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.