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CEOs and other executives often find themselves in the role of company spokesperson. More often than not, they have neither the background nor the proper training to be effective.
As the communication professional responsible for media relations at your company, there are several things you can do to help prepare your executive for the interviews to come.
The first thing to remember is that you must start at the beginning. For example, as an experienced and trained writer, it likely comes naturally for you to first assess your audience before crafting a story. Without thinking twice, you conduct research and learn about your audience’s current level of understanding and feelings about the topic. Right?
Well, in media relations, when you receive that phone call from a reporter who is on deadline and wants commentary from one of your executives, it’s very easy to go into rush mode and skip established protocol. At that moment, when you’re on deadline, remember that you have three audiences: the reporter, the readers or viewers of the media outlet, and your executive. While it may be counterintuitive, executives often are the most challenging part of the equation to understand—and they can also be the most important.
With this in mind, it’s in your best interest to remember the following:
Executives can be tricky. That’s why you want to understand the unspoken, but legitimate, dynamics of being an executive. For any number of reasons, some executives simply dislike or resist talking to reporters. Here are some reasons why:
- They’re too busy with competing priorities.
- They have a fear of being misquoted or sharing too much information, especially if they work at publicly traded company.
- They don’t know what questions will be asked of them.
- They have a fear of coming across as less than knowledgeable, to their peers, their boss or their board of directors.
- They don’t trust reporters to get it right, or they suspect, often unjustly, that reporters have a hidden agenda.
- They think being silent is a better course of action.
So what can you do to prepare your executives for inevitable—or even welcome—media calls?
1. Be proactive. Your best bet is to make media training an integral part of your communication program, even if you don’t take a lot of media calls.
2. Assess your executive’s skills. Has he or she ever had media training? Has he or she ever been interviewed on air, in print, or by a news or a trade reporter? Was the experience positive or negative? Why or why not?
3. Determine your executive’s personality type and speaking style. Is he or she friendly; an introvert, a loose cannon; the abrasive type; the one-word-answer type; the type who, when asked what time it is, tells you how to build a watch? Pay attention and adjust your training accordingly.
4. Find out how your executive feels about the media. It’s your job to ask, and be prepared to educate your executive about the reporter who will be conducting the interview.
5. Know when to conduct media training yourself and when to use an outside consultant. Don’t take it personally, but some executives prefer to work with someone outside the company when it comes to training. Most bosses don’t like to come across as inexperienced and sometimes feel vulnerable taking instruction from a subordinate. If you go outside your organization, choose a media trainer who is a good fit for your executive. Before you schedule the training, coordinate a half-hour meeting between the two so they can get to know one another. After that meeting, ask your executive if he or she felt comfortable with the trainer. Let them know that training is designed not only to educate, but to provide a safe place to make mistakes. Your executive should feel comfortable making mistakes and feeling a bit vulnerable with the trainer.
6. Use relevant scenarios during media training. Part of media training is academic. That is, you’ll want to teach how important it is to have a friendly demeanor with a reporter, how body language and tone of voice make a difference, etc. The other part of training is practical. During the practical part of training, you should ask your executive to combine the practices of what they’ve learned with how they respond to questions. For just-in-time training, anticipate the reporter’s questions and ask your executive to respond using learned techniques and drafted responses.
After media training and before the interview, spokesperson trainers should:
- Educate your executive by sharing news clips that the reporter has written.
- Revise your anticipated questions, answers and any other key messages you want your executive to be familiar with. Continue to role play.
- Assure your executive that they always have an out. If they don’t know an answer, it’s okay to say so. If they are answering a challenging question, they should refer to the answers or key messages that were previously crafted.
- Participate in the interview. When possible, attend every interview and take notes of both the questions asked and how your executive responded. Evaluate. Were your practice questions on target? Did your executive respond in a desired way? If you can, record the interview and use it for immediate and follow-up training.
- Schedule quarterly refresher courses with your executive using topics that are current and relevant. Becoming an effective spokesperson requires practice.
By remembering to always start at the beginning, you can better position yourself as a communication expert, create a better training experience, and ultimately develop a more effective executive spokesperson.
Danielle Sittu, ABC, is president of Danielle Sittu Communications, a communication consulting firm specializing in corporate communication, strategic planning, marketing communication, media relations, employee communication, executive communication, media training and all aspects of human resources communication. You can reach her via e-mail at
or via phone at +1 602.826.6939. |
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