Today, July 1^st, is an auspicious day for corporate America. Assuming the role of CEO of Xerox Corporation, Ursula Burns will become the first African American woman to lead a major Fortune 500 company. She is also the first woman in modern history to take the reins from another female, departing CEO Ann Mulcahy.

Last year, Burns ranked 10th on Fortune magazine’s top 50 Most Powerful Women in America. She’s the second-highest placed African-American woman behind only Oprah Winfrey, who was ranked number eight.  

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/05/23/2009-05-23_1st_black_woman_xerox_ceo.html#ixzz0K1Z6GOJq&C

Burns has received praise and accolades from thousands of well wishers over the last few months. Noel Tichy, renowned professor at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business stated, “We now have something to share with our MBA females that we’ve never had.” After that comment, unfortunately, he dropped the all male sports metaphor. “This is a bases-loaded home run.”

Now I love baseball just as much as anyone and certainly more than many women. But I cringed when I heard a decidedly male sports metaphor being used to describe the unparalleled achievements of this powerful woman. While I’m sure Tichy meant no harm or disrespect (he probably was unaware of using this figure of speech), this does give us a perfect example of why metaphors should be carefully chosen in all types of communication.

Twenty-five years ago when I joined the workforce, male-oriented metaphors were totally acceptable, as C level positions were held almost exclusively by men. Over the years I’ve seen more women take leadership roles. For example, I’ve had the unique opportunity of working closely with Autodesk, a leading software company whose former CEO, Carol Bartz (now at Yahoo) is a formidable leader in the technology industry. And there have been other women leaders including Meg Whitman of eBay, Carly Fiorina of Hewlett Packard, and Irene Rosenfeld of Kraft Foods. Avon (AVP) CEO Andrea Jung became the first non-white woman to lead a major company in 1999. Clearly, the tide is starting to change, which means to me, among other things, that corporate cultures have an opportunity to adjust their language choices, including the use of metaphor, accordingly.

Today, women make up 59.6% of the U.S. labor force and occupy approximately 16% of top corporate positions, according to Catalyst, an advocacy group that tracks women’s advancement in the workplace. While these numbers may seem dismal at first, we must acknowledge that they are at least moving in the right direction. And with Ursula Burns stepping up as the first African American woman to lead a large public company, the future for women leaders looks even brighter.

My hope is that as more women assume positions of representational leadership in the C suite we will see a shift in corporate language and find alternatives to the overuse of sports metaphors. While as women our initial response might be to counter the use of sports metaphors with more “women oriented” images (in Burns’ case the powerful Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom who was also a warrior comes to mind), let’s resist that urge.

Instead, I would like to see us cultivate language that is gender neutral. Metaphors from nature, music, relationships, science, or the family would go a long way toward reducing unnecessary competition, breaking down barriers and encouraging inclusion, fairness and impartiality.

For now though, let’s put words and metaphors aside and join together in celebrating the achievement of Ursula Burns. And just this once I will concede: She hit it out of the park.

Link to podcast: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_23/b4134018712853.htm?chan=rss_topEmailedStories_ssi_5

For the last twenty four hours, I have been, like most Americans, immersed in the story of Michael Jackson. It has been an emotional time for me and my family, filled with conversations that have sparked many memories of the career highs and lows of this petite giant of an entertainer.

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Tips for using humor in your next presentation

Effectively using humor to engage and entertain an audience is a valuable tool for presenters. Humor allows you to present ideas in a non-threatening manner. It also enables you to reinforce key ideas. Most of all it gives the audience a chance to relax and enjoy the moment and for you to connect with them. Humor helps you and your audience come alive!

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One of my colleagues attended the Sustainable Brands 2009 conference last week in Monterey, California. He kept in touch with me during the week with periodic updates, text and tweets. For anyone interested in seeing numerous conference speakers focused on cutting edge green industry topics, this was the place to be. I hope you will enjoy his guest report on some of the conference activities and speakers.

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Back in April, I came across the heartbreaking front page New York Times story of Newark, Ohio high school student Tiffany Clay. Tiffany is the recently graduated and highly gifted first violinist for the Newark High School Sinfonia. She worked hard in school, consistently received top grades and since the age of 16, after a falling out with her parents has also been supporting herself by working 35 hours a week as a roller skating Sonic Drive-In carhop. In the face of extreme hardship and troubled finances, Tiffany perseveres. She wants to study nursing, a field she says, that is more reliable than music.

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It was William Shakespeare who once wrote, “The eyes are the windows to the soul.”  As speakers, we should express soul in every one of our speeches. It is what elevates a dull speech to a riveting one. In harmony with Shakespeare, one of the best ways to achieve a heartfelt speech is by using powerful eye contact.

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You show up to your speaking engagement only to realize that your PowerPoint presentation isn’t opening, the A/V system is down, and there’s a car alarm blaring right outside the window.  There’s a full room of people eagerly waiting for you to begin and there is no turning back now. So what are you going to do?

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The overwhelming proliferation of Instant Messaging (IM), text messages, and Twitter has long placed linguists on alert.  The seamless incorporation of these media into everyday life and communication is astounding.  From 2001 to 2002, text messages leapt from 30 million sent to nearly 1 billion. Records also show that in March 2008, over 3 million Twitter messages (tweets) were posted daily. The world has certainly “shrunk,” but has speech quality diminished as well?

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It happened once again. I was at my son’s commencement ceremony last weekend and heard two thoughtful and inspiring speakers, Ann Hagedorn and Orlando Taylor. I also heard Jessica Morgan Hall give the senior class address. After the last cap had been tossed in the air, hugs and kisses generously given and photos snapped from every angle, we all wandered down the hill, ending a day that filled our hearts with pride and good cheer. And then someone asked, “What did you think of the speeches?”

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When my son was in the 8^th grade I had the privilege of preparing and coaching the graduation speakers of Kent Middle School in Kentfield, California. The speakers were terrific, and those speeches were everything a good graduation speech should be: personal, hopeful, reflective, inspiring, cautionary and funny. They were also well organized with a beginning, middle and end, and they were filled with personal stories, metaphors, quotes and vivid imagery. They were well prepared, rehearsed in advance and most important, designed with the audience in mind. Each speaker had a message that was carefully prepared for their classmates and their families.

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