A Leadership Lesson in Reverse (from Baha'i Gardens in Haifa, Israel)

Last Monday, on our first day in Israel, Angie and I took a tour of the Baha'i Gardens in Haifa.

It's a holy place for followers of the Baha'i faith.
One of those Baha'i followers, a German woman named Eva, led us on our free tour of the garden and gave a lesson in leadership skills at the same time.

We were attached to a group of about 20 high school students from America. They were hot, hungry, and didn't really want to see these gardens.

As Eva started the tour, the students chatted all the way through her talk. I started to wonder how she would handle this situation.
She didn't make we wait long to see.

About 30 seconds into her talk, she stopped.
"You know what?," she asked. "I know this information. I don't have to hear it. If you don't want to hear it, we'll just walk down in silence. That's fine with me".

Wow, I hadn't seen the 'angry professor' method used in a long time.
It didn't work when I was in school, and I doubted it would work now.

The kids shrugged and kept talking. They didn't care about hearing the lecture, I guess.

That's the problem with threats - you have to follow up on them.
Well, Eva really wanted us to hear her story, so she started getting angrier.

That didn't work either.
She struggled her way down the entire garden, unable to hold either their attention or her composure. It was very painful to watch.
She was a nice lady with no presentation or leadership skills.

The amazing thing is that she was telling a story about a religion that involved money, politics, and murder. If you can't hold the attention of 15-year old kids with that story, you're doing something wrong.
After all, religion is story. If the story isn't any good, there won't be a religion at all.

So, what did I learn?
You can't force them to listen.
If you want to hold their attention, tell a compelling story...