The Potentiality

John Horn's Website for Community Builders

potentiality

Three Ways to Bring Historical Analysis to Your Community

A thorough analysis of the past might just be the best thing for your community’s future. Because great community-builders think like historians. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review by John T. Seaman, Jr. and George David Smith (both historians) entitled “Your Company’s History as a Leadership Tool” argues that “[g]reat leaders…[d]on’t ignore history until the time comes to plan their organization’s next anniversary. And though they may not view themselves as historians, they find it useful to think and talk about the past – in the present and in living color.”

Three Tips for Overcoming Mediocre Presenting

Everybody fails. Sometimes we do so spectacularly and sometimes we simply don’t reach our potential; I experienced the latter sort of failure on Saturday when I gave what can only be described as a mediocre presentation – the audience probably thought “it was fine”. For me, though, giving a presentation that is “fine” just isn’t good enough.

Pitching a News Story: The Phone is Your Best Friend

In this email saturated world, it’s difficult to penetrate the din and connect with a journalist about your story idea. Granted, you probably have a great idea that includes many news elements or is a perfect fit for the media you’re pitching, but if you aren’t able to communicate it effectively to your targeted audience, your idea will sit by itself on your blog and/or be discussed amongst your colleagues around the water cooler.