Curtis on…Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick
Curtis Bingham, Founder and Executive Director of the Chief Customer Officer Council on location at IQPC's Customer Experience Exchange in Berlin, draws a lesson for CCOs from his hero, Teddy Roosevelt.
Transcript for Curtis on…Speak Softly and Carry a Big Stick
My hero would have to be Teddy Roosevelt. He was the 26th President of the United States. He served from 1901 to 1909. He had as his mantra, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” He used this to describe his negotiating style where he would negotiate in peace and he would simultaneously threaten to use the big stick.
And, metaphorically speaking, today, we talked about how we, as customer experience executives, would speak softly and what our big stick is. We talked about speaking softly and having that be a form of earned authority, the credibility that we've earned throughout the organization that convinces people that we have the right approach and they want to follow us.
And then, the big stick that we, sometimes, need to wield is that borrowed authority that comes from the CEO that will pave the way for us, open the doors, and sometimes help us blow up some of the obstacles.