Many years ago, Peter Urs Bender presented wonderful, simple advice:

There are only 4 reasons you should give presentations -

• to inform
• to entertain
• to touch the emotions
• to move to action

You can and should try to accomplish more than one of these 4 things when you give presentations...and accomplishing all 4 is ideal.

I have found this simple advice to be very helpful.

***

Many, many years ago one of my bosses gave me the following piece of advice...

There's only 2 reasons to make a speech -

1. You love making speeches
2. Your boss tells you to make a speech.

There's value in silence and stillness. I suppose I never really grasped that until I read the words of North American Indians, gained an understanding of what they learned early in life and gained some understanding of how they governed themselves [pre-19th Century]. I suppose I am naturally un-silent and un-still...I suppose, my behaviour is in the zone of ADHD...[if categorizing people that way contains any value]. And, as a final point of introduction, I know the meditative arts bank heavily on silence and stillness. For me, it would take extreme effort to progress up the hierarchical steps of meditation [for example, as presented by Alan Wallace in his classic 'The Attention Revolution', (2006)]. 

My nature is not one of stillness and silence.

Regardless, I force myself from time to time to practice these two behaviours because I believe they bring value. I am fascinated by Eckhart Tolle and his work around 'The Power of Now': his work is laced with calmness, silence, stillness, peace of mind...and a wonderful, relaxed sense of humour.

As an 'observer of others'...

I see people working in silence and stillness. I don't see this very often: overall, it is rather rare. It is common for most people to work in silence and stillness for short periods, from time to time. As examples - most people hunker down when an important deadline is looming or when a particularly sticky problem needs to be solved quickly. On the other hand, few people spend the majority of their workday in silence and stillness, exerting highly-focused/concentrated thought and effort. Few people approach their work the silent-and-still way they would behave during a series of school exams. 

We should think about this...probably best to set aside some silent-and-still time to think about the value of silence and stillness...perhaps, we should perform this in a light stage of meditation.

We - I mean, each of us - should aim to figure out his/her personal balance between silent-and-still work and work that is not silent or still. [I mean both thought-work and action-work.]

We should talk about silent-and-still work. Well, yes - we won't be able to do that silently. But we can do it calmly and quietly...or can we?

Managers outnumber leaders in business, by orders of magnitude.

Managers outnumber leaders in families, my orders of magnitude.

So, of course, managers outnumber leaders in family businesses, by orders of magnitude.

The imbalance we see between the number of leaders and managers is a problem. And the problem is compounded when family businesses are involved.

The solution is clear: leaders in family businesses need to increase the amount of leading they do and decrease the amount of managing they do. That's the simple solution to this problem. To implement the solution, some damage repair must be completed. Some knowledge must be gained. Some skills, new skills, must be practised and honed. Bad habits must be stopped. New things must be tried. And good habits must be developed…good leadership habits, that is.

It is far more natural for parents to manage their children than to lead their children. Sure, most parents want to be role models...as in leadership. Regardless, children do not arrive with a predisposition to follow leaders. Rather, the little ones are born with 'minds of their own' and many of them seem to be daredevils at heart, oblivious to the dangers in the world around them. Consequently, all children act in ways that sream out for parental management. And, their parents feel both the desire and obligation to deliver that management.

Time passes.

Patterns of management become habits.

And, once a parent has experienced a long term relationship filled with managing children, it is very difficult to break the managing habits and alter the parent-child relationships by converting management habits to leadership habits.

Then, the next thing you know, the children become adults and they want to manage themselves and others...and some want to lead!