12-23-2013
In keeping with my annual time-honored principle of writing a ?less is more? article over the holidays, I throw this one up for you.
In their book, Leaders, Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus describe two distinguishing characteristics of top leaders. No. 1, ?They don?t dwell on their shortcomings? and, No. 2, ?They love what they do.?
A few years ago I was invited to give a speech at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas. It will be 20 years in 2014 since I gave my first speech at the NAB in Las Vegas. Time flies! The day before I gave my speech, they inducted Gary Owens into the Broadcasters Hall of Fame. The longtime radio and television personality was recognized for his (at the time) 40-year career, during which he rose from newscaster at KORN in Mitchell, SD, to one of the nation?s most recognized voices in St. Louis, San Francisco, and Los Angeles. He also frequently demonstrated that voice as an announcer on television during Rowan and Martin?s Laugh-In, for those of you who remember that TV show.
His acceptance speech that day was marked by the famous Owens' humor, which kept all of us in attendance laughing hysterically. He said, ?I wouldn?t change one show, one record, or one cough-button. I love what I?m doing. And when I find out what I do, I?ll let you know. I tried being serious once, but all I could get was construction work.?
Special Note: Special shout-out to Larry Lujack, the legendary voice of WLS in Chicago. As a small boy living in Lincoln, Nebraska, I picked WLS up on the cloud bounce on my shortwave radio in my basement. So sorry to see you go Larry!
Another note: Congratulations to Ken Hammock, Corporate Underwriting Consultant at WVFJ in Atlanta for cracking last week?s Vigenere Cipher code. Ken was a Navy cryptographer in the 1970s. No wonder you cracked it. Here?s what Navy cryptographers do, according to Ken: I used a computer source, found the repeating sequences to come up with a key of 7, 8, or 9... and then allowed the computer to come up with the suggested keywords. There were about 148 possible keywords. So I looked through those to find the common letters and decided that "princess" fit best. So I entered the key of 8 and the keyword "princess" and behold.
The message Ken deciphered: Ah! There you are Rowan. Good work. I will see you on the next tour stop.
Sean Luce is the Head National Instructor for the Luce Performance Group International and can be reached at Sean@luceperformancegroup.com or www.luceperformancegroup.com.
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