By Barb Kachelski, CAE
“All the world’s a stage.” I read William Shakespeare’s words during my college English major days.
Then Alec Horniman, Ph.D., a professor of business administration and senior fellow at the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business, quoted the words to me and my fellow participants in CUES' CEO Institute III: Strategic Leadership Development. Horniman focused on the sentence as it pertains to leadership. Leaders are being observed all the time by stakeholders, followers and competitors.
Lyn Heyward, Cirque du Soleil’s creative director and executive producer, was the most recent person to bring these words to mind … even though she never spoke them.
Heyward presented on the third day of CUES' Directors Conference in Las Vegas last month. Her presentation was stupendous, and I learned a lot from it. But her preparation for the presentation was a lesson in its own right. Here’s what I learned from her:
1. Sweat the details. More than any other speaker, Heyward worked with the audio visual workers and CUES staff to rehearse in advance. Normally a sound check would take 15 minutes. Heyward’s rehearsal lasted two hours. She brought her own computer with her own Cirque du Soleil videos that punctuated the points she made throughout the presentation.
2. Get to know the people who will make you look good. Again, more than any other speaker, Heyward introduced herself to CUES' onsite staff. She introduced herself to the A/V workers. She wanted onsite staff to advance her slides so she could focus on what only Heyward was being paid to do: present. Once she met CUES' onsite and A/V staff, she told us she was excited to work with us. She consciously motivated all of us to help her.
3. Prepare physically. I saw Heyward in the powder room before she went on stage. She was dressed impeccably. She had brushed her teeth. She had combed her hair. She had reapplied her makeup. I felt as though I was backstage with a performer, and I realized that–based on her preparation–I was backstage with a performer.
4. Thank the people who will make you look good. The first thing Heyward did after she was introduced was to draw attention to the A/V table. I have never seen any speaker do this at any point in their presentation. Why did she do it first? Audio visual workers are probably the least likely individuals to ever be praised for a job well done. In fact, most conference attendees probably never notice the audio-visual table unless there is a problem. I believe Heyward thanked them for two reasons: She thought they had prepared as well as she had, and she knew the expectation was that her presentation would be flawless from an A/V perspective.
5. Deliver. As you would expect, Heyward’s presentation was dazzling. She never looked at a note. She never stood behind a podium. She was the master of the entire stage, moving, making her points, gesturing and responding to the audience.
After the conference, Joette Mitchell, CUES' director of executive education and meetings, said Heyward told her she prepared as consciously to give a presentation as she would prepare her dancers for a performance. I have no doubt every one of Heyward’s audiences has gotten their money’s worth!
Barb Kachelski, CAE, is CUES' SVP/chief operating officer.
Read more about the Cirque du Soleil in this CU Management article.
