Communicate With Confidence!®: Booher Banter

Obama Drama: His Communication Style Under the Microscope

Okay, I can’t remain silent any longer about the Obama craze. Every media pundit you turn to is analyzing, forecasting, mimicking, or scratching their heads about this junior senator from Illinois. What is it about his communication style that causes 20,000 people to turn out to hear him as if he were a rock star when they’ve never cared about politics before?

Sure enough, on my radio interview yesterday with The Entrepreneurial Moment, http://www.preciseselling.com/Radio.htm, we weren’t ten minutes into the show when the inevitable question surfaced from host Brian Sullivan: “So can you comment on Obama’s style—what is it that makes him so charismatic as a speaker? Let’s hear your analysis when we come back after the break?”

That was the teaser. So I had 60-seconds to think about it. Sure, as a communication specialist, I’ve watched all the presidential hopefuls over the last several months and analyzed their strengths and weaknesses during more debates than most. But typically when I’m doing press interviews, they expect me to spit out a 20-second sound-bite. Here was a talk-show host giving me the freedom of about five minutes to elaborate on Obama’s style—and with 60 seconds to think about it.

So I decided that I’d just pass my analysis on to you. Here’s what I’ve called Obama’s 5 S’s of Speaking Style:

Smile: It’s hard not to be attracted to someone’s smiling. (Most people are surprised to discover how dour they look all too often when speaking—especially when tense and especially when presenting on sensitive subjects. Cameras also have a way of emphasizing negative facial expressions.)

Stature: He’s tall. How many times have you heard someone comment on candidates who “look presidential?” Survey after survey shows that tall people are thought to be smarter, more attractive, more capable, and more successful than shorter people. Tall people command attention more quickly than short people; it’s just a fact of life. (As someone who’s only 5’4” myself, I'd like to know if anyone out there has a supplement for this condition.)

Smooth Gestures and Movement: (This learned skill is the next best thing if you can’t change your height.) He walks purposefully and gestures with large graceful movements. None of those short, chop-through-the-air John Kerry gestures we saw in 2004. You know the kind I’m referring to—those when your mother wagged her finger in your face and said, “Johnny, how many times do I have to tell you not to leave your bike in the driveway?” Obama’s hands and arms have the opposite effect—open, warm, inviting, inclusive.

Syntax: His speech is fluid. He thinks well on his feet. No rambling. Few word fillers.

Soothing Words: His word choices are uplifting. He likes to focus on positive word choices. He prefers to talk about “change” rather than “problems,” about “solutions” rather than “the mess we’re in.” Audiences walk away with “hope” rather than a “we’re heading toward doom” feeling.

This year’s race is one of the most exciting in many years—if for nothing else than to see a contrast in communication styles and how the public reacts from day to day as the candidates shape, reshape, and measure the responses to their message. As the great philosopher Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot just by watching.”

Lincoln and the Language of Leadership: Precise, Powerful, Poignant

On this President's Day, I thought it might be a good idea to reflect on possibly one of the most often quoted speeches in history:  The Gettysburg Address.  As you read it, notice the power of the simple language.  Of the 278 words, 203 are only one syllable.

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

The next time you write an email or a report, remember the power of precise, simple language to produce results.

(For more communication principles Abraham Lincoln practiced and preached, I highly recommend Dr. Gene Griessman's Lincoln on Communication (60-minute DVD).  Dr. Griessman has performed his one-man play in the Georgia Dome before an audience of 30,000, as well as before audiences around the world.  Click here to order your copy.  You may also want to visit Dr. Gene Griessman's site for more information about his performances.

Spin-Off From Super Tuesday: What Can You Learn About Telling Your Own Story?

Everybody spins.  I’m not knocking it.  If we didn’t spin, we’d never get a date, a mate, an employee, a job, or a contract. Spin is putting the putting the best face on things.

And that’s just what the presidential contenders did late Tuesday evening and Wednesday, coming off the grueling campaign trail to hear the voters’ feedback in 24 states.

Here’s what they each had to say about the SAME set of data diced and dissected by the pundits on every issue:

McCain: “We’ve won some of the biggest states in the country.  We have won primaries in the west, the south, the Midwest, and the north-east. And although I’ve never minded the role of the underdog, and have relished as much as anyone come from behind wins, tonight I think we must get used to the idea that we are the Republican Party front-runner….”

Romney: “I think there are some people who thought it was all going to be done tonight, but it’s not all done tonight. We’re going to keep on battling. We’re going to go all the way to the convention, we’re going to win this thing, and we’re going to get in to the White House.”

Huckabee: “You know, over the past few days a lot of people have been trying to say that this is a two-man race.  Well, you know what?  It is. And we’re in it!”

Clinton: “Together, we’re going to take back America, because I see an America where our economy works for everyone, not just those at the top, where prosperity is shared and we create good jobs that stay right here in America…. The race will drag on for weeks longer:  this is not going to be decided any time in the near future as far as we can see.”

Obama: “There is one thing on this February night that we do need the final results to know:  Our time has come. Our movement is real.  And change is coming to America.”

Raphael Sonenshein, Professor of Politics at California State University, Fullerton:  “Both Clinton and Obama had a great day, but given the expectation of momentum, the Hillary camp has slightly more reason to be happy.”

Bill Whalen, Hoover Institution:  “It’s a bad night to be Mitt Romney…He doesn’t have a signature win and he really needed California, and it didn’t come through.  It appears John McCain pretty much has the nomination sown up, but he needs to find a way to generate enthusiasm.

Huffington Post:  “For all of their pandering to ‘conservatives’ and ‘evangelicals’ John McCain and Mitt Romney have been unable to shake off Mike Huckabee. Huckabee’s victories in Alabama, Arkansas, West Virginia, and strong showings in Georgia and Missouri prove that his message resonates with voters in southern states and rural districts across the country.  Huckabee has the cache with these voters that McCain and Romney have desperately sought to develop.”

Let me repeat here:  All the above candidates and pundits are dealing with the same election results!  So as Yoggi Berra put it, “You can observe a lot by just watching.”  Make that listening, in this case.  And many of us listened until the wee-hours Tuesday evening.

So what did the candidates’ Super Tuesday demonstrate that might be useful next week on your own super Tuesday at work?

When you deliver a presentation, the facts rarely speak for themselves.  That’s why you’re making the presentation “live” rather than just emailing slides to someone.  Interpret.  What’s your point?  Tell your story.  What do the numbers mean?  What are the numbers NOT saying?  Where are the gaps?  What can the numbers NOT justify? Where’s the opportunity? What will the listeners miss in the numbers if they’re not particularly astute?

Spin away—that’s your purpose.  Appropriate spin is grounded in reality, not misleading, and provides straight answers to direct questions.  If it also happens to serve the good intentions of the speaker, so be it.

Spin away—that’s your provocative and often your path to success.

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