Perhaps I can comment on something that I see lacking in any industry and with a lot of professionals. How you accept a job, how you accept accolades and awards tells everyone else around you about you. I will risk being accused of being up on entertainment industry news here as I quickly comment on the art of lost art of dealing with recognition. I liked “The Blind Side” anyway.
If I was teaching someone or coaching someone on how to handle recognition I could use last night’s 2010 Golden Globe acceptance speeches, especially Sandra Bullock’s. It would be interesting to use some of these self-congratulatory award ceremonies as the basis for coaching people on interviewing public speaking. I’ll think about it.
Here are my observations about what was right about her confident but humble acceptance speech:
– Acknowledged Her Competition with Class; she didn’t single out one person but sincerely recognized each nominee
– Acknowledged the People Who “Sculpted Her” for Her Role who were not stars
– Used Humor – “Put the Maker’s Mark down and go to bed” comment when referring to her family
– Graciously acknowledged the foreign press who finally recognized her work without gushing over them
– Of course I think the line of the night and the power for “The Blind Side: was the line of the night-“A family is not just who you were born to but who’s got your back”
– She also credited Mr. Cool Jesse James which was nice because he is cool (he builds and blows things up)
That was a good line for today’s MLK day and a strong message for any day. I also noticed that Bullock donated $1M to the Haiti relief and when asked said “because I can” which I thought, even if she is coached to say these things, I like them. Go North Carolina and ECU’s Sandra Bullock.