Obama Impersonation

Three of us at work were asked to present the company's goals to the department. In order to spice up the goals that were mostly unchanged from prior years, we decided to do an election year theme. I volunteered to be the "Democratic" candidate, then studied up on Barack Obama via Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awQkJNVsgKM), wrote a speech, donned a suit, and did the best impression I could. The schtick was that we were each running for Chairman of the company. My campaign platform was "employee development."

It was a blast! The outline's not very funny on its own without the gestures and booming bass voice, but thought I'd at least capture it here for the scrapbook.

Introduction
- I’m not a senator from IL, but the basic principle of my campaign is founded on a man who was
- Part of Lincoln’s legacy was that he taught himself to read by the light of a dying fire
- He became the most eloquent presidents in the history of our nation
- Why? Because he believed in the development of people
- He didn’t point to a bunch of numbers like policy gain ratios, because we are not a nation of numbers, we are not a company of numbers, we are a company of people
- When my opponents talk about these other goals it makes me think of a man who buys an expensive car because he loves the digital speedometer, the outdoor temperature gauge and the retractable DVD player
- But when we commit to development of our people, we are remembering that we need to have enough money for gas. Gas, I’ll remind you, that this administration’s misguided policies have allowed to blow past $4 a gallon.
- Let us first acknowledge that there are three numbers in your handout.

Intentionality of development
- My opponents would have you believe that everything we do is development
- To a certain extent that’s true
- Maybe as a young boy Abraham Lincoln would have said, “I tell you what, splitting these logs sure is great development,” and he might have become the best railsplitter of his time, but this nation would be very different, and it may not exist at all
- We here don’t all aspire to become president or even Chairman
- But we aspire to be happy, the happiness that comes from having the best life that we can
- My friends, that life comes from making the conscious choice to improve ourselves
- For some time, we have been at war, a war I’ve never supported
- It is the war against ourselves!
- The enemy deceives us, saying tha doing what we’ve always done is good enough.
- The enemy says that there’s no time to develop.
- But we are not alone, have an ally in this war.
- Life/Health Company’s web site says and I quote: “that any L/H associate in good standing may participate in development activities."
- So you see my friends that development is not only our opportunity, it is our right.
- It is not only our right and our personal path to greater happiness, it is our duty to our policyholders who are counting on our constant improvement.
- So what do we really mean by development?

Nature of development
- It’s easy to think of development in terms of book smarts.
- And one need only walk down these halls to see that we have it: CLU, ChFC, FLMI, and FSA
- But once again I submit to you that facts and figures only go so far.
- We are in people business, we are in the relationship business, and we concern ourselves to develop as people.
- For one thing each person that we talk to can teach us something about relationships.
- So when we spend time only with the same people day in and day out, is it that much different than holding ourselves back a grade in school?
- When we develop a network of new relationships, whether we call it mentoring or affinity groups or something else, we improve our career as well as our personal life.
- There are courses you can take right at your desk about organizational skills, setting goals, dealing with stress, giving feedback, writing effective e-mails, and balancing work/family.
- There’s also one on presentation skills, which I have taken many times.

Closing
- To bring our time here to a close.
- I SAY to you, that development is the true currency of our future
- I HOPE for you, to create an individual development plan for yourself
- And I PLEDGE to you, that I will champion your cause when you elect me as Chairman