Acknowledgments

“It takes a village,” is a cliché that describes the evolution of this book perfectly. Although I am the author of the book, there have been literally hundreds of people without whose help this project could not have come to life.

The executives who have been so generous with their time and so willing to share their expertise are at the center of this work. I am very grateful to them. A special thanks goes to the eleven people who opened their hearts and minds to make Part IV possible: Dan Warmenhoven, Felicia Marcus, Ginger Graham, Dan Eilers, Anna Eshoo, Ned Barnholt, John Kispert, Audrey MacLean, Steve Blank, Brenda Rhodes, and Rick Wallace. They talked about their backgrounds, mentors, families, and legacies. Their shared passions and insights will make the next generation more successful.

I have referred to the six mid-level managers who volunteered to present in front of the C-levels as our “heroes.” Reflecting the highest levels of professionalism that have made their careers so successful, they showed up with actual presentations from their corporate “day jobs.” For teaching purposes, they presented ineffectively and took the punches from the executives like good sports. Then applying the strategies at the heart of Speaking Up^®, they came back for a second presentation and were successful. Thank you for being so creative, improvisational, and a pleasure to work with: Todd Lutwak, Julie Patel, Andy Billings, Sharon Black, Randi Feigin, and Brent Bloom. This book would not exist without you.

We have been developing and researching these concepts for 10 years. Along the way valuable stories, data, and insights have been provided by the roughly 10,000 mid-level people who have taken this training. It was sometimes poignant: “I’m becoming a real asshole”; it was sometimes angry: “They (senior management) get to tell stories, but we don’t”; and it was sometimes funny: Bob Drolet’s suggestion, “You might as well find out what the rub is. Why waste twenty more minutes? Take the bullet now.” All that input has made our Speaking Up^® training program, and this book, more accurate and realistic. I deeply appreciate people’s willingness to share their experiences at the top level.

Speaking of top level, our team of world-class trainers at PowerSpeaking, Inc. has been central to the development of this book. Over the years their insights about this topic and their classroom “war stories” have helped to fine-tune this content. While all of this was happening, David Azevedo kept PowerSpeaking, Inc. humming along, and Moira Kavanaugh provided valuable insights and unflagging enthusiasm for the project. I am especially grateful to Melissa Schwartz who has lived and breathed this program alongside me for many years.

Turns out that writing a book isn’t as simple as I thought. It is one thing to sit typing away week after week, month after month. It is quite another to get the story right and to get the flow to work for the reader. Then there’s text editing. Then there’s layout and design. So before this book went to press, about a dozen people had a hand in shaping the final product. Their input made it so much better. For their help with content, I want to thank Nina Solomita and Linden Gross. Joel Rutledge did an amazing job of transcribing the hours of taped interviews. Mark Lamirande was always there quickly responding to my picky concerns about the graphics.

Five years before the book got started, we launched a video project that brought all this to life: Speaking to the Big Dogs^®. On that project, as well as on our follow-up program Speaking Up^®: Presenting to Executives, I have been fortunate to have worked with the world’s greatest video producer, Greg Bezat. His directing, editing, and post-production work was done with great finesse and good humor. I also want to thank Bill Bishop who was hugely helpful in the video production. Photographers Mark Hatasaka and Paul Grant supplied me with the stills that populate this book. I am deeply grateful for their skills. Patricia Hamilton was so helpful with the early stages of layout and Robaire Ream did the final design. Michael Sizemore and Lisa Rothman were superb text editors who fixed things I didn’t see even after reading it for the tenth time. All of this made me appreciate that when a big New York firm publishes your book, you get the benefit of a tall office building filled with English majors who do all of this for you. Hmmm, maybe next time?

Sadly, two of the people who were most critical to my development as a psychologist, Bob Dreher and Bob Suzcek, are no longer around to hear my appreciation. They were professors at San Francisco State University who opened up the world of social science research to me as a “young dog.” At Saybrook University I refined my thinking about such issues and developed my confidence to jump into big questions like this book addresses when I did my PhD dissertation, Jazz, Rock and Roll, and the Revolution in Psychotherapy. Speaking Up^® would not have happened without all this encouragement early on in my career. As Steve Jobs reminded us in his famous 2005 Stanford commencement speech, you can only connect the dots looking backwards.

While the focus of this book is the past ten years, the spark for it all started when I was in junior high and high school. I loved speaking to groups and being “on stage” for whatever reason. I see now my father’s influence in all of this. He was an executive for a large insurance company in San Francisco. He took a number of night school courses in public speaking. He used to encourage me, “People who can get up and speak well are going to be leaders. You should work on it.” How right he was. Who knew it would turn into a business, a career, and a book?

Finally, I have dedicated this book to my wife and partner, Mary McGlynn. Her unerring sense of what hits the mark and what misses it has made this book incalculably better. She and I developed the initial questions about presenting at the top level in 2001 and worked together hammering out the basic concepts and approach to this research. Mary has been there for me from the initial phases to the final edits. She didn’t complain when evenings and weekends went by with me staring at a computer screen. I am so appreciative of her support.

It truly does “take a village,” and I’ve been fortunate to have great people in my village. Thank you all.

— Rick Gilbert