Most charismatic （有魅力的）leaders make extensive use of anecdotes （趣闻轶事）. Message-sending anecdotes relate to such subjects as a company president going out of his way to help an individual customer, or a lower-ranking employee who defied higher authority in order to meet her job responsibilities. In the latter instance, a receptionist at IBM denied admission to the company chairman, Tom Watson, because he was not wearing a security badge. Instead of firing the young woman, Watson praised her devotion to duty.
Several years ago, the Ford Motor Company announced far-reaching changes that would affect how cars were manufactured and how employees would work together. A senior Ford executive was chosen to deliver the closing remarks to a group of 300 Ford managers gathered to learn about the changes.
Toward the close of the speech, the executive told a story about Willie B., a gorilla who lived for twenty-seven years in isolation in a dreary Atlanta zoo. He said that he had raised money for a state-of-the-art gorilla habitat. Willie B., for the first time in his life, would now live in a gorilla-friendly, close-to-nature environment. Yet somehow, Willie B. was slow to adapt to his new environment.
It took the gorilla several days to fully explore his new habitat. A photographer caught the moment when Willie B. tested the grass with a toe. The Ford executive hangs a framed photograph of this incident in his office. “It's there,” he said, “to remind me that no matter how attractive the new surroundings might appear, it takes time and courage to leave the comfortable security of a place—even an ugly cramped （狭窄的）space---that you know well.”
At the moment the meeting ended, meeting participants came over to the speaker to express how much the speech had touched them. The story about the gorilla brought tears to the eyes of many. Of significance to the organization, many probably left the conference with an understanding of how difficult the coining changes were going to be for employees.
Becoming an effective storyteller requires practice. However, the skill is well worth developing because of its contribution to a person’s magnetism and leadership ability. Create a useful anecdote file of your own. Collect anecdotes about things you observe personally, those you hear from others, and those you read in books, magazines, and newsletters. Anecdotes can also be found in books and newsletters about speech making. Attempt to screen out those anecdotes that are widely used because stale anecdotes bore audiences.
1.Why did Tom Watson praise the female employee in the second example cited in the first paragraph?
2.The life of Willie B. used to be （ ）.
3.The story of Willie B. shows that （ ）.
4.Which of the following statements is TRUE according to the passage?
5.We can safely conclude from the passage that the Ford senior executive（ ）.
