actually do what you tell other people
to do. Conviction happens when you
act with integrity; when you’re genuine;
when you’re real.
Mohandas Gandhi did not have
great charisma, but he had incredible
conviction. Martin Luther King Jr. had
incredible charisma and conviction.
They both believed in their core that
nonviolent resistance was the key to
massive civil rights change and they
were both two of the greatest leaders in
the history of the world. Charisma was
not the key factor.
People say Steve Jobs had great
charisma. I actually think he spoke very
clearly with great conviction. Think of
a person who had great charisma, but
his or her words rang hollow. I was
going to throw a few politicians from
the past 50 years under the bus, but
I’ve decided not to. You can choose your
own examples of ineffective leaders
who had charisma, but lacked in clarity
and conviction.
Ask People to Explain What You
Just Said
If you’re wondering whether you’re
clear, ask someone to repeat what you
said and what it means to him or her;
then don’t blame the other person if he
or she can’t articulate what you just said.
The problem isn’t with the other person.
The problem is with your statement. It is
not clear.
How Buzzwords Kill Clarity
A power tool is something you use to get a job done
faster than you otherwise could
have done it. In communicating, a
metaphor can save a ton of time in
explaining an idea so that people understand it.
When personal computers were
first coming out, Steve Jobs said, “It’s
a bicycle for your mind.” That helped
people understand why it was useful to
have one. They could relate to a bicycle
giving them independence and freedom
to do what they wanted when they
wanted, and now they understood how
a computer could help them.
A metaphor is a word or phrase for
one thing that is used to refer to another
thing in order to show or suggest that
they are similar. When President John
F. Kennedy wanted to accelerate the
growth of math, technology and engineering in the United States, he simply
said, “We’ll put a man on the moon by
the end of the decade.” That did happen,
but the much bigger result was the
massive growth in electronic technology.
Twenty years later, Jobs described
a laptop computer as “something you
throw in your backpack.”People could
visualize that what you would do with it
made sense. You would carry it around
with you like a paperback book or a
snack. It made the laptop computer a
part of your normal activities.
Do You Really Believe in What
You’