I’m a member of Seattle Executives Association (SEA) and we recently had elections for the board of directors. Unlike my Rotary club where there’s one person nominated for each position, in SEA it’s truly an election, with two people for president-elect and treasurer and six people for three board positions.
An interesting twist is you don’t campaign for yourself, you give a “speech” telling the group why your opponent (or one of your opponents) should be elected. What I noticed is:
All of those elected had their promotion filled with something a bit outrageous and/or humorous. Those not elected had their promoter give a talk filled with facts (went to this school, worked here and there, has these skills, etc.)
People remember stories and humor is a form of a story. An outrageous action (outrageous meaning a surprise or something unusual but in good taste) is remembered the same way.
The business lesson here is facts may be important but the delivery is much more important.
