Frank Kern is senior vice-president of IBM Global Business Services. On May 19, 2010, he released a new survey of 1,500 chief executives conducted by IBM’s Institute for Business Value<\/a>. Are you ready for this? According to that survey, today\u2019s CEOs identify “creativity” as the most important leadership competency for the successful enterprise of the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s creativity<\/a>\u2014not operational effectiveness, influence, or even dedication. Coming out of the worst economic downturn in their professional lifetimes, when managerial discipline and rigor ruled the day, this indicates a remarkable shift in attitude.\u201d<\/p>\n

Creativity is also important in public speaking <\/a>and presenting, and in the training and coaching of speakers <\/a>too.<\/p>\n

Many years ago, I heard Kathleen Hall Jamieson <\/a>speak about the future of public speeches.\u00a0 She predicted that politicians and business leaders would be using music in their presentations\u2014not just as preludes and postludes, but as integral parts of content, just as movies use scores.<\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t seen that yet.<\/p>\n

And in the realm of training, the standard approach to developing people as speakers is a small group seminar that lasts a day or two in which people give presentations, see themselves on videotape, get feedback, and try to make adjustments.<\/p>\n

This is fine, but it needs to be re-invented.\u00a0 Too much training is prescriptive and not creative.\u00a0 Most students are told how to organize their talks, how to design their PowerPoints, and how to stand still and use their hands.<\/p>\n

We need to create highly effective speakers <\/a>and presenters who will become creative speechwriters and presentation developers.\u00a0 And to do that we must create highly effective training and coaching programs in speechwriting and delivery skills.<\/p>\n

However, I must admit that when I contemplate doing something new and creative with clients, I get scared.\u00a0 The new and unknown is hard to sell.\u00a0 People resist it.\u00a0 I don’t feel as confident as I would delivering the tried and true.<\/p>\n

I feel the truth in what Ghandi said:<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.\u201d<\/p>\n

I want to know how long til the \u201cwin\u201d part.<\/p>\n

\n<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frank Kern is senior vice-president of IBM Global Business Services. On May 19, 2010, he released a new survey of 1,500 chief executives conducted by IBM’s Institute for Business Value. Are you ready for this? According to that survey, today\u2019s CEOs identify “creativity” as the most important leadership competency for the successful enterprise of the… Read More »Creative Public Speaking and Presenting<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_ti_tpc_template_sync":false,"_ti_tpc_template_id":""},"categories":[144,336],"tags":[603,88,116,30,612],"yoast_head":"\n