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His name was Oscar. I met Oscar because I had been hired to do the opening keynote speech
at his annual companyís conference, much like Iím doing today. This was a transportation
company that had grown from one pick-up truck in 1956 in Salt Lake City, to 2,000 employees
all over the United States and with a few shops in Canada. Let me tell you about Oscar.
Oscar was about 70 years of age, full head of white hair, ordinary gray business suit,
but he was the CEO and founder of this organization. But what I really remember about Oscar was
his kind eyes, his warm smile and his enormous hands. He came over to introduce himself to
me and to say hi and when he shook hands with me, my hand just disappeared inside of his
hand. He came over to me before I was to speak and he said, Doug, Iím really glad youíre
here today. Sally showed me your video, and I know that you are the absolute perfect person
to help us with the challenges going on in our company. You know people are challenged
by all these changes. Thank you for being here. I know you are going to do a great job.
Then he walked away, and as is normal before I speak, quite often the president or the
CEO of an organization will get up and do 15 or 20 minutes before I speak. So I kind
of went over in to the corner, to kind of watch Oscar do his thing, and I didnít know
what to expect ñ probably a PowerPoint slide, they were probably gonna be pretty bad. You
know what I mean? So I stood there and I watched as they introduced Oscar and he just walked
out into the room. He had no notes, he had no PowerPoint, he did not stand behind the
lecturn, he just walked out into the room. Sally, Sally, youíre here again, oh I am
so glad to see you. You came all the way from New Jersey. Sally, great to see you! Barney!
Barney. You guys you probably noticed out in the parking lot thereís this amazing Harley
Davidson, thatís Barneyís Harley Davidson ñ that is so gorgeous! Silver saddlebags.
Gorgeous! And I watched him do this for about 10 minutes ñ just kind of telling stories
about people and pointing to people and schmoozing. And Iím standing over here thinking, does
he have a speech? Or is this what heís gonna do, is he just gonna warm it up? But then
he shifted gears a little bit. Now I know that thereís a lot of rumblings going on
around here about all the changes that are going on. Every year we merge with somebody
else, we buy another company, we keep growing and growing. A lot of you who have been here
for a long time, youíre not comfortable with all this change. I know, I know you want it
to be like it used to be when it was simple, the good olí days. Well let me tell you about
the good olí days. 1956. Me and Bob, my brother, one pick-up truck hauling coal for the coal
company. Underwood Typewriters. Anybody want to go back to the good olí days? Now we had
a real advancement in the 60ís: Smith Corona Electric Typewriters. Anybody want to go back
to the good olí days? Mimeograph machines ñ I still have blue ink on my fingers that
I have not been able to get off since 1964 from my mimiograph machine. Does anybody want
to go back to the good olí days? And then he started to do this interesting little poll.
So I want to have a show of hands: who here has been part of this company during the first
20 years, í56 to í76? Who here was part of the company back in í56 to í76? Of course,
hardly anybody raised their hand, because most of them went off into the sunset. Ahh,
well if you didnít just raise your hand, then you have benefited from all the changes
that have taken place since 1976. We went into the computer age. Weíve changed software,
weíve changed 401K plans. You know back in the 70ís we didnít have maternity leave.
Does anybody want to go back to the good olí days before maternity leave and flex scheduling,
profit-sharing and 401? Iím listening to this guy and Iím thinking, this guy is sharp,
this guy is good, this is one of the best presentations Iíve ever heard. Very smart
presentation. But then he shifted gears once more. Now many of you might notice that there
is someone missing this year: my wife, Hazel. The cancer took her six months ago. I was
married to Hazel for 46 years. She is not here this year, and for the last six months
I have had to deal with a change that I did not want. I did not invite this into my life
but during that six year period we made sure to reconnect. It was like we were dating again.
We fell in love, at a completely other level. And every morning as I wake up, I wake up
alone in an empty bed. I have coffee by myself, and I come to work because I have to come
to work, because I would go crazy if I donít come to work. So I come to work and I think
you know what I mean. But when I go home the silence is deafening. That is change, my friends,
change is just what it is ñ it is just life. But I learned an incredible lesson in that
last six months. And this is the lesson that Iíd like you to be considering: change is
a lot like breathing. When you stop, you die. This company is going to keep changing, because
when it stops, we die. We canít compete. So I invite you to do one thing with me as
we continue to grow and change and adapt. Keep breathing. And then he walked away. I
was next. Normally, when Iím hired to give a speech, Iím the best speaker in the room.
But on that particular day I felt like he just did my speech better than I could have
done my speech. Because you see I was there to talk about the Positive Power of Change,
but his emotional eloquence was so strong. The power of his presence, the power of his
emotion, was so powerful and so strong that I learned from him something that I had never
learned in years and years and years of giving speeches from any other professional speaker.
Thatís Oscar. And hereís what I learned from Oscar. The first lesson that Iíd like
to share with you today. As a leader, when you go out to inspire your troups, speak from
your head with your heart wide open. Speak from your head, deliver your content, deliver
the message that you know you have to deliver, but keep your heart wide open so that they
feel who you are. They feel that uniqueness of who you are, they feel that compassion
and that love for what you do, they have to feel that while you deliver your content.
Thatís emotional eloquence.