Bill Gates
Click here to see the speech then read on to learn the lessons …

“I hope you will judge yourselves not on your professional accomplishments alone, but also on how well you have addressed the world’s deepest inequities ... on how well you treated people a world away who have nothing in common with you but their humanity."
Commencement address, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA,
Thursday 7 June 2007

William Henry (Bill) Gates III was born on 28 October 1955. He is most famous, of course, for his founding (along with Paul Allen) of Microsoft and for being one of the world’s richest men. Although he is admired by many for putting a computer in almost every home, some commentators and regulators have criticized his and Microsoft’s tactics, which were considered anti-competitive. More recently, Gates and his wife Melinda have engaged in a number of philanthropic activities; through their Foundation, established in 2000, they have donated large amounts of money to various charities and scientific research initiatives.

Gates gives many speeches. He enjoys them. His speeches tend to be genial, focused and relatively slow. The slowness of delivery is not a negative or a distraction, but actually allows the listener to absorb the all-important ideas and thinking. The ideas are what people want to hear; they know that Gates is a pioneer and, as with Steve Jobs of Apple, there is a guru-like status attached to him. He does not have the best speaking voice in the business, but when he does speak we hear and see a sincere man, with total belief in his topic of the day and one who readily engages our interest. And people listen to a mild-mannered Gates who has achieved huge success and wealth. His success and his story are legendary – and people respond to that success. They want to learn from it.

Lessons from Bill Gates
If your presentation style is relaxed, you will need more practice. Bill Gates’s speaking style is notably relaxed and casual. From time to time, he uses PowerPoint (there is something of an obligation, after all), but he does so sparingly. He does his homework and understands his audiences. He’s laid back, but shows focus – an approach that has the effect of relaxing and engaging his audience.

Establish rapport quickly. Bill Gates’s speeches quickly establish a bond with the audience. They are well structured and highly personal, with a valuable emotional pull. Usually they include moments of fun and audiences enjoy the fact that this person has taken time out to address them, to share some of his insights. This is important communication practice from which many executives could learn.

Be comfortable and create your own personal style. Gates does not stand behind a lectern; instead he faces the audience unobstructed. This suits his style and makes him seem friendly, approachable and confident. He favours a steady, conversational tone where one line of thought leads smoothly, comfortably and seamlessly to the next.

You can be a “gentle” speaker and still display deep emotion. In his speeches, Gates is able to show his anger – for example, at the state of the world, where children are allowed to die of curable diseases:

“One disease I had never even heard of, rotavirus, was killing half a million kids each year – none of them in the United States. We were shocked. We had just assumed that if millions of children were dying and they could be saved, the world would make it a priority to discover and deliver the medicines to save them. But it did not. For under a dollar, there were interventions that could save lives that just weren’t being delivered. If you believe that every life has equal value, it’s revolting to learn that some lives are seen as worth saving and others are not ... So we began our work in the same way anyone here would begin it. We asked: How could the world let these children die?”

Gates is speaking to Harvard graduates, people who will (eventually, if not yet) have influence, money and, one supposes, power. He knows that these are people who must care and begin to act if those in the world who have little hope are to be helped. There is passion, quietly expressed, and there is persuasion:

“The barrier to change is not too little caring; it is too much complexity ... The media covers what’s new – and millions of people dying is nothing new. So it stays in the background, where it’s easier to ignore ... And so we look away ...”

A Legacy
Time magazine has frequently named Bill Gates one of the 100 people who have most influenced the last century and Microsoft’s co-founder certainly belongs among the world’s greatest drivers of new ideas. Was much of his success down to luck? Possibly, but to help build and sustain a business with the size and influence of Microsoft cannot be down to luck alone. Most would agree that his vision and his company have shaped how we communicate and the methods we use to do so. As he moves beyond Microsoft to throw his energies into philanthropy, Gates will be remembered as an inspiring technologist who really invented the commercial software market and populated the world with around half a billion PCs. The legacy is a strong one, no matter what may happen in the next age of computing, computing software and applications.

But Microsoft is not the prime focus now for Gates. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is designed to improve people’s health in developing countries. In the USA it also helps those with the least resources to improve their lives through predominantly educational initiatives. Many observers think that Gates’s greatest contributions to society are in the future – helping to fight disease, to improve health and to reduce poverty. At the end of his Harvard Commencement speech he says simply:

“You have more than we had; you must start sooner, and carry on longer. Knowing what you know, how could you not?”