Making headlines

February 2005 - Making Headlines

As some of you will know, before becoming an executive coach, I was a BBC journalist. Working on some of the BBC's most hard-hitting news programmes and observing some of the UK's most effective communicators (including presenters and politicians) taught me a lot about how to get a message across effectively. Equally I observed some hugely ineffective communicators too and learnt what it was that made the difference.

In our media training courses, we share tips drawn from this experience with delegates who, like you, may have contact with the media from time to time. But these tips are equally applicable to communicating in general and often are included in our leadership training programmes.

Here are my top three:

Three is the magic number -
Most interviews with journalists, particularly on TV or radio, are short. And even though a newspaper journalist may talk to you for half an hour, they are likely to choose only two or three direct quotes from you to use in their feature. When preparing for an interview, think ahead about what your 3 key points are. If you have too much to say, your message will be lost. When answering questions ensure that your three key messages are coming across clearly through your answers. This does not mean you ignore the question and repeat, ad nausium, your three prepared statements. This is very frustrating for listeners, viewers and readers and makes you sound as though you are avoiding questions. However, it is easy to get distracted by the interviewers questions and find you have not said any of the things you wanted to say.

Of course, this can be applied to any situation where you are expected to present ideas or answer questions e.g. a meeting, presentation or job interview. In preparation, think about the three key messages (no more) that you want to communicate and ensure that these are made clearly where possible.

Only say what you can justify -
Difficult one this! We've all heard politicians trying to justify a policy or a decision which, clearly, does not sit well with them. Privately they may not feel it is justifiable, but they are holding the party line and have to say they support the decision.

There may be instances where you have to back a plan which you privately do not think is justifiable in the media. My tip is to find the part of the decision which you do genuinely support and focus on that in your interviews. The decision itself may not sit well with you but the need to pull together and present a united front may be very important to you. You may not agree with the decision but you may agree with the way the decision was made or may respect the person who made it.

A good journalist will be able to see through you if you pretend to defend the indefensible. So defend the defensible instead.
This applies outside of media interactions too. "Being fake" is a dangerous path and leads to distrust. But there may be times where it important to stand together with colleagues. Apply the same approach here as you would if you were talking about it on the radio.

Tone of voice -
We don't tend to do much voice training in our media workshops. After all, we aren't training future TV presenters. We're training people to be able to give informative, interesting, newsworthy interviews to the media.

However, the tone you adopt is important. Even the most exciting development can be an audience turn-off if you sound bored. This doesn't only apply when doing radio or TV interviews. A print journalist will also be influenced by your tone of voice.
Try this: tape your voice reading something from a newspaper and listen back. How much intonation is there? Could you understand the meaning of what you were reading or was it just words stuck together? If you heard someone speak like that, would you think what they had to say was interesting?

Now try again, this time really "selling" the story. Chances are, even if you feel you were going over the top it won't sound like that when you listen back to it.

Whether you are being interviewed by a journalist or giving a talk, speaking up in a meeting or trying to get a promotion, remember your tone of voice. The words you say matter. But equally important is HOW you say it.

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You can download a more in-depth article on this topic: Understanding PR