How would you feel if – just ahead of a vital test for your organisation’s work – your leader held a negative, bitter, bad-tempered press conference?…
 
… and by doing so your leader effectively signalled to the world that your organisation wasn’t ready to handle its latest challenge?
 
Not great, I presume.
 
And how would you then feel if your organisation subsequently ended up with a terrible result – partly because of this press conference – and the leader then held another even more negative, bitter, bad-tempered press conference?
 
Even worse, I presume.
 
This is what has just happened with the historically successful Manchester United Football Club.
 
The team boss did the very opposite of effective motivational speaking: de-motivational speaking!
 
We in the professional speaking world seek to communicate in a way that leaves your audience thinking, acting and feeling more realistically positive and better equipped to handle their challenges ahead.
 
In my case that involves equipping your audience of team members and/or of prospects and clients you want to impress with the tools to help them become more inspirational communicators.

Manchester United’s boss managed to turn this on its head – by demoralising the members of his team and the club’s fans.
 
Now there are growing calls for him to go.
 
 

HOW NOT TO DO IT

 
 
So after an appalling badly handled pre-match press conference, the Manchester United Manager, Jose Morinho, saw his team lose to the generally less fancied Tottenham Hotspurs.
 
Manchester United lost 3-0 – a pretty decisive result in football world.
 
It was Manchester United’s worst ever home defeat under Jose Mourinho.
 
This was followed by an even more badly handled post-match press conference which the manager cut short by storming out waving three fingers towards the media, while pretending it was something to do with digitally symbolising his sporting record.

 

 

 

He did this while simultaneously demanding respect from the sports journalists who’d been asking him questions – while showing them and their respective audiences no respect at all.
 
As the world doesn’t run this way, Jose Mourinho’s approach to press conferences hasn’t helped his team on the pitch or off it.
 
Football managers frequently get fired for bad results.
 
Perhaps there’s sometimes there’s a case for firing a football manager based on bad press conferences.
 
This should be so when, unsurprisingly, bad press conferences contribute to bad results.
 
 

THE CHOICE OF YOUR ATTITUDE IS YOURS

 
 
When you’re representing your organisation in the media spotlight and you’re being asked tough questions, it isn’t just the CONTENT of your answers that matters.
 
The ATTITUDE you display is at least equally important, and sometimes even more important.
 
Jose Mourinho displayed a miserable, snarly, disrespectful attitude thoughout his press conferences.
 
You don’t need to know anything about the finer points of football to spot this.
 
If you watch any amount of either press conference you can see that his attitude towards his questioners – the sports journalists – and his attitude towards his audience beyond… the fans, the club, the players, the world… is atrocious.
 
You can check out his pre-match press conference here:
 

 

And you can check out his post-match press conference here:
 

 

If you watch either of these performances, you’ll know how NOT to do it… whether in sport, in business, or any field of endeavour.
 
The good news is that answering tough questions much more effectively – and more nicely! – is a learnable skill.
 
Help is available here: http://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/media-master-classes/
 
There’s even a book on it here:

 
And if you’d like the book read to you (in a soothing Australian accent) on your phone or ipad you can arrange that here:

 

 

And if you’d prefer to hear that soothing Australian accent on your CD or MP3 player you can get the book in audio form on a golden disc here:
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Answers-Tough-Questions-Work/dp/1978619839/ref=tmm_abk_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=
 
 

ANSWERING TOUGH QUESTIONS AWAY FROM THE MEDIA SPOTLIGHT

 
 
There’s an equally strong need to demonstrate the right attitude when you’re answering tough questions outside the media spotlight as well as in it.
 
Whatever your role and whatever your profession, when you answer tough questions it can – at times – be appropriate to show your emotions.
 
BUT when you’re under pressure you need to KEEP CONTROL of your emotions.
 
The good news is that this too a learnable skill.
 
Help is available here:
 
http://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/give-great-answers-to-tough-questions/
 
Coincidentally, my professional speaking colleague Mark Fritz – best known for his insightful daily thoughts – has also been thinking about the importance of controlling emotions.
 
Mark shares his daily thoughts through the internet each day and one of his latest ones could also apply to those who lose it in front of the media and elsewhere.

 

 

He sums it up succinctly as ever by advising:
 
“Don’t let the feeling (in the moment) drive behaviours that push you further away from achieving your goals!”
 
And, as ever, he provides a cartoon to further illustrate the point which he’s shared with us here.

 

 

If you would like to have Mark Fritz’s succinct insightful thoughts emailed to you every day, you can sign up free to become a member of his Daily Thoughts Foundation here:
 
http://www.dailythoughtsfoundation.com/

You can click on the inspirational video about new thoughts triggering new possibilities and outcomes.
 
And if you run into Jose Mourinho looking grumpy on the streets of Manchester, you might suggest that some new thoughts could trigger new possibilities and outcomes for him and his team… if it isn’t already too late!