Tag Archives: Michael Parker

The idea of power

A recent article in the Evening Standard carried the headline: GOOD IDEAS AREN’T ENOUGH- ED NEEDS TO PROJECT POWER.

Journalist Jenni Russell discusses the four major problems he faces only one of which is largely under his control. He cannot do much about the ‘structural impotence’ of the opposition, or the ‘plague of Labour’s legacy’, or Cameron’s success in ‘acting in some ways as Labour would be proud to do’.

The fourth problem which is largely under his control (or is it?) is his style and manner. A problem shared by many pitch teams and those who lead them!

“Voters doubt his capacity to lead. Milliband’s private charm and intellectual curiosity aren’t translating well to the public stage. He isn’t coming across as a man comfortable with having and wielding power. These are essential qualities in a leader.”

In the competitive pitch the clever ideas person who developed the strategy may not be the best to pitch it . Feelings may be bruised when someone with more ‘power’ but less intellect is chosen to present. What matters is the impact on the audience.

If the substitute bench is empty, serious performance rehearsal, not a tired run-through, will help. It is not a miracle cure for a lack of charisma. What it can do is raise every individual performance and that of the team to greater levels of confidence, clarity and persuasion. More power.

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A winning combination would be one where David Cameron pitches Ed Milliband’s ideas – as he is doing!

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Pitchcoach Awards 2011

This year the awards recognise people who best demonstrate a particular characteristic of great performance. In no particular order:

mary-portas

Energy: Mary Portas. Lots of expertise delivered with compelling energy. Unfortunately too late for our high streets?

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Style: The Middleton Family. Kate for sure but the whole family made the Royals look ordinary.

christine-lagarde

Structure: Christine Lagarde. Great communication skills rooted in clear simple structures so you feel she really does know what she is talking about.

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Body language: David Cameron. No remarkable performances but he manages to create a physical impression of leadership his rivals in Westminster and across Europe can’t match.

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Listening: Rebecca Brooks. She deflected the hostility of the inquisitor MPs by listening, really listening, to each questioner and answering the actual question asked. Unlike Murdoch junior.

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Pausing: Rupert Murdoch. A pause has rarely been more powerful than his response to the question, Did you know what was going on? After a seemingly endless delay his barked NO! took the wind out of the collective MP sails.

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Theatre: Kim Jong-il (deceased). A million people in weeping in unison takes some beating.

david-attenborough

Passion: Sir David Attenborough. Who else?

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Presence: Aung San Suu Kyi. A voice too rarely heard but an unmistakable and compelling presence.

Charisma: Tariq Jahan. The Currys van driver who spoke so eloquently after the death of his son in the riots that a city came to its senses.

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Surprise!

The element of surprise is a characteristic of any good speech or presentation. Depending on the event and the audience it can range from the theatrically dramatic to the unexpected use of storytelling. Whichever, it is surprise that keeps your audience listening with enjoyment, hearing what you say and wanting more- even if your subject is not itself surprising.

The vicar of St Peter’s in Notting Hill, Mark Hargreaves, is a master of surprise. His deceptively simple ‘talk’ at the annual carol service took surprise as its theme.The very real surprise of the birth of Christ contrasted with the sad lack of surprise of so much of what goes for its celebration today.

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His talk captured interest from the start as he talked about the Leonardo exhibition, referring to the mosaic replica of the Last Supper, hanging in the church. He pointed out the surprise on the faces of the disciples and from there in everyday conversational language helped us imagine the genuine surprise of the innkeeper, Mary, the wise men and, especially, Joseph.

He has a rare gift because he does not just find the right thought-provoking words. He delivers them in a way which is itself surprising in a place of worship where so often the manner is still that of the preacher lecturing rather than that of a friend engaging in a personal conversation. You felt he was talking only to you.

It is a pity, indeed a surprise, that in a world where so much of the trivial is accessible on our iphones that a talk this exceptional, not written down or recorded, was a one-off enjoyed only by those at the service that day. It seems to me that a box-set of Mark Hargreaves talks would be a Christmas gift worth having!

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Pitches HAPPEN in the pause.

One of the best pitches I witnessed was that of great Saatchi creative director, the late Paul Arden. He was presenting a new campaign with a lot at stake. After the strategy had been explained, he rose to speak. Or not. For 60 seconds he stood quietly in silence, as if lost for words. Then a hesitant mutter of ‘this is so uh I’ .. another 60 seconds passed..’It’s so special Iam lost’…another ‘uh’, a seeming eternity of silence.

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Finally he spoke. We the home team sighed with relief. The client meanwhile had been brought to an astonishing level of heightened expectation. Calculated or instinctive, (Arden never said) this totally unexpected use of the dramatic or pregnant pause worked its magic. I don’t remember the campaign. 25 years later, I remember the pause.

In her excellent book the Star Qualities, Caroline Goyder explains how “pitches happen in the pause”.

From years of coaching actors, she understands that it is in the pauses that your audience can take time in their minds to assess you, and what you are saying, time to form an opinion- difficult in the face of a torrent of words. It is in the pause that you will be seen as confident, engaged in communicating with, not proclamating at!

debussy

Some music lessons. It was Claude Debussy who said: “Music is the space between the notes”. And even better,virtuoso pianist Artur Schnabel: “The notes I handle no better than other pianists. But the pauses between the notes- ah, that is where art resides!”

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Sorry. Oops.

These words from Governor Rick Perry probably killed off his chance of being nominated as the Republican candidate. In the live tv debate last week he was in attacking form, “I will tell you it’s three agencies of government when I get there that are gone. Commerce. Education…………..and what’s the third one”? 60 painful, for him, seconds later, “Sorry. Oops”.

rick-perry

Whether it was one of those memory blanks that can happen to anyone or whether, which seems unlikely he did not know the answer, most viewers will read the worst into his gaffe and assume he does not know what he is talking about. Initally he handled his lapse with a smile, maintaining strong eye contact.

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Had he finished that way much would have been forgiven. Instead he looked away as if for help, compounding the D’OH! impression. In any live presentation it is easy to forget that the words alone are a minor part of the communication impact. The way you say it, the body language, the tone and expression play the major part.

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The supreme communicator President Ronald Reagan handled gaffes effortlessly with his engaging folksy style and with clever words. Challenged in debate by Walter Mondale, targetting his age over one of his many lapses of memory, he turned the tables with humour saying “I am not going to debate for political purpose my opponent’s youth and inexperience”. Even Mondale laughed.

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