Note: Due to a production error, the introduction to this show had to be clipped, resulting in a briefly awkward introduction to Chris Noth and co-host Jaki Baskow.
This 30-minute Meaningful Meetings show features Chris Noth, an actor best known for his roles in Sex and the City, Law and Order, and many other dramatic roles, who also owns businesses and is raising a family. He shares some of what he has learned from his long journey from a kid from rural Connecticut at the time to an award-winning career as a film, television, and stage actor, and the insights he shares to help organizations make their events more meaningful.
In this 50-minute TH-cam Meaningful Meetings: Lessons Shared show with Chris Noth, with host Bruce Bolger, CEO and Founder of the Enterprise Engagement Alliance and Jaki Baskow, CEO and Founder of Baskow Talent, we ask Noth to share what he has learned from his journey.
The Meaningful Meetings: Lessons Shared EEA TH-cam show is unique in that it does not focus on the easily accessed histories of its guests but rather on the insights and lessons from their own journeys that they share in their speaking and advisory services.
Here are some of the lessons that Jaki and I took away from Chris that apply to leadership, management and life as well.
• Finding your path in life isn’t necessarily pre-ordained-it’s a journey that unfolds and doesn’t happen instantly.
• Perseverance doesn't mean sticking to the same plan. There's nothing wrong with changing up the strategy and tactics if they're not getting you where you wish to go.
• On the other hand, one spontaneous moment in life, in Chris’ case the decision as a lark to try a drama class in college, can turn out in reflection to be a lifetime game-changer. It is no different in any professional career.
• The people around you in school really do make a difference and as does getting the world’s best training if you are lucky enough to get it.
• In acting, a common method to avoid mental distractions on stage is to focus 100% on the character in front of you-this level of listening is equally useful to life and business. People deeply appreciate deep listening and truly being heard.
• For a celebrity, getting interrupted at meals or on the streets can be annoying or worse and it's easy to get irritated or worse, but in fact it is a privilege to have so many people interested in you and needs to be appreciated. Likewise for leadership, it may be annoying at times, but every stakeholder who has invested their time or money is worth that same appreciation and attention.
• A highly unpleasant byproduct of being in the public eye is the percentage of people in the business who have no regard for privacy or the truth, and that there is nothing to do but accept the good and the bad as a fact of life. Likewise for leaders in any fields, the tradeoffs they are required to make inevitably annoy some percentage of people and even foster lies. Just because a snake bites, doesn’t mean it’s smart to bite back.
• To perform consistently over many months on stage, a system is critical. Yet, ironically, the system is only a means to the end-it should not be your focus but rather free you to concentrate on going to the next level of creativity or inspiration. In fact, there are many different systems in acting, all of them with their merits. The same is true in business.
• What you do doesn't depend on you. It depends on the actors you're working with. The same applies to business.
• With a big audition of any kind, don't just do your ordinary presentation and never wing it. Prepare as if your life depended on it.
• Being in the limelight proportionately increases the need to resist the headiness and power of success or else you risk paying the consequences. It's too late if you have to explain something. Business leaders are in effect celebrities in their organizations and need to show similar caution in their dealings with all stakeholders and the community.
• The ability to apologize goes beyond simple words: owning mistakes can be a long, painful self-assessment process that can nonetheless help people and those affected get to a better place.
• There are many who will abandon you when times get tough in any aspect of life or business. Cherish those who remain with you, because they'll be with you forever.