OUTSTANDING PREPARATION CAN SAVE YOUR CAREER

Great preparation lies at the heart of great communication.      Whether you're giving a speech, answering challenging business questions or doing a media interview, proper professional preparation is vital to success.       In case there was ever any doubt about this, a would-be Australian politician has just given the world a most dramatic lesson in the importance of doing your homework.       A few days ago 27-year-old Stephanie Banister was a candidate for Australia's One Nation party in the state of Queensland in the current election campaign.        One Nation is an anti-immigration party broadly similar to the British National Party.        Ms Banister already had obtained some publicity by being arrested for going into a supermarket and putting stickers on Nestle products saying "halal food funds terrorism".         She then did an interview with Australia's Channel 7 and - Whoopsi Daisy!!! - clearly didn't do much in the way of effective, ever-so-basic homework.             As a result Stephanie Banister literally put Islam on the map...revealing that she thought Islam was a country.        "I don't oppose Islam as a country, but I do feel that their laws should not be welcome here in Australia", Ms Banister declared.          She also made a series of other gaffs, including expressing her mistaken belief that Jews worship Jesus Christ.          With the help of mainstream media and social media her comments whizzed around the world.           Ms Banister has been given the dubious accolade of being dubbed "Australia's Sarah Palin" - after the hapless US vice-presidential candidate who, among other howlers, sought to build up her image of someone who understood Moscow-Washington relations by saying she could see Russia from her kitchen window in Alaska.           Sarah Palin never became America's vice-president.  Spot the moose! Sarah Palin with a caribou that she shot - upsetting animal lovers and her own nine-year-old daughter.              And Stephanie Banister has now quit in embarrassment as an Australian candidate.           A bit of preparation before you have an important communications moment can go along way ....from Queensland to Alaska and beyond.           This is why communications master classes work for my clients.            You get the chance to plan, prepare and practice and to be tested out in advance.            Any mistakes you make remain in the privacy of the session - not tweeted around the world in an instant.             As a result you have every reason to feel so much more confident about your speeches, your answers to questions and your media interviews.             You can check out the interview which led to Stephanie Banister's rather truncated political career here:                   BECOMING AN INSPIRATIONAL COMMUNICATOR        The next opportunity to boost your communications skills and your confidence in an open master class is coming up.         "Becoming An Inspirational Communicator" is a two-day master class in Central London.         It covers: # Presenting with Confidence, Impact and Pizzazz # Giving Great Answers To Tough Questions # Perfecting Your 60-second Elevator Pitch         A particular benefit of running it over two days is that you get the chance to try things on the first day, absorb the feedback, review your approach overnight and come back on the second day to hit the right spots.         We work on the content of what you say, the way you structure your communications and the way you look and sound when you deliver them.          Your ability to impress, connect, sell and motivate will soar.         "Becoming An Inspirational Communicator" runs on Thursday 21 November and Friday 22 November.         It starts each day at 10am and runs to 5pm.         The investment is £495 per place.         There's an early bird offer of £387 for bookings made before 13 September.          Your investment includes VAT, lunch on both days and refreshments.          Email enquiries@michaeldoddcommunications.com to secure your place. LEARNING FROM THE JUNGLE GIRL       I'm hoping the opening story of Stephanie Banister hasn't made you think Australian women can't be inspirational communicators.        They can be - even if Australia's ruling Labor Party has managed to depose the first sheila as prime minister after feeling she wasn't connecting strongly enough with the voters.        One Aussie woman who deserves the title of being an inspirational communicator is Bindi Irwin - daughter of the late crocodile hunter and conservationist, Steve Irwin.        She has heroically carried on her father's TV environmental campaigning with her captivating programme "Bindi the Jungle Girl" seen around the world.            Bindi has just had her fifteenth birthday...and unlike most teenagers chose to celebrate the occasion by talking to the media about one of the more controversial conservation issues - Zero Population Growth.          The idea of limiting the number of humans overrunning the planet is a tricky cause which can run into all kinds of religious and philosophical objections.          But Bindi remains undaunted and took the opportunity to push the issue when speaking to the media at her birthday party press conference at The Australia Zoo.              This drew more attention to her powerful Youtube essay on the topic.          Bindi talks about a friend of hers, Ruth, who died a little while back at the age of 104.          She says that in Ruth's lifetime the population of the earth went from 1.5-billion to 7-billion of us.           We are, of course, all arguably wondrous in our own way, but Bindi has spotted the dangers if we keep multiplying as we are.           In a particularly powerful analogy about the ongoing population explosion, she talks about the concept of inviting 15 friends to a birthday party - to find that 70 friends show up.           Check this out two minutes into the video:          It's interesting that Bindi has chosen to read her script from paper rather than use an autocue which, as a TV performer, she would be well used to using.          I find it more powerful when people talk in a conversational style straight to the camera...and run master classes for individuals and groups showing them how it can be done for high impact webcasts.          Nonetheless Bindi is such a splendid communicator that she somehow gets away with reading the script - and just looking up where she can.          It shows how strong arguments and a well-thought-out script can be highly powerful - even without perfect delivery.  MUSIC FROM THE BLUE DANUBE             When you think about The Blue Danube meandering its way through Austria, you may well have the famous waltz of Johann Strauss come into your mind.             But the river provided the backdrop for a much wider variety of performances at the thirtieth Danube Island Music Festival - with offerings of pop, rock, soul, jazz, blues, hip hop and hard rock as well as oompa music accompanied by knickerbocker-wearing, thigh-slapping locals.                However, when I had the good fortune to be working in Vienna, and staying in a hotel just up from the festival, I spotted one musical act which had much more far-distant origins.             Not only was it from a more ancient tradition than the others, but the two didgeridoo players didn't even mind if one of their countrymen joined in the fun.   Photo credit: Nick Shaw           No prizes for spotting the imposter.         I think it's fair to say the Blue Danube has never witnessed a scene like it.         However I'm not so sure if Johann Strauss would be deeply impressed by the musical quality of the third man.         Keep smiling,         Michael

LESSONS FROM THE SWAT VALLEY

A LESSON IN SPEECHMAKING AND COURAGE   The world has just received an unforgettable lesson from a sixteen-year-old - in both speechmaking and in courage. Malala Yousafzai was already a great communicator and already a heroine when she stepped onto her school bus in Pakistan's conflict-riven Swat Valley last October. She had become internationally famous for running her campaign to combat the Taliban's insane drive to prevent education for girls. She was already the youngest ever nominee for a Nobel peace prize. But when the Taliban sent what most be the must be the most inept assassin of all time to silence both her and her campaign, they not only failed spectacularly. They managed to propel Malala's status as a heroine and superstar to stratospheric heights. After the attack Malala came to Britain for a multiplicity of life-saving operations involving a titanium plate in her forehead and an implant in her ear. She has since left hospital and resumed her campaign for female education at a level which must give anyone afraid of women - such as the Taliban - the worst of nightmares. So it was fitting that Malala celebrated both her recovery and her sixteenth birthday, not with the conventional wild teenage party, but with a speech to the United Nations in New York.  Malala speaking at the UN

GET YOUR MESSAGE ACROSS - WITH SIMPLICITY AND POWER  Apart from Malala's obvious rare courage and determination, there are several ways that her UN speech is to be admired from a performance perspective. And we don't have to have the world as our audience in order to pick up invaluable tips from her presentation skills. For a start she had a clear message...something that all speeches need, but many lack. Malala's message was that education is not the problem which the Taliban fear - it's the solution. She didn't want to retaliate against the Taliban with the same crude kind of weapon they used on her. Malala said that even if she had a gun in her hand and the Taliban representative who shot her was standing in front of her she wouldn't pull the trigger. I believe her. Instead Malala declared: "Education is the only solution." And she wrapped up her message in a powerful image with the simplest of wording: "One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world". Many are fearful about giving a talk to a small number of people in their own company or to a panel of prospective buyers. Malala addressed international leaders and the world beyond with a calm inner confidence based on the quiet unpretentious certainty which underpins the wisdom of her approach. And rather than dwell on her own troubles and pain, Malala focused her attention on the challenges of others. It was all done with an overwhelming positivity. Malala spoke slowly with confidence, clarity and courage. The couple of times she made a teensy verbal slip she kept cool and then came up with the correct version. Check out Malala's style:    BECOME AN INSPIRATIONAL CEO IN TWELVE HOURS I work with a lot of chief executives - en mass in business leaders groups and individually. While they naturally have a wide range of personality types, there are a couple of things they tend to share. Most of them tend to be quick, ambitious learners. And they have the kind of brains that can keep across a wide range of things simultaneously. One thing a lot of them are not so good is communicating in a clear, confident and inspiring way. Up until recently the one-to-one work I do with chief executives has tended to be rather ad hoc. I typically come in and work with them for a specific speech they have to make or a particular set of questions they have to face in the media or from their clients, prospects, shareholders, suppliers or staff. But over the past week several chief executives, in the space of 24 hours, pushed me to design a more comprehensive programme to help chief executives rapidly boost their communications skills in a short period. So I have listened and acted. I'm now offering a new one-to-one programme for company leaders: "BECOME AN INSPIRATIONAL CEO IN 12 HOURS" I know it's possible to achieve this because when I've worked with company bosses on their communication skills in a concentrated way over several sessions they've made mindblowing progress. And I know that for many company leaders, being more inspiring communicators is desperately necessary. The business guru who once transformed the fortunes of Ford and Chrysler was right. "You can have brilliant ideas," Lee Iacocca declared. "But if you can't get them across, your ideas won't get you anywhere."   So the new programme - completed in three half-day sessions - will equip you with the following: # Supercharge your conversations skills so that you are consistently inspiring people rather than deflating them # Boost your business introductions in formal and informal situations # Empower you to give great answers to tough questions # Make presentations with confidence, impact and pizzazz (and if you want to use slides, deploy them in a way that enlivens audiences rather than sending them to sleep!!!) # Allow yourself to handle the media with aplomb when things go wrong # Give you the skills to win free media publicity when things are going right # Talk to the camera in webcasts and video conferences in a way that enhances your message, your offer and your image. Becoming an inspirational CEO is the kind of thing business leaders can focus on over summer when the pressure to perform may less than at other times of the year. Email enquiries@michaeldoddcommunications.com for more details.  SURPRISES FROM THE BLUE DANUBE  This is the part of the ezine where I say "Gross Gott" .........which means "G'day" in southern Germany and Austria. I've been saying "Gross Gott" a lot lately. As you read this I'm running pitching skills sessions in the magnificent Bavarian city of Munich on behalf of the dynamic international company, Bladonmore, which specialises in communicating knowledge. Munich ....where they don't talk much cricket (I've also come here to avoid having to take part in discussions over the First Test with English friends who have yet to acknowledge that if Stuart Broad had done the honourable thing and walked on Day 4 when he was clearly out the result would have been rather different!!!....But far from wishing to be portrayed as a Whinging Aussie - yes they do exist - let me say in my quietest voice: Well played England.) Meanwhile a few weeks ago Bladonmore sent me on a mission to The Austrian capital Vienna, which is also a pretty magnificent place with little discussion on inside edges or silly mid-on. I was particularly fortunate to be working there at the time of the Donau Insel Fest. This is the annual free music festival which takes place on the Danube Island...otherwise known as Europe's biggest free party.       The festival's a bit like Glastonbury but with less mud, a wider range of musical genres and strange collections of local men dancing in lederhosen baring their knobbly knees...Austria's answer to The Rolling Stones. It attracted over three million visitors with a mix of hip hop, house, soul, jazz, traditional Austrian oompah bands and didgeridoo. Yes, you read that correctly. On the banks of the Blue Danube there were indeed two Aussie didge players.....joined at one stage by my good self. Owing to a technical hitch you'll have to wait until the next ezine comes out before you see the stunning visual images which resulted.....the like of which The Blue Danube has never witnessed. Hope you can hold back. Auf Wiedersehen, Michael