Prescription medication is an unrecognised barrier to executive presence. SSRIs flatten emotional range. Stimulants kill pause tolerance. The most medicated generation in history is leading from behind a pharmaceutical glass ceiling.

Exceptional leaders have own-the-room qualities we call “executive presence”. These traits are prized because they inspire trust, fuel careers and get things done. Executive coaches help diagnose what’s blocking people from this flavour of authority – personality, ...

In Zen Buddhism there’s a useful word meaning “neither yes nor no”. When an acolyte asked a foolish question, the Master could reply “mu”, meaning “I say ‘yes’ but I mean ‘no’ and the actual answer is: unask the question.”

If only we could say “mu” in modern life! Sadly, it only works on Buddhist monks, and not on children asking if Santa Claus is real. Happily, there exists a large toolbox of practical techniques for answering difficult questions when they come your way. We teach them in in me...

Imagine you need to get your head around a difficult new topic – quantum theory, for example, or genetic engineering. Would you be better off talking to a Nobel Prize-winning genius, or a young scientist working in their lab? You might get lucky, if the wise professor is also a great communicator, but surprisingly often you’d learn more from the lowly assistant.

The reason is a cognitive bias that psychologists call the Curse of Knowledge. It’s a software glitch that causes our brains to overes...

A company that chooses its words carefully can escape a crisis with its reputation intact – or even improved.

Statistically all companies can expect a reputationally significant crisis roughly every five years. Cyber hacks, employee misconduct, product recalls, supply chain mishaps and a long list of dramas are all waiting around the corner. The good news is this: if you handle the crisis well, not only will you most likely be forgiven, but you may even gain new respect for showing your true co...

When entrepreneurs and leaders polish their communication skills in public speaking and media training, they focus on two success factors: preparation and performance. Rightly so. There’s no substitute for mastering the foundations of structure, messaging, framing, storytelling, body language, energy, voice and interaction.

But there’s a powerful moment that can fall through the gap between preparation and performance. I’m talking about the art of arriving: how to make the most of those preciou...

Two strategies and seven tactics to keep your audience hooked

In a classic episode of The Simpsons, Homer gives Marge a birthday present—a bowling ball engraved with his own name.

“She’s a beauty, isn’t she?” Homer says.
Well, that’s hard for me to judge, since I’ve never bowled in my life,” Marge scowls.
“But I know someone who does…” says Homer.

Far too many speeches and presentations are versions of the Homer Simpson bowling ball—designed around what the speaker wants to say, rather than wha...

Body language, posture and voice are crucial. But what you need to do to get them right doesn’t happen during the performance – it happens before you start.

It’s no secret how much body language matters for public speaking and executive presence. The real secret is this: leaders who want to build executive presence, and the people who coach them, have been working on the wrong problem.

Stay tuned for a story about how fixing the right problem helped one CEO land a $6.3 billion deal.

But first...

It’s no secret how much body language matters for public speaking and leadership. The real secret is this: leaders who want executive presence (and the people who coach them) have been working on the wrong problem. Here’s how fixing the right problem helped one CEO land a $6.3 billion deal.

When professionals stand up to speak and the stakes are high, they want to appear confident and authoritative. They want to project “leader energy” and so they focus on what they do with their bodies in the ...

Most communication directors can tell you exactly how much their company spends on brand content. Few could tell you what their own employees are saying about the organisation on LinkedIn. That gap is the whole problem. In the typical company, the most persuasive and trusted voices are not on the comms team or in the marketing budget. They're in the feeds of mid-level professionals posting about their actual work. The real question for communication leaders is a different one: an employee advoca...

Most people are well aware of the importance of body language in public speaking and media interviews, but in practice it is challenging and often counter-productive to try actively to hold ourselves in a way that our bodies don’t find natural. Experienced actors know how to use their bodies to send signals of confidence and presence, but most of us don’t have a lifetime of experience managing the subtleties of posture and gesture. Making a conscious effort to hold ourselves in a particular way ...

When you’re preparing to speak in public, whether for a speech, presentation or media interview, it can be very useful to run through some of the same vocal warm-up drills that singers and stage actors use to maximise vocal projection. If you prime your voice in this way, you will sound better without even having to think about it.

Jaw and cheek muscle release

1. Find your Masseter (upper jaw) muscles, which hang from the back of your cheekbones in a notch about one inch in front of each ear.
...

Photographs and video from a set-piece protocol or media event can magnify its impact on public perceptions and on the reputation of institutions and VIPs. It is in everyone’s interests that photo opportunities are stage managed to facilitate the best quality images.

Media often complain that they have to fight to get what they need to make good images. Great public relations and protocol services treat media as customers. The following guidance explains how to help photographers and videograph...

Have you ever seen a captivating video or post but hesitated to engage with it or trust the creator when you saw how few followers they had? This dilemma is becoming increasingly common as marketers shift from traditional partnerships with heavy-hitter influencers towards collaboration with content creators. The old model based on follower counts and celebrity endorsements is gradually giving way to a more meaningful and authentic approach based on quality and outcomes. Marketers are realising t...

The Brent Spar episode proved that it is not enough for a company to be in the right, if it also fails also to engage with stakeholders and ­convince the media. It showed that even a major multinational can be defeated by hostile public opinion. Shell lost the PR battle, and then lost the regulatory battle as a result.

The context

The North Sea contains over 350 drilling rigs and oil production platforms. They are very large and contain some level of contamination from oil exploration and prod...

Messaging is the art of framing an idea in a way that will stand out and be noticed, resonate with an audience, and stick in their minds in a way that shapes behaviour. One way to be distinctive is to say something unexpected or counterintuitive. Whereas most companies promote their products as being the best, IKEA ran a marketing campaign intentionally positioning itself as “proudly second best” – earning a coveted Film Gold Lion at Cannes 2023.

In this atypical campaign, IKEA departs from the...

The top two global sportswear brands – Adidas and Nike – have both taken a reputational hit from scandalous comments and social media posts by high-profile celebrity partners. The circumstances were parallel, but the way each company responded to its crisis had profound implications for damage limitation. An analysis of the coverage data reveals some important lessons for communicators everywhere about the interaction between corporate culture and the effectiveness of crisis response.

The heada...

Silicon Valley Bank collapsed in March 2023 after a run on deposits doomed its plans to raise fresh capital. Weak communication was a primary factor in the crisis, on two dimensions:

• Failure of communication strategy. SVB underestimated how sensitive depositors would be to the news, in the context of recent financial failures.
• Failure of storytelling. SVB communicated without context and neglected to build a narrative.

SVB was a $200 billion institution and had been the go-to-bank for tec...

Some of the best communication campaigns are those where the company creates and gives away something genuinely useful, and has the courage not to spoil it with commercial messaging. A great example popped up as an Instagram ad recently.

Onstar is the connected technology platform installed in newer General Motors vehicles, which among other things can connect a driver remotely to a human advisor to coordinate with emergency services in the event of a crash.

In this campaign, they partnered wi...

On February 13, 2023, three students were killed and five others injured in a mass shooting on the campus of Michigan State University. The gunman, 43-year-old Anthony Dwayne McRae, shot himself dead when he was confronted by police.

In the aftermath of the shootings, Vanderbilt University in Tennessee decided to send a consoling email to students using the following text:

We must recognize that creating a safe and inclusive environment is an ongoing process that requires ongoing effort and co...