A year ago this month, Sir Keir Starmer became the new British Labour Prime Minister with a thumping 174-seat majority in parliament.
Sir Keir’s government has since started changing many things.
Alas, along with all the changes, the prime minister’s ability to sharply convey “The Vision Thing” – as President George Bush Senior once inelegantly defined it – has so far been rather lacking.
British voters will each have their own perspective on what the Starmer Government has done in its first year.
And as a revered monarch once put it: “Recollections may vary”.
A neutral observer born in another hemisphere might think that quite lot (but not all) of what the government has started to do could be successfully portrayed as generally positive.
But perceptions and reality don’t always sit comfortably together.
A bold enticing consistent vision conveyed from the top can help to project a sense that a government – or some other smaller organisation – is heading in a positive direction.
However, the Starmer Government’s first-year anniversary has come amidst a climactic political communications shemozzle over its attempts at welfare reform.
This has underlined a wider challenge in setting out the direction and progress of travel amidst political hiccups and setbacks.
Spotting people – including Labour supporters – doing cartwheels across the UK to celebrate the Starmer Government’s first anniversary has been hard to do.
If you’re searching for good news from Starmer Government Year 1, it might have to be the abundance of communications lessons to be harvested.
Rather than cartwheels of celebration, the talk has been more about U-turns when the going gets tough.
For example, the government set out on a journey to heroically – but so far not effectively – bring change to the UK’s welfare system… something which all major parties agree needs overhauling.
However, it sought to do this while including some controversial cuts to welfare benefits.
This is never a politically pain-free exercise.
The result has been that just as the first-year anniversary arrived, the government failed to get enough of its record number of Labour parliamentarians onside to support it in the House of Commons.
So the decision to overhaul welfare has embarrassingly been postponed.
Amidst the government’s failed attempts to marshal enough of its own MPs to support its welfare reforms, the first anniversary time has been tense and uncertain for both Prime Minister Starmer and his Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves.
And for whatever specific reason (explanations vary), Rachel Reeves ended up sitting on the parliamentary front bench in tears as Sir Keir sought to defend what the government had been doing on welfare reform.
The media has been criticised for overplaying its coverage of the chancellor’s tearful public appearance.
But the tears had economic consequences – triggering bond traders and others to suspect, inaccurately, that Rachel Reeves was being forced out of her job – something which sent the immediate cost of government borrowing higher.
The massive media focus on the tears may seem unfair and unbalanced.
What quality media interview response trainers seek to do is to educate participants about how the media works, warts and all.
They seek to explain media behaviour rather than defend it.
So – in the interests of media education for all readers of this column – here’s a report on how British politics was playing out at the one-year government anniversary mark – as seen through the discerning eyes of BBC Chief Political Correspondent, Chris Mason.
Communications lessons which arise from this report include:
1. When you hold an important job in your organisation and there’s a time when you’re not at your best, think carefully before any appearance in the spotlight. Only put yourself on display to your own people, the wider public and/or the media, IF you know you have strong control over your emotions.
2. If are in the spotlight, as Opposition Leader Kemi Badenoch was during the teary parliamentary session – and someone else loses control of their emotions in your presence – you will come across better if show some empathy and choose to be kind.
3. If you’re the boss of a person who sometimes loses control of their emotions, amidst your onerous responsibilities, do seek to keep in touch with those around you when the pressure’s on. Ideally that will allow you to guide others on when to be there – and when to bow out of-key spotlight moments, and to display some warmth for them when they need it.
Now let’s have a closer look at Sir Keir Starmer’s first anniversary interview with Nick Robinson, the presenter of the BBC’s “Political Thinking” podcast.
Commendably, Sir Keir comes across as thoughtful, decent and someone prepared to admit it when he hasn’t got things right.
BUT…
Sir Keir needs to know that from a leader’s point of view – in politics, business and beyond – you need to make sure you get across the big overarching messages on direction, rather than getting too easily bogged down in the detail.
Comprehensively informing isn’t enough.
Leaders – in politics, business and beyond – need to inspire!
In Sir Keir Starmer’s case he might do well to learn from the spectacularly successful early performances of his Labour predecessor, Tony Blair (now Sir Tony) – before he got carried away by overblown fears of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Sir Keir could also learn from watching how one of his much younger ministers does it.
Health Secretary, Wes Streeting – who is on the frontline of the government’s massive challenge of turning around problems within the National Health Service – can be impressive in projecting the larger vision without getting bogged down in too many details.
Have a look at the following Wes Streeting performance in a challenging and wide-ranging interview with Channel 4 about his 10-year plan for the health service – and much more.
Watch how he deals in a generally good-humoured manner with tricky questions – including ones about his own weight reduction aspirations and his own political ambitions – without being distracted from his big picture improvements for health.
Wes Streeting is a young man in a hurry who could do with slowing his speaking rate to demonstrate more gravitas – and to allow his multitudinous positive points to land more effectively with viewers!
CONVEY GREAT ANSWERS TO YOUR TOUGH QUESTIONS
Find out about training sessions on giving great answers to tough questions at:
https://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/give-great-answers-to-tough-questions/
Communicating the big picture vision on behalf of your organisation – without getting bogged down in too much detail – is a learnable skill.
As Wes Streeting shows how to do it amidst the massive pressures on his young shoulders, there’s hope for the rest of us!