“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts.”
So wrote William Shakespeare in his immortal comedy, As You Like It. Scholars think he penned the words somewhere around 1599 or 1600, but I’m convinced that had he been writing in modern times, he might have qualified the lines with a phrase like “unless they’re senior executives at major corporations. In which case, normal rules don’t apply.”
My assertion is based on more than 20 years of MC’ing conferences in South Africa and other parts of the world and watching these senior executives at work.
“All the world’s a stage” – no doubt at all about that, but if these executives were in truth “merely players”, some of them at least would have rehearsed their speeches and presentations. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of truly memorable corporate presentations I’ve seen, yet I have lost count of the number which have been marred by mumbling, shambling delivery, in which slides are illegible or appear in the wrong order, and in which “Let’s just click on this link…” is followed by “Oh, we seem to have a technical problem…could someone get the video going for me?”
No professional “player” worth his or her salt engaged at even the most humble or remote playhouse would dare deliver such ineptitude or mediocrity. The paying public would howl them down, into the wings and back to the dressing room in double-quick time. Nor is it so long ago that the catcalls would have been accompanied by a well-deserved array of missiles: rotten fruit and eggs, lumps of excrement and ordure, and a chair or two.
Now, because Mr So-and-So is Global Chief Executive of The Megacorp Limited, or Ms Such-and-Such is International Vice President of The Incorporated, Inc., we are expected to suspend the normal rules of performance. These people clearly do not see themselves as “merely players”, but rather gods who have come to earth to grace us with their presence and for whom different standards apply.
They are wrong. In fact, their exalted and highly-paid status makes their egregiously awful showmanship even worse. Of all of us, these are the people who have the advisers, the technicians, the coaches and the scriptwriters to make every performance flawless. Their failure tarnishes their personal brand as well as that of their company.
There are some exceptions but if you look closely, you’ll discover that most of them – the ‘naturals’ – have something in common: they’re not ‘natural’ at all. In fact, they’ve taken many years of hard, hard practice to learn how to appear natural. Now, at the top of their organisations, they’re very good at it. The late Steve Jobs was one, Jack Welch when he was at GE another and Warren Buffet yet another. On the South African scene, Pick n Pay founder Raymond Ackerman gets it right, as does Tiger Brands’ Peter Matlare.
‘Hard, hard practice’ is also what actors and actresses do, except in their world it’s called ‘rehearsal’. Far away from the glamour of opening night and the deluge of glowing reviews and full houses, the “players” sweat the details in grimy, cold rehearsal rooms, agonising over moves and interactions, trying desperately to learn their lines, and fussing with props over pieces of ‘business’. They do it so that when the curtain does eventually lift, their performances are flawless. It’s also worth noting that the French for rehearsal is répétition – because repetition is what you have to do to reach flawless.
So if you’re a corporate Big-Shot with a major presentation ahead of you, build your performance (and yes, it’s a performance, just like the actors!) on three simple words: rehearse, rehearse and rehearse.
And if you’re in any doubt, rehearse some more.