2010 in Review: Tony Alessandra and Warren Bennis at GILD

The highlight of our 2010 Global Institute for Leadership Development for me was introducing Tony Alessandra, author or The Platinum Rule, before his speech.  Tony and I worked closely all year and he customized his presentation to really accomplish specific developmental goals in his ‘Relationship Building’ skill session.  With less than an hour to go, I was given a heads-up that I would be introducing Tony…accompanied by the challenge of memorizing his biographical opening statement.  I’m sure that participants could tell I was nervous, but I enjoyed the chance to introduce someone who worked very hard on making his GILD presentation great.  It helped me walk away from the entire week with the following outline for an excellent presentation:

1. Nail the content.  Meet all expectations and clearly get the main point across, early and often.

2. Entertain the audience.  Keep them engaged, keep your presentation moving, and make the time memorable.  Quickly.
3. Work with the people who hired you to make sure the message is received and retained – they know how to get #’s 1 & 2 of this list done best!  Provide some pre-speech material and follow-up with some good stuff after the event, your message will be warmed up well and closed out smoothly.

Tony did a great job, and the evaluations reflected the same sentiment.

Another highlight of that week was meeting Warren Bennis, someone I have long admired from afar, and another reason I joined Linkage.  He’s a supremely intelligent and observant man, and I think that has helped him become a great leader of leaders.  He also practices what he preaches, especially when it comes to authentic leadership and having your own voice.  Tremendous experience to see this work up close