Madeleine Albright – MSN – John Bigelow Taylor
Former Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, just turned 73 years old this past weekend. Wow! She has had such a fascinating life! To commemorate the occasion, MSN ran a story highlighting her book, Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box that was published last year. In the book, Albright discusses her heartfelt passion for pins and brooches, but even more interesting are the numerous stories she shares about the frequent strategic approach she took when deciding which pin from her 300+ collection to wear to certain events while in political office. On good days she wore flowers, balloons and butterflies and on bad days, she wore spiders and bugs.
It all started when she chose to wear a snake pin to every meeting with Iraqi officials in response to Saddam Hussein referring to her as “an unparalleled serpent”. To support and reinforce her strong words, she also wanted to send an unspoken message that she meant business.
Dr. Albright is doing exactly what yours truly has been preaching for the last year and a half – visual wardrobe presentation as a message really does count! Our unspoken method for communicating that we mean business may be different than wearing various pins; although I must say, she looks absolutely stunning in green, as well! Yet, clearly this was an enjoyable and effective tactic for her and a great reminder for us to leave no ploy behind to reiterate and reinforce our business messages.
Check out a wonderful interview Katie Couric did with Madeleine Albright on the subject and find out why she doesn’t like to call them brooches.
Kristina, this is an excellent presentation: Anyone who wants to visualize instead of verbalize is ahead of the game with Madeline A.’s approach. A+ to you!