Good Morning, Leaders! It’s Friday!

Great leaders are great communicators. One of the more challenging issues leaders face is absorbing a tremendous amount of complicated data and transforming it into an effectively articulated assessment. You’re trying to paint a picture in the mind of your audience or today it better be a high-definition, Youtube like video that lasts no more than 6.5 seconds-the new human attention span, a full second and a half lower than a goldfish.

Enter the Metaphor

* I heard an effective one today that stuck with me regarding the economy:
The current U.S. economic situation was described by a CNBC contributor as “a guy walking his dog”. Marching straight down the path with the dog stretching out the leash. The guy is the economy and the dog is the stock market. What he didn’t say but I quickly pictured was a dog wandering back and forth along the path, number 1 over here, number 2 over there, wag its tail at you, bark when you don’t want it to, lay down when it’s tired and eat your lunch if you’re careless where you put it. I suppose you could even envision that your portfolio manager should be Cesar Millan (the dog whisperer).

* Another recent example was overheard from a life coach suggesting someone was “stepping on their own spiritual garden hose”

*Winston Churchill used them…in one of his most famous quotes, he said, “We are all worms, but I do believe I am a glow-worm.”

From economics to spiritual journeys to self-evaluation,
What better way
To say
What you’re trying to convey…

Have a blessed weekend.