By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com As the 2010 calendar gets ready for the scrap heap, thoughts begin to turn toward family and friends, gift-giving, and welcoming in a new year with all of its promise.  With two teenagers in the house and a nearly 20-year-old (and how did THAT happen so fast?), I have literally decades […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] One of my heroes has been gone for many years, now.  But I think a lot about him this time of year, as do millions of people around the world. Before I met him in person, I would have never thought of him as heroic.  I would have never thought of […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Blokeline’s Bakery had the market cornered.  Incredibly tasty treats at fair prices.  Easily accessible, a natural stop for folks like us to make on the way home from church on Sunday.  You could hardly get into the parking lot, that’s how popular the place was. Sure, there were some lines inside.  […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Whatever happened to rationality?  Talking, not shouting?  Listening and considering, not curt out-of-hand rejection of an opposing view?  How did discourse become so discounted? There must be a third way, if we hope to address some of the big problems.  It is my hope this Thanksgiving that Americans begin to get […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] It may be the most counterintuitive principle of leadership, but it’s unmistakably the right thing to do. Imagine you’re in love, you are completely dedicated to your partner, everything you think, say, and do flows from and supports that commitment.  Then one day you shift gears, drop that partner and devote […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] In the corporate world, you gotta watch out for grand pianos falling from the sky. Most times they land on other people, other departments, other initiatives.  And sometimes they land on you.  I know – it happened to me exactly 10 years ago this month, which is how my independent practice […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] It gets me every time. At the end of “Field of Dreams,” when Kevin Costner’s character, with a hitch in his throat, says to his back-from-the-dead-on-the-magical-baseball-field father, “Hey…Dad?  You want to have a catch?”  My eyes well up.  Every time.  And I’ve seen that movie probably 50 times or more. For […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] The Sign, haphazardly Scotch-taped to the basement cinder-block wall of my college newspaper’s newsroom, carried a hand-scrawled message on a hastily ripped sheet of notebook paper.  I first saw it during my junior year as a still-raw, still-learning, still-aspiring journalist.  It was a long, long time ago.  But I think of […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Different speakers make varying demands on their speechwriters, which makes the speechwriting blending of science (compelling factual argument) and art (language that flows naturally to the speaker) such a challenge and such a joy to those of us who pursue this craft with energy and vigor. Case in point.  At one […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Ever find yourself gulping for breath, adrenaline pounding, shaking from head to toe, and covered in Kellogg’s Raisin Bran? No?  Well, I have.  Here’s how. Having been named news editor of my college newspaper, I was returning to campus a week earlier than most students following the Christmas break to start […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Ivan Vaughn stood out. He wore his dark hair piled high on top and close on the sides.  He showed up for school once having painted his sensible black shoes a bright canary yellow.  Covering the windows of his bedroom, in the home he and his mother lived in next to […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Without discomfort, stretching, even pain, there can be no growth. As a trainer of business people in making public presentations, I see evidence of this constantly.  We’ve all heard the old saying, “People fear public speaking more than death.”  I’ve never let myself believe that’s completely true.  It’s just too illogical […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] The whole family was deep into an all-day, top-to-bottom, whole-house cleaning binge this weekend, and I found myself in the kids’ upstairs bathroom preparing to scrub the bathtub when it happened. A bee crawled in under a tiny gap between the window sill and an old screen that has never fit […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Standing on a slim steel beam, 50 feet in the air, strapped into a harness and told to jump, isn’t exactly my idea of a fun day at the office. Yet there I was, with about 10 trade publication editors gazing up at me.  I could have sworn I head a […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com]  You know, it always sounds great when it pops into your head.  The big idea, the whopper, the hook that’ll really grab ‘em and make ‘em beat a path to your door.  The rest of the team gets just as excited about it and you start all the hubbub and busy […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com They say that sometimes the truth hurts.  But it’s been my experience that the truth does just the opposite.  It leads to some great professional moments. Earlier in my career, I worked for a large company and served as the dedicated speechwriter to the president.  On occasion, he would need to […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Robert Dudley has a once-in-a-career chance to be a hero.  And I’m here to help him get there. As the new CEO of BP, Mr. Dudley must take the reins of what to date has been not only an ecological and economic disaster, but as important to his company’s shareholders, a […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Across the shiny conference table with the lovely floral arrangement tastefully set to one side, sat my boss’ boss, who used to be my direct boss.  This colorful, polished, highly intelligent woman had brought the organization’s Corporate Communications group into crack fighting shape through her insight, her unerring eye for talent, […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Playing word association, I think it’s fair to assume that one would be shocked if, in response to the term “Apple,” the response came back, “Alfred E. Newman.” You know, the grinning, gap-toothed goober from Mad magazine, whose catch phrase is, “What, me worry?”  Yet somehow, almost inexplicably, that’s the stance […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Lorne Michaels, legendary producer of “Saturday Night Live” was once asked at what point does he know a show is ready for broadcast. His response went something like, “It’s not that we’ve polished every sketch and rehearsed it to perfection.  It’s when the clock says 11:30 p.m. in New York and […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Paul was a trip. He served as one of the higher-ups in the Corporate Communications Department where I worked in the late 1980s, and there were moments when neither I nor my peers in the group could figure out why. A nice enough gentleman, certainly.  Loved his little car and drove […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] My beloved hometown baseball club, the Pittsburgh Pirates, has not had a winning season in 17 years.  The Buccos are 20 games under .500 right now, so we’re looking at chalking up another losing campaign.  They have broken my 15-year-old son’s heart his entire life, and have nearly driven me into […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Sportswriters love to make hay out of “there’s a cancer in the clubhouse” stories.  You know, the ones where, say, the offensive line of a football team starts sniping at the quarterback, or when a wide receiver mouths off against the coaches because he’s not getting the ball enough. Sometimes those […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] We were going for our first mortgage many years ago, when our bank called and asked to see yet another set of documents.  I took them to work with me the next day and left the office building mid-morning to walk the three blocks or so to meet with the banker. […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Bad stuff happens.  Some of it’s foreseeable, but most of the lousy breaks come at us unannounced, and before you know it the boat’s been swamped and you’re flailing in the water looking for dry land. The BP oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico caught the giant corporation off […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] I don’t believe in coincidence.  I think everything happens for a reason, even though we may not realize it as it’s happening.  Instead, I believe in luck – as defined by that first century Roman gadfly Seneca, who said, “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.” Using Seneca’s definition, I […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] By now, you’ve probably heard about the embarrassing faux pas committed by NBC’s Ann Curry, whose commencement address last week to Wheaton College in Massachusetts included kudos to famous alumni such as the Rev. Billy Graham, former House Speaker Dennis Hastert and horror movie director Wes Craven – the only problem […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Look, opinions are like belly-buttons – everybody’s got one.  Especially when it comes to managerial techniques.  Loyal readers of this blog know that we try to concentrate on helping leaders do their jobs better by understanding and implementing solid communications practices. So in that spirit, this week a Business Week article […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com]  In the film “Amadeus,” the Emperor of Austria, having enjoyed the public debut of one of Mozart’s masterpieces, mulls over what he’s just heard and offers this sterling bit of musical insight: “There are too many notes.”  Can you imagine?  This overstuffed, overpowdered dandy telling the greatest musical genius in history […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] There ain’t no such thing as a sure thing.  One very painful afternoon in a hotel ballroom proved that to me. Back when I was part of the internal communications staff at a major corporation, my duties included organizing an annual luncheon to kick off the region’s U.S. Savings Bond sales […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com] Each morning, as the sun tried to push through the watery cloudiness that stubbornly enveloped the sloping hills of Indiana, Pennsylvania, Dr. Willis Pratt stepped out of his flat and went for a stroll. Usually with a member of the maintenance crew in tow, Dr. Pratt made his way across the […]

By Tim Hayes [www.timhayesconsulting.com]  Over the course of nearly 20 years in corporate and government communications, and 10 years as an independent consultant, I’ve been in the room many times when the Big Idea gets hatched. “We need to change the culture of this organization!”  “We’re going to do things differently around here to serve […]

By Tim Hayes When my oldest daughter was in elementary school, she played soccer with the area youth league.  One year I was pressed into service as her team’s assistant coach, which really wasn’t all that big of a deal, if it hadn’t been for one parent.  One famous parent.  One famous parent who also […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   Okay, so everybody’s seen the weird black-and-white, creepy fatherly voiceover, mea culpa, brand-defending commercial starring the world’s most famous serial adulterer, Mr. Eldrick Woods.  And most people have formed an opinion about it by now, if they care at all.   Here’s mine:  Shut up and golf already.   Self-styled […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   The past winter here in the Northeast delivered sucker punch after sucker punch.  We soldiered on under record snowfalls that made transportation difficult, tempers short, and electricity iffy.   The local utility company tells us that the power interruptions could have and would have been worse if they didn’t maintain […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   The first time it happened, I quickly moved the cursor around, selected “Add Sender to Blocked Sender List,” clicked the mouse and thought it was all over with.   As my kids would say: “Fail.”   That happened years ago and since then at least 50 e-mails a day arrive, […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   “Spanning the globe…  to bring you the constant variety of sport. The thrill of victory…and the agony of defeat. The human drama of athletic competition. This is ABC’s Wide World of Sports.”   When I heard Jim McKay intone those words, with that wonderfully emotive music behind him, my heartbeat […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   America is the land of second chances.  Just ask Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart, David Letterman, Robert Downey Jr., or a thousand other examples.  But when high-profile people abuse the reservoir of public goodwill, things can get a little more difficult.   We have a situation like this in my hometown […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   All right, show of hands, please:  How many of you knew that, in the original script for the first “Rocky” movie written by Sylvester Stallone, Rocky dies after the climactic fight that ends the film?   Thank goodness wiser heads prevailed.  Not only would that have been the ultimate downer, […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   You’ve heard of these books.  “All I Really Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.”  “The Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.”  “Good to Great.”  A stroll down the self-help aisle at any chain bookstore offers scores of similar titles.   But I’ve found some of the greatest tips not […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   In the spirit of the Vancouver games now under way, today we inaugurate the Winter Rhetoricalympics, a recognition of notable, surprising, or inspiring statements that occur within the timeframe of the real Olympics but that do not necessarily have anything to do with the Olympics.  Okay, got it?  Here we […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   Many years ago, when I was a PR greenhorn at a large corporation, I had returned from an assignment at a field office and approached the first floor elevators to get back to my little cubicle.  Ahead of me walked the CEO of the company, headed for the same elevators.  […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   After a very enjoyable and productive week in Texas on a client assignment, I looked out the window of the plane as it landed in Pittsburgh to see a heavy snowfall well under way.  Back in my car, I began the slippery, slow drive back to my home, about 30 […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   Speechwriters, political pundits, and columnists have been hard at work combing over such recent high-profile events as President Obama’s State of the Union address, the acceptance remarks made by Senator-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts, and even Robert Downey Jr.’s sarcastic quips at the Golden Globes.   But I’ve been more […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   It was one of those times when every member of an in-house public relations staff had to really be on his or her game.  The company had made some bad mistakes, investors began getting restless, regulators smelled blood, and the media wasn’t about to let up.   My role in […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   One of my favorite perks as a middle-aged professional comes in visiting college classes as a guest speaker.  Inevitably, standing before a class of young aspiring communicators, I know two questions will be coming my way:  “How much do you make?” and “Have you ever had to lie?”    The […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   Politics, it seems, never leaves the national consciousness.  As the mid-term Congressional election season begins to get in gear, we can learn much – regardless of personal party affiliation or policy stances – about the power of persuasive language.   Whether dealing with a business topic, a political cause or […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   The year was 1970 and I was all of 10 years old, one of about 40 Cub Scouts sitting on the floor of the local Moose Lodge one chilly Friday evening, spellbound by the superlative storytelling of Mr. Vis, one of the troop leaders.   Good gravy, Mr. Vis knew […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com     “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy…” – Francis Pharcellus Church, New York Sun   * * *              The famous response […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   “The most basic state of mind that leaders need to understand is the will of their constituencies: their will to work, their will to live, their will to revolt, their will to follow you.”   So says Jim Clifton, Chairman and CEO of Gallup, in a recent interview in the […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   So I’m driving into Downtown Pittsburgh the other day for a client meeting, on a highway with a 55 mph speed limit.  There’s lots of traffic for some reason and it’s tough to change lanes or get ahead of anybody – and then I see why.   Moseying along in […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   They painted a brand new double-yellow line down the center of the main road near my house last week.  It must have looked so pristine, so clean and neat, the two parallel stripes of paint telling drivers to stay on their side of the road.   I say it “must […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   At a lunchtime gathering of speechwriters I attended last week in New York City, longtime political and business speechwriter Robert Lehrman shared some of the more potent and important lessons he’s learned along the way, and one hit me with a special resonance.  He said, in describing what made the […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   It’s tough to appreciate it until you’re actually in the moment, but there’s a world of difference between standing up on short notice to speak before a group, and handling an impromptu news conference.    Most noticeably, when you’re at a podium, you’re in control of the environment, the pace, […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   A friend recently asked how I might go about training executives from India on making effective presentations to American audiences.  My reply was simple, direct, and automatic – help them become as confident, comfortable, and in command of their material as possible, and most of all don’t try to turn […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   There are moments in the life of a professional communicator when you know the crap is coming.  Those are the times that try men’s (and women’s) souls, not to mention their paychecks and retainer contracts.   The public relations staff at Goldman Sachs know this, as earnings are about to […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   The classic film “Forrest Gump” features a funny scene where one portion of the student body at the University of Alabama holds up placards in the stands that read “RUN FORREST RUN” as the dim-witted but fleet-footed Gump rumbles downfield to score a touchdown, while the placards of another student […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   A guy I think the world of told me today he was throwing in the towel.  The frustration had reached the tipping point.  He’d had enough.  A man can only stand so much.  No mas, no mas.  He’d played his last fantasy football game and was hanging up his pixilated […]

By Tim Hayes www.timhayesconsulting.com   The online question read:    The President was a guest today on 4 out of the 5 Sunday news shows; the 4 that generally advocate for his Presidency / programs. He did not go on the more critical Fox News. If a goal was to reach-out beyond his base, shouldn’t […]

By Tim Hayes   She was busted, and she knew it.  I had her dead to rights.  One of my daughters, maybe three years old at the time, with her hand literally in the cookie jar.  So I removed the treat from her little fist, sat her on my fatherly lap, and asked if she […]

By Tim Hayes   They say sports reflect the society in which they flourish.  If that’s correct, we’re in a sorry state these days, if the behavior of two phenomenal superstars this past weekend is any indication.   On Friday evening the NBA inducted Michael Jordan into the Basketball Hall of Fame.  No surprise there.  […]

By Tim Hayes   There’s an episode of “Seinfeld” where Jerry, Elaine and the gang head to the Hamptons to stay with some friends because they “gotta see the baby.”  The problem, though, is that the poor little thing is the ugliest infant they’ve ever seen, but they obviously can’t say that to the parents.  […]

By Tim Hayes   A great friend recently had the heavy honor of delivering the eulogy for a family member, and asked me for some guidance.  My advice was brief and direct: “A eulogy is no time to scrimp on the superlatives,” and, “Pick a spot above people’s heads to focus on, or otherwise you […]

By Tim Hayes An old boss once said to me, “The hardest thing in the world to change is someone’s mind.”  And, as a professional communicator and speechwriter, I’ve come to see the wisdom in that notion.   In business, communications plays to both sides of the human brain.  You line up your facts into […]

By Tim Hayes As a newbie to Facebook, I’m in the process of learning not only how to navigate these new waters of Walls and Friending and feigning interest in people’s toenail painting appointments, but also how to communicate business opportunities to heretofore untapped markets.   The universe of Twitter beckons as well, but my […]

By Tim Hayes A recent story in the Business section of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette offered an overview of a study performed at Penn State University about the effect of “charismatic” language used by CEOs to influence analysts’ valuations of companies.   The study concluded that higher levels of charismatic language – defined roughly as […]

By Tim Hayes On a sun-splashed June 12, 1987, the President of the United States stood at a microphone in front of the Brandenburg Gate in what was then known as West Berlin.  His words that day shook the world.   What few people realize is that Ronald Reagan’s prepared remarks that day only read, […]

By Tim Hayes In today’s business world, CEOs can’t be spectators, but must be active combatants using effective communications as their most trusted tool.    Leadership by example is the only way that organizations can find clarity, direction, inspiration, and the sheer will to fight their way out of the economic fix they’re in these […]

By Tim Hayes Amid economic challenges like those at work today, companies need to transform themselves, adapting to survive and even move ahead.  But given the volume of coverage and advisory-oriented information out there, surprisingly little attention is paid to the role of one important person – the CEO.   What can this key leader do?  […]

By Tim Hayes On this Independence Day, I’m thinking of the incredibly powerful and elegant words of the Declaration of Independence, naturally.  But I’m also thinking of a document that I believe completed and elevated the thoughts of the Declaration as well as the Constitution – Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address.  To my mind, the perfect American speech. Only […]

By Tim Hayes I recently participated in a panel discussion at George Washington University on speechwriting, and it quickly became one of those instances where you suddenly appreciate how much you enjoy something.  My fellow presenters came from governmental agencies for the most part, whereas my experience has been in the world of business.  It […]