How Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci could have avoided a car ...
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It followed his recent admission that he “misread the political environment” by cancelling Australia Day merchandise and the spectre of six concurrent inquiries into price gouging by the supermarkets.
So what went wrong in the interview? And what can other leaders learn?
‘When will they learn?’
Leadership and communication coach Michael Kelly asks “when will these CEOs learn that they need to work on the way they deliver, as much as what they are saying?”
“Anything could happen and you need to be brutal in your preparation,” he says.
“One of the key messages I share, when working with leaders in how to listen and speak under pressure, is that ‘he or she who loses their cool, loses’. Losing his cool in his ABC interview is a telling example of what not to do, when under pressure.”
The problems can be grouped into three areas, says executive coach, body language and vocal expert Louise Mahler.
1. Approach
“Yes, the journalist may take a confrontational approach, but blow me over if that is a surprise to anyone. In response, to take a combative and bristling approach is akin to diving into a cauldron of burning gases and hoping to come out alive,” she says.
“Watch Hillary Clinton laugh in crisis. Watch Richard Branson swagger and joke. Even, dare I say it, watch Daniel Andrews enjoy his own sarcasm. There needs to be a lightness of approach, a sense of humour, a feeling of ‘perhaps you need me to help you understand’.”
2. Framework
There are also “arrangements” for every single communication, Mahler says.
“Straight out confrontational answers, using demeaning phrases like ‘as I told you already’ or misdirecting to irrelevance such as ‘he is retired’ [to undermine the comment of an expert] is in poor taste.
Dr Louise Mahler: “Watch Hillary Clinton laugh in crisis. Watch Richard Branson swagger and joke.” Peter Braig
But as Kelly agrees, the bigger issue for Banducci was in storming out of the interview and then coming back – and how that looked – rather than the point about Rod Sims having retired. You are a public figure and cannot try for a “do over”, Kelly says.
3. Delivery
The key to communication is delivery, delivery and delivery, Mahler agrees.
“Storming out of an interview when you don’t get what you want is childish and then creeping back in is plain ugly. Even the way Mr Banducci stood up, throwing his body forward, was an aggressive move, unbecoming for any CEO.”
“Sitting at an angle with a tightly sealed mouth and glaring eyes, is a recipe for disaster and barking responses will bring on a fight. It is quite simply poor choice, totally ineffective and might I say, old-fashioned.”
Mahler’s practical tips for success are:
- Use simple guides to decide on an approach and adopt techniques such as mantras to guide the mental state.
- Have a framework for questions, for emotional responses and for providing feedback and for offering perspectives, instead of answering shotgun off the top of your head.
- Know your body is under stress and make conscious responses physically and vocally as opposed to stress-inspired reactions.
“It’s not rocket science, but we have ignored these skills for so long, we are behind the eight-ball, and maybe we are going to have to start from the beginning,” Mahler says.