He was the CEO, so everyone laughed.

• Author: Bartlett, David
• Position: LEADERSHIP

From Making Your Point: Communicating Effectively with Audiences of One to One Million by David Bartlett. Copyright 2008 by the author. Published by St. Martin's Press (www.stmartins.com).

THE ABILITY TO TELL FUNNY JOKES is a gift. Most people just don't have it. Just because your friends and colleagues tell you your jokes are hilarious doesn't guarantee that an audience of outsiders will agree.

When he was CEO of the Walt Disney Co., Michael Eisner once appeared on NBC's "Today" show to talk about Disney's new animal park in Florida. This park featured lots of live animals, and it quickly became the subject of a raging controversy that pitted the company against animal rights activists. "Today" was broadcasting live from the new animal park on opening day. It was strictly a promotional exercise. It wasn't a hard-hitting investigative report.

But when it came time for Eisner's live interview, his performance was very strange indeed. He came to the interview with a defensive, even hostile, attitude. He made it abundantly clear just how annoyed he was that anyone would possibly question his company's good intentions. It was obvious that he was wasn't well prepared to deal with the inescapable fact that some animals had indeed died as the park was being prepared for opening day.

The interviewer in the segment was Katie Couric, not someone known for tough interrogations, and none of her questions came close to being hostile. If Eisner had played along as the producers expected he would, the interview would have ended up as just another well-orchestrated opening day promotion. But for some reason Eisner decided to make a joke about the dead animals. He went out of...