forget something my friend Jeff Smith said once, as we watched a senior leader absolutely butcher a teaching session at a leadership program we had designed. As this guy dug himself a deeper and deeper hole, and as we grew more and more horrified, Jeff leaned over to me and said: “you know, when people get up on stage, they want to be liked, and they want to be funny”. We shared a good laugh over that comment, because that’s exactly what this guy was trying to do – with disastrous results. The moral of this story? Don’t try to wing it – there’s a good chance it won’t come off well.

OK, fair enough you say. But is it still OK to be provocative, challenge the status quo, and put some bold goals out there? Of course it is – just be sure to package it appropriately, and pair it with facts and/or a bold vision for where you want to go.  Remember this simple rule when getting ready to speak about anything in a public setting - is this something you’d want to see on the front page of tomorrow’s newspaper? That’s all the litmus test you really need…

Happy communicating... and I hope you're not quite ready for the year to be over yet - you still have about 8 weeks to lead!