Tribal Leadership Tip #6

Speak in Stages 2-5

We’ve heard hundreds of speeches from company leaders and most are as impactful as generic mayonnaise.

The reason is that most speeches are written in Stage Five, and most people (96%) are in Stages Two, Three and Four.  Thus, they come across like bad graduation addresses—vague, filled with platitudes, having no relation to people’s lives.

Being a Tribal Leader means touching everyone, and this means speaking to Stages Two through Five.

Consider one of the greatest speeches of all time–Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream.” It was immediately relevant to millions of people, and continues to move people today.  Notice his words:

Stage Two: “…the [African American] lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.”

Stage Three: “I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream.”

Stage Four: “With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

Stage Five: “…we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’

Needle Moving Challenge:

Next time you give a speech, include sentiments and aspirations from all the stages in your tribe.