There’s much to be gained from observing how those who make it to great heights in politics – when they communicate well, badly and even atrociously.
Having observed many prime ministers in action in both hemispheres, I know it’s always a challenging job to communicate effectively as a national leader.
This because there are so many different parts and interests within their country – and so many potential international factors – all of which can be impacted every time they open their mouth while wearing their ‘national leader’ hat.
One of the learning points in this issue comes from the current Australian Prime Minister who has been apologising profusely after messing up an interview with a so-called comedian that – alas – did not prove to be very funny for anyone.
For some inexplicable reason, Anthony Albanese took part in a podcast conversation involving a highly troublesome question which referred to Australian pop superstar Kylie Minogue – best known for singing beautifully while provocatively prancing around in her golden hotpants.
Anthony Albanese NOW knows he should have steered well away from an obvious red flag question asking whether he would “shag”, “marry” and/or “date” the iconic Ms Minogue.
Then there’s a former Australian Prime Minister – Malcolm Turnbull – who has just done a remarkably impressive interview with Britain’s ‘The Rest Is Politics’ podcast.
In it Malcolm Turnbull demonstrates the benefits of diligent preparation ahead of wide-ranging questioning by the programme hosts – Alastair Campbell, famous for being the communications supremo for British Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, and ex-Conservative Party cabinet minister, Rory Stewart.
Malcolm Turnbull comes across superbly – with masterly answers to probing questions as a result of having both lived through turbulent political times and having thoroughly done his homework before being interrogated.
And there’s also the bizarre and counterproductive behaviour of the high-profile British politician who thinks he’s on course to become a future Prime Minister – Nigel Farage.
He has now severely damaged his chances of serving in 10 Downing Street after repeatedly losing his temper in media interviews in a most un-prime ministerial way.
This edition looks at the recent efforts of these 3 performers to underline communication lessons for everyone in business, politics and beyond.
Let’s start with Anthony Albanese, who crazily ended up on a podcast interview where he allowed himself be mauled by the jaws of a savage but very obvious question trap.
It seems that the prime minister – and his team – should have far more thoroughly checked out the approach generally taken by the comedian who hosts the podcast and who launched into an on-air game where the respondent is supposed to declare whether he would “shag, marry or date” a list of people.
In this instance the list of possibilities provided by (alleged) comedy interviewer Nikki Osborne included the iconic Australian singer and dancer, Kylie Minogue.
Anthony Albanese’s first instincts were right – to bow out of engaging with the question on the basis that he’d only been married six months earlier.
But perhaps by trying too hard to please – or to look too cool – he then persuaded himself to declare in favour of all 3 of the proposed possibilities for Kylie.
Many podcast viewers felt this was not the appropriate choice for maintaining the dignity of a 61-year-old serving prime minister.
In a country with a relatively high proportion of declared feminists – male and female – Mr Albanese subsequently received truckloads of advice over how he’d gotten things horribly wrong.
To his credit, he then issued an emergency better-late-than-never apology.
But if he’d stuck to his original inclination not to provide an answer – and held firmly to giving his recent marital arrangements as the significant reason for doing so – he would have come out of the nightmare in a much better place.
So to determine how just prime ministerial – or not – Anthony Albanese came across as, check out Channel 7’s political coverage of his toe-curling gaffe by clicking on this below:
I first met Malcolm Turnbull in the early 1980s while I was working on the morning shift in Sydney of the national current affairs radio show run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
He had been a Rhodes Scholar who’d studied at Oxford University – like U.S. President Bill Clinton and former Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke before him.
At the time of our chance on-the-street meeting, Malcolm Turnbull was a prominent young banker who my reporting colleagues and I met while walking to our post-show breakfast break.
We had a quick group chat with him on the footpath before continuing onto breakfast.
But my news-hungry ABC colleague Suzy Cameron wisely stayed behind to converse further with Malcolm Turnbull before rejoining us.
When she caught up with us, Suzy dramatically announced that one day Malcolm Turnbull would become Australian Prime Minister – a bold claim as he was not even a Member of Parliament at that stage.
Much later – while based in London in the 1990s – I did my first interview with Malcolm Turnbull when I tracked him down at a pub in Hammersmith.
He was meeting with Australian republicans living in the UK who were pushing to have an Australian “resident for president”.
This was a democratic alternative to relying on an overseas Australian Head of State who lived – and who still does live – in Buckingham Palace.
By this stage Malcolm Turnbull was the Chair of the Australian Republican Movement – a most unusual position for someone who was in the Liberal Party (a broad equivalent of the British Conservative Party) with many of its members supporting the UK’s monarchical system continuing to reign over Australia.
I was delighted to get a few minutes to interview Malcolm Turnbull – who was still not an MP.
Malcolm Turnbull did eventually become a Member of Parliament in Canberra.
And then Suzy Cameron’s prediction came true!
Malcolm Turnbull was Australian Prime Minister from 2015 to 2018.
As demonstrated on “The Rest Is Politics” podcast, he’s always been a calm, insightful interviewee.
His views on dealing with President Donald Trump are particularly fascinating – and serve as a warning for any country which, like Australia and the UK, have been traditional allies of the United States.
In the interview, Malcolm Turnbull voices his scepticism about the so-called “AUKUS” (Australia/UK/US) project which is supposed to provide Australia with nuclear-powered sub-marines.
He’s also very open regarding his profound scepticism about anyone – national leaders and others – ever trusting Donald Trump.
Malcolm Turnbull’s preparation for the interview has clearly been extremely thorough – even though he has lived through much of what he talks about.
He has clearly been the beneficiary of quality media interview response training.
Malcolm Turnbull’s pre-thought through messages and approach come across with profound strength – in sharp contrast with the disastrous Anthony Albanese interview.
Even if you can only listen to a small amount of this long comprehensive interview, it’s worth doing so to see how a master deals with all kinds of questions.
Whether of not you plan to become a prime minister – or the CEO of a FTSE 100 company – quality media interview response training is a supremely useful experience to have LONG BEFORE you get there.
Details about the process are available at: https://www.michaeldoddcommunications.com/media-master-classes/
One person who clearly needs quality media interview response training – so he can learn to give calm reassuring answers when asked obvious tough questions – is the leader of Britain’s Reform UK Party.
Nigel Farage has just made a dramatic attention-seeking manoeuvre to resign from his parliamentary seat in Clacton and re-contest it in a by-election.
He has been erupting in anger and self-pity when asked logical questions about whether he’s been compromised as a potential future prime minister by receiving a £5-million pound donation from a crypto-currency investor.
His answers are strongly working against his ambition to become a future British prime minister.
In questions about his £5-million gift his standard answer is hardly reassuring.
A quality media interview trainer would never advise that saying “It’s none of your business!” is a polite, effective or persuasive way of responding to fair questions asked in the public interest.
Have a look how this repeated answer plays out in a bad-tempered career-limiting interview Mr Farage has done with the BBC’s Sally Nugent:
By the way, it’s never a good idea to accuse a broadcasting organisation that’s interviewing you of endangering your life unless you have proof that you’re willing to give.
It’s something everyone will learn in quality media training – whether you hope to become a prime minister or just an even better-performing business person!!!