It would seem to be obvious: For your audience to believe you, you have to be believable. It doesn’t matter whether you’re delivering your message in a conference room to a group of colleagues, at a seminar or convention to industry leaders, or through the lens of a TV news camera or the pen of a print reporter to a mass audience across the state or across the nation.

Yet, in my years of helping people learn to communicate more effectively, I am always amazed at how many knowledgeable, authoritative and credible executives, managers and professionals – people at the very pinnacle of their career or profession – become totally unbelievable at the very moment they need to be most believable. [Read more…]

In my years as a TV news reporter and anchor, I saw this happen time and again. The spokesperson for a company or non-corporate organization — whether a CEO, another official or someone from the public relations department — goes on camera to make an important announcement and blows it.

Watching and listening to them, it was obvious that they were not trying to “wing it.” Many had obviously thought through their key messages and some even had created word pictures to help journalists “see” what the individual was saying. Yet the interview turned into a disaster, with the reporter — and their viewers or readers — wondering what the interview subject was talking about. [Read more…]

We have written previously about the need to have a crisis communications plan in place before disaster strikes. Last week’s crash of an Alaska Airlines jet off the coast near Los Angeles is a superb — if tragic — example of how a carefully thought through crisis response plan sitting on the shelf can make heroes of figures who, with less planning or forethought on the part of the company, could have been portrayed as monsters. [Read more…]

How often have you flipped on the news to see some hapless and obviously uncomfortable executive being interviewed? He or she is smashed flat up against a wall in corridor trying look and sound intelligent while camera crews jostle each other and the speaker, microphones jammed in the business person’s face, while still photographers flash strobe lights and the sound echoes around? Meanwhile, the poor executive is trying to convey an important message. [Read more…]

In the early days of “Saturday Night Live,” Gilda Radner’s character Roseanne Rosanna Danna smacked her gum, rolled her eyes, squirmed in her chair and flaunted her big hair. She got our attention but she didn’t gain your respect because she didn’t look, sound or gesture as a command performer.

If you’re a speaker, you need to know what your audience is going to see when they see you. And you must be sure that what they see is projecting the image you want to convey. [Read more…]

After “What do I do with my hands?”, the question I am asked most frequently by male and female executives alike is “What should I wear?” when making a speech or being interviewed on television.

It is not necessary to be a fashion slave to ensure that your clothes do not detract from what you have to say. And, in an ideal world, clothing would have no impact on how an audience receives and accepts your message. [Read more…]

Trends in television news change fairly quickly. A new one is emerging that requires business people, executives, managers and professionals at all levels to learn a new set of skills when they are interviewed. [Read more…]