Wasted Thank Yous

by Graham Davies

Never present when doing so is a waste of time for you and your audience. You might think that the previous sentence is crushingly obvious. However, yesterday I saw 2 people speaking to an audience 40,000 strong, when it was quite clear that the exercise was utterly pointless.

The people in question were the captains of the Australian and England Rugby Union teams. 5 minutes after an exhausting 85 minutes of enormous physical and mental effort, they were suddenly required to "say a few words". There was nothing that they could possibly say that would have been more eloquent than the effort that they had put into the game.

They both stumbled up to the microphone and said highly predictable Thank Yous to the fans who had turned out to support their respective teams. It was quite clear that they though they were wasting their time and their breath. Their presentations certainly added nothing to the occasion. In fact, it was an embarassment to see 2 people who are at the very top of their profession being forced to do something that detracted from their credibility as leaders.

Never allow yourself to be in a situation where you know that what comes out of your mouth will achieve nothing apart from a huge amount of personal discomfort and a devaluation of your personal presentational brand.