Archive for July, 2010

So Tony Hayward is out as CEO of BP.  No surprises there.  He’s being shipped off to Russia.  Wonder if he’ll ever get his life back?  Robert Dudley is taking over and is the first American to do so.  Dudley has already had a positive impact.  He seems to get it when it comes to understanding how the “small people” feel about BP.  However it doesn’t mean BP now gets a free pass or a do-over with the public.  The company’s reputation will be forever stained with their initial response and Hayward’s bungling of the situation.  Like the oil in the water, it may take generations before there’s a clean feeling about BP in the public’s perception.

Why did so many smart people do dumb things this past week.  I’m referring to the Shirley Sherrod story.  She is the Agriculture Department employee who was fired, primarily because the Cabinet Secretary of her department and people in the White House, including President Obama, seemed to be  afraid of on-air tirades from their “friends” at Fox News!

They must be congratulating themselves at Fox for scaring all those important people they love to hate into over-reacting and making stupid decisions.  I’m not sure anyone will learn from this experience.  And I do hope Shirley makes a bundle out on the speaking circuit.  Her story was compelling before this episode. Imagine what she can say now!

I saw the news stories featuring Steve Jobs’ press conference Friday about the new iPhone’s antenna glitch.  The clip that caught my attention showed Jobs pacing in front of a large screen and with a click of a his remote the words “We’re not perfect.” appeared, followed by “Phones are not perfect.”  Underneath those two sentences came “We want to make all of our users happy.”  That seemed to be the media’s favorite sound bite, capturing the story and the tone…sort of.

My question is was it really necessary to put those words up on the screen?  Did having those sentiments written out on slides help Jobs make his case?  Seems to me it was a classic misuse of Keynote, Apples equivalent of PowerPoint!  And I think it diminished his credibility.

When you have something important to say, you want the communication to be between you and your audience, not between the slides and your audience.  Just because you have all the bells and whistles, it doesn’t mean that’s the best way to deliver your mea culpa!  Get real, stay connected to the people who are important to your company.  Don’t do a “dog and pony show” when you are addressing problems. You risk insulting your audience at a time when they are not happy with you in the first place.  Resist the temptation to let your slides do your talking.

Jobs has a great reputation as a speaker. He’s cool under pressure, never uses notes, and connects extremely well with his audiences.  But you really get a clear picture of a person’s true personality and sensibilities when they are responding to negative press.  If Apple has a few more public difficulties and Jobs continues to react defensively, he could join the pantheon of superstars who fall hard because they lost touch with the integrity that attracted followers, customers, and all the accolades.

Heard a compelling interview on the Bob Edwards Show last week on XM Radio.  He was talking to the two authors of a new book called “Merchants of Doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco to global warning”  My attention was immediately captured when authors Naomi Oreski and Erik M. Conway mentioned that the “experts” who are challenging the existence of global warming are the same small band of scientists who claimed second hand smoke from cigarettes was not a serious health problem. In doing the research, they followed the money trail.  Oreski and Conway disclose how a small group of world class scientists developed a very cynical political strategy of casting doubt on solid scientific research in an effort to avoid government intervention and regulation on everything from chemicals, cigarettes, and CO2 emissions.  It’s a fascinating and disturbing expose.

What also caught my attention was their statements about how the media does not do a good job of vetting these “experts,” most of whom are paid by or have their “research” funded by companies who want a desired outcome.  Because journalism and journalists are under dire economic pressure, we as citizens need to become much more media literate, looking beyond the headlines, doing more digging when we see or read controversial stories in the media.  Who are the talking heads out there making pronouncements about what is going on?  Who pays for their opinion or expertise?

I had my own brush with a similar situation.  Someone I met at a networking event a few years ago asked if I would  help them prepare for a series of presentations.  Turns out a large corporation had hired this person to go out into regional communities as an “expert” and persuade audiences on the company line, to avoid restrictive regulations by local governments.  I was fortunate the person didn’t ask me again and I didn’t have to turn them down as a client.  At the time, I remember clearly wondering how this smart accomplished person would consider being a spokesperson in such an unethical way by not disclosing their relationship to the company.

It used to be that the media was our watchdog on these types of stories.  I think the watchdog needs a watchdog and it has always been us!!!

The book is available everywhere. Here’s a link to it at Amazon where you can also see a short video with co-author Naomi Oreskes.

There’s a new article featuring eight tips for crafting your elevator speech. It’s based on an interview I did with Alan Hughes of Black Enterprise Magazine.  Alan did a great job of capturing the foundational tips for standing out and building your business networks.  Click here for the article

Also coming soon is the second edition of my book. It has a new chapter on the elevator speech and personal branding and some new tips in the media section on new web and social media.

It’s already available as an e-book on my site. We’ll have the actual books available by the end of July.