Dr. Michael Gerharz, Autor auf The Art of Communicating

The Evolution of Leadership

First we had command & control.
Then came the carrot & the stick.
Today we have leading by example.
Next is lighting the path.

Let’s take a closer look at them:

Command & Control: This is one of the earliest leadership styles, often associated with military or hierarchical corporate structures. It involves clear, top-down directives where leaders make decisions and expect subordinates to follow without questioning. The focus is on obedience, discipline, and order, which can be effective in crisis situations or industries where safety and precision are paramount.
Carrot & Stick: This approach integrates rewards and punishments to motivate employees. It stems from behaviorist theories which propose that behavior can be controlled by consequences. Here, leaders use incentives (carrots) to encourage desirable actions and penalties (sticks) to deter unwanted behaviors. While more interactive than command and control, this method can still be seen as somewhat manipulative and may not foster genuine intrinsic motivation.
Leading by Example: Modern leadership increasingly emphasizes leading by example, where leaders themselves embody the behaviors and values they wish to instill in their teams. This approach builds trust and encourages team members to act similarly through a powerful demonstration of commitment and ethical behavior. It’s more collaborative and less authoritarian, promoting a culture of mutual respect and shared goals.
Lighting the Path: This future-oriented leadership style focuses on vision-setting and empowerment. Leaders “light the path” by providing clear visions of the future, inspiring innovation, and fostering an environment where team members are empowered to take initiatives and contribute ideas. It’s about facilitating growth and development, encouraging autonomy, and supporting team members in navigating challenges.

Finding the right words makes the leader’s life easier in any of these stages. But there’s no lighting the path without great communication.

When will you make the leap?

Keep lighting the path!

If only they knew

A big mistake in communication is to assume that others would arrive at the same conclusions as you do if only they knew the same.

But that’s not true.

They have a different frame of reference.
They have a different set of values.
They’ve made different experiences.

And so, even if both of you have the exact same information, they may still arrive at a different conclusion.

Which means that there’s no use in bombarding them with ever more facts and details that support your conclusion.

It won’t change their mind.
They have already perfectly understood your point.
Missing information is not the problem.
They will still arrive at a different conclusion.

A better way forward is to try and understand their perspective.

What makes them arrive at that conclusion?
What do they see when they look at the question at hand?
What does it remind them of?
Which values are at play?

This puts you in a much better situation to answer the next set of questions:

What would need to be true for them to arrive at a different conclusion? (Is there a way for me to make it true?)

What would be an outcome that makes sense for them? (Is there a way for me to create that outcome?)

What do they really want? (Is there a way for me to make it easier for them to get it?)

I’d love to hear your strategies for dealing with situations where the others seemingly just don’t get it.

PS: If you want help in finding better words, not just more words, reach out!

The star of the show

The star of the show is not always the hero of the story.
In fact, in business, they are hardly ever the same.

The star might be Canva, the user-friendly graphic design tool, but the hero is the small business owner who becomes a confident designer.

The star might be Amazon Web Services, the scalable cloud computing platform, but the hero is the fledgling tech startup who becomes an industry innovator without the need for massive capital investment.

Or the star might be the famous public speaker who captivates the room with eloquence and insight, but the hero is the individual in the audience who sees a new path ahead.

Who’s the star of your show?
Who’s the hero?

The hero’s pedestal

Here’s a little secret for everyone who feels at least a little pressure when going on a stage to give a speech.

Everyone in the audience already has a hero: themselves.

They don’t show up to cheer for you.
They want you to cheer for them.

Which is pretty good news for you because it means that you can stop trying so hard to appear as the hero.

The hero’s pedestal is a notoriously difficult place to be at.

All eyes are on you.
Everyone expects you to save the world from evil.

Which means there’s a constant pressure of proving that you deserve standing up there.

Essentially, it creates a disconnect.

You, the extraordinary, stand high up on the hero’s pedestal while they, the normals, are down on the floor.

This disconnect isn’t just uncomfortable.
It’s a barrier.
To engagement.
To impact.
To transformation.

That changes the moment you switch your role to that of the mentor who helps the audience live up to the hero’s expectations.

When you frame your audience as the heroes, it flips the script on the typical speaker-listener dynamic. It’s empowering and ennobling for them.

Rather than ask “What will impress them?” you ask the (more important) question of “What will help them?”

It eases the pressure on you, because the focus shifts from proving yourself to aiding them.

How might viewing your audience as heroes transform your next presentation? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

PS: This is a short excerpt from my free eBook “Speak Easy” with a simple 4 step approach to show up with more confidence. Download it here: https://michaelgerharz.com/speak-easy

Split Attention

This principle has served me well in the past:
Don’t split your attention!

I don’t check my phone when in a conversation. I don’t chat when watching a movie. I don’t listen to new music when writing, I don’t read when I listen to new music, I don’t clean the kitchen while listening to a podcast, etc.

On the flip side, if I feel that what I’m currently doing doesn’t deserve my full attention, I very much prefer looking for something that does …

… rather than split the attention with a second thing.

What’s your approach?

Let’s try doings

Meetings can be a living nightmare.
Let’s try “doings” instead. What’s the difference?

Meetings have an agenda, doings a goal.

Meetings cover topics, doings aim for results.

In a meeting, you talk about things.
In a doing, you do things.

To be sure, getting to results can involve lots of talking.
But it’s not about the talking.

Too often, we meet just for the talking.
Ending up with lots of, well, talk but no result.

But where will the talking lead you?
Asking that question is a powerful shift already.

You don’t meet to talk.
You talk to make progress.

Often, when a meeting is over, the work starts.
But when a doing is over, the work is done (ideally, at least).

Here’s a simple recipe:

There’s an issue. (For example, a decision needs to be made. A plan needs to be made. A conflict has emerged and you seek alignment.)
No issue, no gathering.
You agree on what exactly you want to do in the meeting.
You gather in a room.
You do what you said you’d do.

Even if the result is merely a plan, if that’s what you agreed upon as the goal of gathering in a room, then that’s much more than the open-endedness of many meetings that simply end because time’s up.

Getting people together, whether in a meeting room or online, to work on solving problems is great. The problem is when it’s just for the sake of it.

How do you deal with meeting madness?

PS: Don’t get me wrong. There’s tremendous value in “merely” meeting for the sake of it, but there might be better places than a meeting room.

Meeting madness

This meeting could have been a memo.
Unfortunately, no one reads memos.
So it had to be a meeting.

The best way to get rid of unproductive meetings is to create an environment where they are not needed.

Inside out

Good speakers make us get them.
Great speakers get us.

It’s a fascinating experience when you listen to someone and it feels like they know you inside out.

When their story makes you feel seen and heard.

When their messages make you see options that you couldn’t see before.

When they’ve found words for what’s going on inside of you that you could never have found yourself.

Did you ever experience that in a talk?
Have you created it?
I’d love to hear your stories!

The biggest reason for stage fright

The biggest reason for stage fright is not what you think it is.

It’s not the size of the audience or the prestige of the event.

It’s not that you don’t have a commanding presence on stage.

It’s not that you’re not funny enough or can’t tell engaging stories.

It’s also not the complexity of the topic you are speaking on.

Nor that you haven’t practiced enough.

And it’s not that you haven’t attended enough public speaking workshops.

Although all of that can contribute.

But none of it is the root cause! The root cause is this:
You don’t believe in the words you use!

None of the usual advice will fix this. That’s why it can’t work. If you don’t believe in your words, any body language tip will have to work against your belief. It only adds to the stress.

But here’s the good news:

When you find words you truly believe in about the things you deeply care about, nothing else will matter!

Solve that problem, and you’ll solve the others, too.

PS: I wrote a little eBook on how to do that. It’s called: Speak Easy and it’s a short read with a pretty unusual take. If you haven’t done so already, download it here for free: https://michaelgerharz.com/speak-easy

A little empathy

“I’m sorry!”
Three words that can change the dynamics almost every time something went wrong.

Instead, people tend to get defensive.
“Not my fault!”
“I did nothing wrong!”
“You should have done it differently!”

Which might be 100% accurate. It wasn’t their fault.

But what if I wasn’t even looking for someone to blame? What if I’m totally aware that I should have done it differently?

And yet, here I am. Things have gone wrong and it hurts.

What if all I wanted was an acknowledgment of that feeling?

“I feel you!” might be all that it takes.

Instead, people are more concerned about their own feelings.
Which is probably just an intuitive reaction.
But once you see it you can change it.

A little more empathy takes interactions a long way – especially when things have gone wrong.

SEARCH

Explore

Work with me

Connect

SUBSCRIBE