Whatever legitimate business you're in, it's not great to be filmed in a vehicle buying illegal drugs including crystal meth, crack cocaine and ketamine.
This is what finally brought unstuck the ex-chairman of Britain's Co-operative Bank, Paul Flowers. Mr Flowers has not only lost his senior banking position, he's also been suspended from being a minister in the Methodist Church. The revelation that he had also once, as a city councillor, been found with "inappropriate adult content" on his council computer didn't help his image either. So the media have been full of headlines like: "How On Earth Did Flowers Bloom?" But as students of communications, it's important for us to note what really sparked the doubts about him in the banking world. The crucial part in the downfall of Mr Flowers (pictured below) was his appalling lack of proper preparation and his abysmal performance for a crucial communications challenge. 
His communications challenge was appearing before the Parliamentary Treasury Select Committee.
I spend many hours training people in and around Westminster for select committee hearings because they are sooooooooo important. You may not have to appear before a select committee yourself, but the same importance can apply to other big-moment communication challenges - when you are pitching to that dream client, speaking at a crucial board meeting or making an important announcement to your staff. Mr Flowers clearly didn't appreciate this - and has paid the price. The lack of preparation that lies behind the transcript which follows from Mr Flowers' appearance is truly mindboggling...especially if you're a shareholder in the Co-Operative Bank. |
HOW NOT TO DO IT
Here are two exchanges between Paul Flowers and the Chairman of the Treasury Select Committee, Andrew Tyrie, who was asking about the financial size of the Co-operative Bank. Tyrie: "What's your total asset value?" Flowers: "Just over three billion." Tyrie: "I'm talking about the assets..." Flowers: "I'm talking about the assets on the balance sheet - just over 3-billion. These are the figures I've just looked at recently." Shortly afterwards the Treasury Select Committee (pictured below) returned to the topic of the Co-operative Bank's figures.  This is what happened: Tyrie: "Your total assets in June 2013 are listed as about 47-billion, just to give you an idea. You were offering me 3-billion and I'm telling you your annual accounts show it at 47-billion. Flowers: "Indeed they did. Forgive me." Whoopsidaisy!!! You can hear this amazing moment as it happened on the BBC website. It will be on line for the next four days. The BBC Radio 4 story on it starts just after 1 hour and sixteen minutes into the Today Programme: |
HOW TO GET IT RIGHT
There are key things to do when you are facing an important communications challenge which Mr Flowers overlooked. You need to plan for it, prepare for it and practice for it. Many readers of this ezine have taken part in one of the communications-boosting sessions I run to equip you to face audiences and media outlets in general. I'm now offering multi-part programmes for those who want to transform the communications of your whole team: And the latest offering for individual business leaders is at: http://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/inspirational_CEO.php But when you have a specific challenge, you may like to give consideration to doing a bespoke session entirely focused on planning, preparing and practicing for that particular occasion. The focus in these sessions can, if necessary, be rather like The West Wing, where the fictional US President has questions fired at him from all angles so that he's ready for anything.  I naturally can't reveal who I have helped prepare to face parliamentary committees - as these are run on a confidential basis. But I will declare that I did not do a session for Paul Flowers. And I don't think anyone else ran one with him either. Doing a bespoke session designed to hit the spots of your next communications challenge will help you perfect your presentation - and make you as close bombproof as possible when it comes to dealing with those questions you might receive during and after it. These sessions will certainly spare you the public embarrassment of appearing to mislay 44-billion pounds! |
IT CAN BE WORSE
When you consider how badly Paul Flowers performed in the spotlight, you might think no one anywhere could put in a worse communications performance.
But the embattled Mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford, is doing his best to prove you wrong.  Mayor Ford has been grabbing world attention - refusing to resign from office even though he's admitted to smoking crack cocaine in a drunken stupor. He's also been responding belligerently to a series of allegations in court papers that he has been a drunk driver, used racially abusive language, threatened his staff and consorted with an alleged prostitute. Rather than playing the humility card, Rob Ford continues to go on the attack against his multitudinous and growing enemies - including hecklers in the public gallery. If you haven't had the chance to take in the Rob Ford way of doing things, check him out here. Toronto City Council would like to fire him for bringing their city into disrepute - but they don't have the powers to do so. Instead they've gone as far as they can by voting to strip him of most of his authority. But Rob Ford has succeeded in doing one thing - singlehandedly overturning the image of Canadians as laid-back, well-balanced folk who are far more chilled than almost anyone else on the planet. Many Canadians at home and abroad are less than happy about this. Among them is my Canadian colleague in the Professional Speaking Association, Gerry Brown, who is an expert on customer service. Gerry (seen below) is a more traditional mild-mannered Canadian.  Gerry sends this message. "If Rob Ford was a company - and many argue he is certainly large enough - then by now I would expect that most of his customers (citizens) would have cancelled their orders, asked for their money back, taken their business elsewhere, gone onto social media and otherwise made their outrage public. "In the case of the voters of Toronto, they may have to bide their time until the election next year. "But as with companies that show disdain for customers, his time will come; his credibility is in shreds, he has misplaced the trust of the electorate, demonstrated that his basic values are not shared by the people he is supposed to be leading and generally lost sight of the fundamental principles, such as integrity, honesty, fairness and quality, that most right thinking people use as road map to get them through life and use to judge others." So there's one vote Rob Ford will be hard placed to capture. Now of course I have master classes, conference speeches and individual learning programmes that will help you and your team get the communications right in practically any situation. But I'm kind of hoping that Rob Ford doesn't call up and ask me to design one for him. Meanwhile, he's still insisting he wants to become Canadian Prime Minister. Keep smiling - even if you live in Toronto. Michael |
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