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Episode 6 | How to Become a World-Class Communicator with Hank Fortener (part 1)
Our guest in Episode 6 of the Awesome Office Show is non other than Hank Fortener, an adoption expert, pastor, speaker, and sought-after authority on culture and leadership.
As the founder of AdoptTogether.org and World Adoption Day, Hank has dedicated much of his life to helping young people who are (in his words) “without a tribe” feel a sense of family and belonging. Through his organizations, Hank has helped more than 1,400 families raise 6 million dollars towards adoption expenses to help bring their children home. He is also a pastor at Mosaic, a vibrant church led by Erwin McManus in the heart of Hollywood, where he delivers thoughtful and impassioned sermons to massive audiences.
Luckily for us, Hank has applied much of his learning around human behavior and belonging to the business world.
Hank really blew us away at our Awesome Office Launch Party earlier this year - and we weren’t the only ones. Hank's 15-minute presentation was one of the most buzzed about talks that night. That’s why we knew we had to have him as a guest for a deeper dive on the Awesome Office Show.
In our conversation, Hank talks about the key to communication for leaders, why solving problems is the most important job of any individual, team, or company, and why it’s important to set aside your ego if you actually want to do that.
Like a couple of our other guests, our dialogue with Hank was too good to cut short, so we decided to break this episode into two parts.
This episode is full of actionable tips to help your company go from good, to great, to Awesome:
Key Takeaways
- Hank explains the “Why” behind his organizations AdoptTogether.org and World Adoption Day.
- Hank tells us why he prefers the word “tribe” or “team” over “family” when describing relationship dynamics in the business world.
- Hank explains why empathy is the key to effective communication and how to cultivate empathy in your preparation before public speaking.
- Hank talks about why solving problems is more important than being right, and how to set aside your own ego in order to do so.
- Hank tells us how companies and leaders can (and should) become better story-tellers.
- Hank explains why leaders should make a place for charity, goodwill, and community in their organizations.
- Hank explains why he believes that profit-only business leaders will age out of the majority of the world’s most successful companies in the coming years.
Links
Recommended Reading
- Tom Rath
- The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
- Communicator
- Philosophy in the Flesh by George Lakoff (http://www.amazon.com/Philosophy-Flesh-Embodied-Challenge-Western/dp/0465056741)
- James Altucher
- Tom Rath
- Keith Ferrazzi
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