What can Nick really say?
by Graham Davies
The three crucial ingredients of a speech are: who is speaking, what they say and how they say it. The speech to be delivered by the Leader of the Liberal Democrats tomorrow will be very different in each of these elements from its equivalent last year.
Nick Clegg's 2009 speech was a noteless political cabaret, a 55-minute exhibition of faulty policies delivered with a faultless memory. This was a Party Leader uninhibited by even the remotest thought that he would ever be able to put his ideas into practice. There was no hint of "Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government".
He will undoubtedly try the memory trick again, and wander around without a lectern, to show that Nick the Deputy PM, is still One of Them.
I look forward to hearing his Core Micro-Statement....the legacy at the heart of the speech that will be remembered above all else. The most accurate one I can suggest for him is: "Terribly sorry to have sold out on so many of our fundamental principles, but you should feel the leather in the back of our Ministerial cars!"
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Sunday, 19 September 2010
Saturday, 11 September 2010
Obama's Continuing Weakness
by Graham Davies
President Obama is one of the finest AutoCue Athletes that the world has ever seen. But the Q&A session about the economy that he did yesterday shows that he still has a long way to go before he is a great Presentational All-Rounder.
When he presents a carefully calculated and rehearsed text using AutoCue, he looks, sounds....and probably feels...utterly in control. But when he is answering a question in front of a live audience, you can see the certainty leave his eyes instantly, especially when there is a hint of aggression behind the question.
He then tends to speak.....with......pauses.....that are slightly.....too long........that come in.....strange places.........in his sentences. When a politician needs this much thinking time in the middle of a 60 second answer, he looks like a struggler, not a leader.
He needs more coaching. He certainly needs to read the Q&A chapter in The Presentation Coach (published by Capstone on 24 September). There he will see that Q&A can involve techniques which give you even more authority than rehearded delivery of a pre-prepared script.
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by Graham Davies
President Obama is one of the finest AutoCue Athletes that the world has ever seen. But the Q&A session about the economy that he did yesterday shows that he still has a long way to go before he is a great Presentational All-Rounder.
When he presents a carefully calculated and rehearsed text using AutoCue, he looks, sounds....and probably feels...utterly in control. But when he is answering a question in front of a live audience, you can see the certainty leave his eyes instantly, especially when there is a hint of aggression behind the question.
He then tends to speak.....with......pauses.....that are slightly.....too long........that come in.....strange places.........in his sentences. When a politician needs this much thinking time in the middle of a 60 second answer, he looks like a struggler, not a leader.
He needs more coaching. He certainly needs to read the Q&A chapter in The Presentation Coach (published by Capstone on 24 September). There he will see that Q&A can involve techniques which give you even more authority than rehearded delivery of a pre-prepared script.
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Tuesday, 7 September 2010
Blair's Brand
by Graham Davies
Tony Blair has spent the last few days devaluing his Personal Presentational Brand. I say this even though his autobiography may boost his professional speaking fees to beyond the merely stratospheric.
Of course, the thing that the punters in Waterstones want to see is one politician making bitter personal attacks on other politicians, preferably long-term friends and allies. Tony has been happy to oblige. This tells you more about him than the people he has targeted.
He has launched an assault on Brown et al, not because he wants to put the record straight for the good of the country, but because he wants to sell a few more books.
He may be the most expensive speaker on the planet, but he is looking cheaper by the day.
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by Graham Davies
Tony Blair has spent the last few days devaluing his Personal Presentational Brand. I say this even though his autobiography may boost his professional speaking fees to beyond the merely stratospheric.
Of course, the thing that the punters in Waterstones want to see is one politician making bitter personal attacks on other politicians, preferably long-term friends and allies. Tony has been happy to oblige. This tells you more about him than the people he has targeted.
He has launched an assault on Brown et al, not because he wants to put the record straight for the good of the country, but because he wants to sell a few more books.
He may be the most expensive speaker on the planet, but he is looking cheaper by the day.
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Sunday, 5 September 2010
Another Cop Thug
by Graham Davies
If there had abeen no CCTV footage available, how likely do you think it is that Sergeant Marc Andrews of the Wiltshire Police would have been prosecuted for assaulting a 57 year old woman?
I will tell you: there would have been no chance at all.
Never fall asleep in your car in Wiltshire.
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by Graham Davies
If there had abeen no CCTV footage available, how likely do you think it is that Sergeant Marc Andrews of the Wiltshire Police would have been prosecuted for assaulting a 57 year old woman?
I will tell you: there would have been no chance at all.
Never fall asleep in your car in Wiltshire.
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Sunday, 29 August 2010
Out of Office?
by Graham Davies
Imagine sending an email like this to a colleagues, a supplier or a client:
"Thanks for your email, but I just don't care enough about you to read it or give you a 5-word response. I am on vacation, so I don't give a toss about you."
That is precisely the message you are presenting about yourself whenever a piece of software sends out an Out of Office Auto-Response that indicates you will not be accessing emails due to your on-holiday mode.
There really is no excuse for this presentational callousness. And yes, you are still presenting yourself and your business when you are on vacation, whether you like it or not. Of course, people do come up with alot of excuses for being incommunicado:
by Graham Davies
Imagine sending an email like this to a colleagues, a supplier or a client:
"Thanks for your email, but I just don't care enough about you to read it or give you a 5-word response. I am on vacation, so I don't give a toss about you."
That is precisely the message you are presenting about yourself whenever a piece of software sends out an Out of Office Auto-Response that indicates you will not be accessing emails due to your on-holiday mode.
There really is no excuse for this presentational callousness. And yes, you are still presenting yourself and your business when you are on vacation, whether you like it or not. Of course, people do come up with alot of excuses for being incommunicado:
- I work a 70 hour week, so I am entitled to a complete rest
- There are other people who can deal with anything that is likely to come up
- My spouse forbids me from looking at work emails when we are on holiday
The third excuse is so beneath contempt that I won't even point out how risible it is. If there really is someone you totally trust to deal with everything as well as you could, then fair enough (but are you sure??). But surely you cannot really rest on your sunbed in the knowledge that you might have hundreds of unexploded bombs waiting in your in-box?
Everyone can afford a blackberry. But no-one can afford to present the image of someone who sticks their fingers in their ears and says LA LA LA rather than spending at least 30 minutes a day checking their email....no matter how exotic their location.
If you don't follow my advice, it is just possible that you won't be spending quite so much time on expensive vacations in the future.
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Monday, 23 August 2010
Pointless Politician
by Graham Davies
The speech by Tony Abbot on the night of the Australian General Election was a remarkable achievement. You see, Tony is the Leader of the Australian Liberal Party.....and he managed to lead his audience nowhere.
One of the fundamental requirements of a good speech is that the speaker should take the people he is speaking to on a journey (see Chapter 1 of The Presentation Coach, published next month by Capstone). Sadly, Tony had nowhere he wanted them to go.
The circumstances were difficult. He was surrounded on stage by 4 tall Amazonian women who may have been his bodyguards, but were probably his wife and daughters. They had no business being there and the looks on their faces made it clear that they knew it. They merely served the function of offering alternative targets for snipers.
And there was a hard core of Part Yobs at the front of the crowd who were determined to cheer every other sentence Tony uttered, no matter how indifferent.
What he said was a collection of bland statements that merely confirmed what the audience already knew:
It's too soon to celebrate
Everyone has worked hard
I am very grateful
This is an important night
We have more hard work to do
We are the best Party
We need to work hard
etc etc etc
The most telling verdict on the speech was given by Sky News, who switched to a commercial break half way through.
My message to Tony, and anyone else who imposes themselves on an audience, is this: Don't just have a speech, have a point as well.
If you would like to comment on this blog, please do so by clicking on the "comments" link below:
by Graham Davies
The speech by Tony Abbot on the night of the Australian General Election was a remarkable achievement. You see, Tony is the Leader of the Australian Liberal Party.....and he managed to lead his audience nowhere.
One of the fundamental requirements of a good speech is that the speaker should take the people he is speaking to on a journey (see Chapter 1 of The Presentation Coach, published next month by Capstone). Sadly, Tony had nowhere he wanted them to go.
The circumstances were difficult. He was surrounded on stage by 4 tall Amazonian women who may have been his bodyguards, but were probably his wife and daughters. They had no business being there and the looks on their faces made it clear that they knew it. They merely served the function of offering alternative targets for snipers.
And there was a hard core of Part Yobs at the front of the crowd who were determined to cheer every other sentence Tony uttered, no matter how indifferent.
What he said was a collection of bland statements that merely confirmed what the audience already knew:
It's too soon to celebrate
Everyone has worked hard
I am very grateful
This is an important night
We have more hard work to do
We are the best Party
We need to work hard
etc etc etc
The most telling verdict on the speech was given by Sky News, who switched to a commercial break half way through.
My message to Tony, and anyone else who imposes themselves on an audience, is this: Don't just have a speech, have a point as well.
If you would like to comment on this blog, please do so by clicking on the "comments" link below:
Sunday, 15 August 2010
Speak with your Elbows
by Graham Davies
Yet again, David Cameron has shown his talent for creating memorable phrases under pressure. His spontaneous use of the words "sharp elbows" nicely captures the combative attitude needed by parents to secure the best for their children from the Public Sector.
It is also a phrase that should epitomise your attitude to Presentation. There are alot of things competing to get the attention of any audience you speak to. And even if you manage to grab their attention initially, it can still drift away if you and your words are not compelling enough.
That is why you have to be a practitioner of Sharp-Elbowed Presenting. This is a highly assertive form of speaking where you think of yourself as constantly jostling for the attention of the audience. You are prepared to push just a little to get to the head of the queue in their collective mind. But you are determined to retain that Dave-n-Sam charm even when you are at your most determined.
It is then that you will achieve the exquisite presentational balance encapsulated by the following impossibly mixed metaphor: the sharp tongue in the velvet glove.
by Graham Davies
Yet again, David Cameron has shown his talent for creating memorable phrases under pressure. His spontaneous use of the words "sharp elbows" nicely captures the combative attitude needed by parents to secure the best for their children from the Public Sector.
It is also a phrase that should epitomise your attitude to Presentation. There are alot of things competing to get the attention of any audience you speak to. And even if you manage to grab their attention initially, it can still drift away if you and your words are not compelling enough.
That is why you have to be a practitioner of Sharp-Elbowed Presenting. This is a highly assertive form of speaking where you think of yourself as constantly jostling for the attention of the audience. You are prepared to push just a little to get to the head of the queue in their collective mind. But you are determined to retain that Dave-n-Sam charm even when you are at your most determined.
It is then that you will achieve the exquisite presentational balance encapsulated by the following impossibly mixed metaphor: the sharp tongue in the velvet glove.
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