10.09.2014 Interview with Frank Dick OBE
What is the message you hope people take away from your presentations?
- Each of you is unique and the difference you can bring to business and life cannot be delivered by anyone else. It is our choice to make that difference count.
- Make the cycle of RISK – FEAR – COURAGE work for you and for the enterprise in these tough times.
- Deliver on three behaviours: OWN, DECIDE, DO.
Do you have a favorite experience from your speaking career?
Having someone bump into me on a train and say “You won’t remember me, but I was in the audience you spoke to six years ago. You said that we were mountain people. So I was going to be. It has changed my life. Thank you.” Then she disappeared.
How do you prepare for speaking engagements?
I always have a thorough briefing to understand the messages the client needs their people to hear. Then I make a point of reordering things right up to the last minute to keep me on the edge, to customize things and to include input that reflects appropriate issues that have come on to the radar since the briefing.
How do you draw on your life experience in your keynote presentations?
Life experience is a continuous learning medium, so you must be constantly looking for those metaphors that come out of joining up the dots of sport, business, family, events, people overcoming adversity and so on. You see in presentations, the key is to have each person in the audience feel you have spoken to them about their life. Getting the metaphors right does this. So you must work at that.
Can you give 3 tips to improve performance?
- Put in the training and practice hours
- Climb the mountains no one else would dare to climb
- Do things differently and do different things persistently
What are some of the necessary elements for successful leadership?
First, create a climate that drives and supports learning fast, and coaching to own; plan; execute; review; align. Next, ensure that winning is understood by everyone to be performing better today than yesterday, every day personally and collectively.
And in that climate:
- Have the courage to stand tall, to be exposed and vulnerable
- Separate yourself from prevailing emotional processes
- Create a spark gap between your and colleagues
- Keep vision and values front and centre
- Be persistent and patient in the face of inertia to change
- Be bold in your judgment calls to do the right thing and never stop learning in how to be better at that
- Be your most passionate supporter and most meticulous critic.
How are your keynote presentations unique?
I get Frank Dick to do the presentations!
How do you feel the Olympics relate to the business world?
A cornucopia of business messages through the metaphors that will come from the greatest show on each.