Exceptional leaders succeed in 60 seconds.
We’ve taught thousands of leaders on 5 continents on how to implement change which includes how to deliver bad or uncomfortable news – while creating acceptance, positive feelings and even excitement.
The key?
Capturing “The Why.”
Every leader needs to know how to give the ‘one minute change speech’.
The number one reason leaders fail to implement change is that employees don’t have enough urgency to move through the problems of change. In other words, people do not have a good enough answer to the question, “Why Change?” Employees need to know “The Why” so they can emotionally connect with the mission.
Exceptional leaders are able to capture the answer in 60 seconds or less. Think Steve Jobs: “We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?”; Martin Luther King: ‘I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”; Richard Branson: “Screw it, let’s just do it.”
The One Minute Change Speech is a tool we use with leaders to help them communicate change , quickly. Sounds simple, but it is not. You need to communicate, the ‘what’ we are doing and “The Why” we are doing what we are doing in 60 seconds. 75% of the speech should be “The Why”. Most employees get ‘the what’ hundreds of ways – through emails, project plans, and the rumor mill. But it is ‘The Why’ that is the job of the leader. “The Why” is why leaders are there: to motivate, educate and inspire.
*Our one minute change speech was published in the bible of Organizational Consulting, Pfeiffer Annual Consulting Resource
Book, 2012.