Welcome to this special issue for those who run business leaders’ groups – at a time when the boss of the world’s most ridiculed company, United Airlines, has done you a big favour.
This issue will:
+ Help you capitalise on the latest United Airlines bungle to underline the value of belonging to your group
+ Enable you to better answer the toughest question that the chairs of business leaders’ groups most often face
+ Give you options to turn your members into inspirational business communicators
+ Reveal what business leaders’ group expert, Phil Jesson, is doing next – and what it could mean for those who lose the British election on 8 June.
UNITED AIRLINES BOSS PROVES THE NEED FOR ONGOING BUSINESS LEADERS’ EDUCATION
The business universe now has the best evidence yet of what you already knew – that after a chief executive has made it to the top he or she still needs ongoing help to boost their performance.
The hapless Chief Executive of United Airlines, Oscar Munoz, has effectively proven the need for constant business leaders’ education beyond all doubt.
And in doing so he has given you the perfect ammunition to help you market business leaders’ groups for the benefit of us all.
I don’t know if Oscar Munoz is in a business leaders group – though unsurprisingly I haven’t found any evidence that he is from his online profiles.
But if Mr Munoz does belong to such a group then his chair and fellow members have a lot of work to do on him… assuming he remains a chief executive (a mighty big assumption indeed!).
It will be hard for Oscar Munoz to shake off the image of ineptness after his ham-fisted approach when a passenger was bloodied and dragged off one of his overbooked United Airlines flights.
This fiasco in customer and public relations was exacerbated by Mr Munoz’s attempt to blame the passenger (a doctor seeking to fly in for his next hospital shift) for being “disruptive and belligerent”.
This was followed by his belated string of pathetically unsatisfactory apologies (the first of which didn’t even mention the doctor’s injuries!).
If this doesn’t illustrate an ongoing need to educate, challenge and enlighten those at the top in business then nothing will.
It makes you wonder where Oscar Munoz (pictured left) gets his advice from at the moment!
Now is the time to utilise this example to convince many company leaders – and their boards and chairmen – that they could do with business leaders’ groups like yours to help them get to a higher level so they can avoid such damaging and costly misjudgements.
THE ONE QUESTION EVERY CHAIR OF A BUSINESS LEADERS’ GROUP NEEDS TO BE READY FOR
Of course you know that business leaders’ groups provide massive advantages for your members as they are propelled to ever-higher levels of knowledge and performance.
But chairs still often find it a challenge to attract as many new members as they would like and deserve.
When it comes to those delicate conversations between chairs and prospective members there’s one tough question that the chairs consistently have to answer more effectively in order to boost their recruitment success rate.
I’ve uncovered this question through the master classes that I’m privileged to run with business leaders groups on “Giving Great Answers To Tough Questions”.
How I’ve discovered it is through the pre-session forms that I send out in advance to everyone taking part.
Among the questions on the form is: “What’s the toughest question that you have been asked or that you could be asked?”
When chairs complete the form along with their members they get the chance to improve their ability to stand up to blow-torch-on-the-belly questioning.
This is a technical term from the world of Australian journalism where I was trained in the art of asking such questions – and began to find the secrets behind what makes great answers.
Amazingly, those chairs who complete the form and take part in the sessions practically all have the same tough question from prospective members.
It’s not: “How can my company afford the cost of joining your business leaders group?”
And it’s not: “Why should I join your group rather than the one run by Brand X?”
The question they most need to deal with is this:
“How can I possibly have the time to spend a day a month away from my business?”
HAVING YOUR ANSWER READY FOR THE BIG QUESTION
Every chair needs to develop their own great answer to this question.
If you’ve witnessed a session on “Give Great Answers To Tough Questions” you will know that one of the things that underpins a superb reply is a powerful message.
That message is typically something like: Investing the time to learn together and from your fellow company leaders in the group pays great dividends.
But persuading those potential new members to embrace this isn’t always easy.
In order to answer successfully your powerful message needs to be backed up by examples so that prospective members can easily “see” what you mean.
This could be done painting a verbal picture of an existing member of your group who has become more efficient by taking part in the business leaders experiential learning sessions.
It might be giving an example of how all your members learned to save time with the guidance they received from time management speakers.
Whatever it is, you need to build a treasure chest of examples ready to persuade your prospective members why that period away from the office is ultimately an uplifting time-saving and business-enhancing investment.
GIVING GREAT ANSWERS – THE OPTIONAL EXTRAS
Master classes on “Give Great Answers To Tough Questions” for business leaders’ groups aim to help members avoid United Airlines-style fiascos and answer impressively the first time if something does go badly wrong.
They are designed to help those members who are appalling at answering those tough business questions that rise to the top – and for those who are already pretty good but who could do better still.
The master classes are also for those business leaders who have been led to think they are good at answering tough questions and aren’t!
Keep in mind that Oscar Munoz was declared the PR Week “Communicator Of The Year For 2017” – an award given out way back in …er, March this year!!!
(Perhaps PR Week can send in some heavy-handed security guys to smash up the trophy and forcibly remove it from the Munoz mantelpiece!)
Sessions on “Give Great Answers To Tough Questions” come with three optional extras to enhance your members’ performances.
1. A video camera operator can be provided to record your members in action. This enables them to see themselves as others see them – both during the session and in audiovisual copies they can study later. It’s an invaluable learning tool to guide adjustments to body language, facial expression and voice delivery – and to help them analyse and improve the content and structure of their answers.
2. The speaker can stay on to take part in the issues session, to help advise your members on communication-related business matters (see the testimonial from longstanding business leaders’ group chair, Simon Lester, at the foot of this ezine).
3. You can get copies of the book “Great Answers To Tough Questions At Work” for each of your members, benefitting from the author’s purchasing discount. (Rest assured the author is happy to sign each copy for your members.) This helps members to carry on their improvement after the session.
The publishers will let you read the first chapter of “Great Answers To Tough Questions At Work” here free of charge!
THE FULL RANGE OF COMMUNICATION-BOOSTING MASTER CLASSES
“Great Answers To Tough Questions At Work” is often the session that I run the first time I work with a business leaders group.
This is because blowtorch-on-the-belly questioning gives members a dramatic wake-up on the importance of getting their communication techniques right.
Other master classes to help your members become more inspirational communicators include…
Your Message In 60 Seconds – Helps tackle the business communication challenge of our age – getting members’ point across when their targets have more and more pressures on their time.
Presenting With Confidence, Impact And Pizzazz – Part One – Boosts the content, structure and delivery style of your members’ presentations without slides which, when they’ve mastered this, leaves them better placed to present with slides if they choose to
Presenting With Confidence, Impact And Pizzazz – Part Two – Enables members do great presentations with slides by showing how to design and deploy slides that wow audiences
Understand Naked Nuns – And Position Your Business For Free Publicity – Enables members to understand what makes news and to capitalise on this to get free publicity for their company in the mainstream media
Make Your Members Locally Famous – Shows how members can boost their personal media profile – in their local newspapers, in the trade press, on-line and beyond
Get Your Message Across To Different Personality Types – Enables members to better understand different personality types and connect with them effectively in the way each individual prefers
Making Your Members Look, Sound And Feel Great – This session give members and guests insights on what to say and how best to say it with greater confidence and impact. It’s for larger audiences such as regional conferences and promotional events. It’s conducted jointly with my Professional Speaking Association colleague, Nicci Roscoe, who takes her corporate clients to new heights in their business and life by enabling them to come across with greater confidence and “fabulous impact”. There is more on Nicci’s work at: www.nicciroscoe.com
If you’d like more details on any or all of the above master classes, email michael@michaeldoddcommunications.com
A BUSINESS LEADERS’ GROUP HERO TAKES ON THE BIG GREEN BLOB
This special edition for those who run business leaders’ groups concludes with a tribute to someone who knows what speaking with such audiences is all about – from every perspective.
Phil Jesson is a highly successful speaker on the business leaders’ circuit who has chaired his own groups and played a massive, unforgettable role in developing other speakers.
He’s even come along to events at the Professional Speaking Association with his close business leaders’ colleague, Joanna Jesson, to help speakers hone the craft of working with groups like the one Joanna runs in Hertfordshire.
Phil and Joanna Jesson helped me at an early stage transform my workshops so that they went way beyond doing media interview training for business leaders.
They pointed out the need for business leaders to learn how to apply the golden formulae to answering the tough questions they get from everywhere – clients, prospects, managers, staff, suppliers and tax officials.
Alas, Phil is now stepping down – for the second time! – as the Head of Speaker Development at the Academy for Chief Executives.
It’s understood he’ll be devoting more of his time to not-for-monetary-profit activities with his grandchildren and something even wilder – “The Big Green Blob” at the back of Chez Jesson which, if he’s successful, will become known as “The Garden”.
Artist’s Impression Of The Big Green Blob
Phil has great abilities to transform speakers, business leaders and whole organisations.
But taking on The Big Green Blob might be his most challenging transformational project yet – at least since he helped guide a fresh-faced business leaders’ speaker from Australia.
Everyone in the business leaders’ solar system will wish Phil well.
Phil can still potentially be tempted out to speak on his specialist topic, Key Account Management, until June… so get in quick while stocks last!
Perhaps after that he will spread his expertise under the banner “How To Take On A Big Green Blob And Win”.
It’s something I know would be in demand with many of those who run business leaders’ groups to the detriment of their back yard.
Phil Jesson’s gardening insights could also be useful for one or two of these well-known British characters if things don’t go well for them in the 8 June election – leaving them more time to fight their own green blobs.
Perhaps even Oscar Munoz could do with Phil’s green blob-fighting tips if the United Airlines’ powerbrokers insist that their CEO spends more time with his garden – all because he didn’t get or take top quality advice from a business leaders’ group.
“Michael Dodd creates unforgettable learning experiences. His third visit to Academy for Chief Executives Group 007 provided another great session from The Master. No other speaker puts in this amount of preparation to ensure everything goes smoothly on the day – the final delivery draws upon Michael’s skill and experience as a journalist and is nothing short of brilliant. Michael is prepared to stay on for board sessions and role-play scenarios with members to help them tackle their most difficult communications issues. My members found this really useful in preparing them for their forthcoming challenges. This is experiential learning at its very best, book him now!“
Simon Lester, Chair, Academy For Chief Executives Group 007.