Learning From Obama's Effective Communication Skills

[0:05]What communications lessons can managers take away from the election? I'm Aaron White with the Wall Street Journal, here to talk about that with me is TJ Walker, who advises executives on effective speaking strategies as head of Media Training Worldwide. Thank you so much for joining me, TJ. Glad to be here. So, you know, tell me what are some of the biggest overall communications lessons that managers can take away from the election? Obama and McCain clearly had different speaking styles. What are sort of the, the biggest things that people can take away in terms of communications from Obama's victory? Well, Obama did several things right. For starters, he had a good positive message. He said, vote for me and I'm going to have activist government intervene in the economy, intervene in healthcare, and get you out of an unpopular war. He stuck to that message again and again and again. He had a strong positive message. And unfortunately, McCain made a classic blunder, his message was too abstract. He said, vote for me because I'm a reformer. Well, reform what? It's too abstract. He didn't give enough concrete examples. Ronald Reagan, for example, said vote for me, I'm a reformer, but I'll reform by reducing taxes, strengthening defense. So it was specific and concrete, and unfortunately, McCain left things at the abstract level. Obama also did a great job of saying why you should vote against his opponent. That's George Bush another term. And McCain, unfortunately, his negatives against Obama just seemed to bounce around. He was shifting messages. That hurt him. So what are the most important sort of everyday tips that managers can take away from this in terms of what to apply in their, you know, daily situations? You've got to do three things. You've got to give a clear compelling message of what's good about your product. If you're a candidate, you've got to say why you're the best candidate for this job. You've also got to say what's wrong with the opposition. And finally, you have to have a good defense for the other charges. Again, Obama did a masterful job when McCain said my opponent's going to raise taxes. Obama didn't sit back and say, oh no, I'm not really going to raise taxes that much. He didn't get defensive. The best defense is always an attack. Instead, every single time he said, I will cut taxes a 95% of the population, and McCain will give a $750,000 tax increase, or tax cut to Wall Street CEOs. It then put McCain on the defensive. That is a picture perfect way of handling negatives thrown your way. McCain, when accused of just continuing Bush policies, never had a good defense. Yeah. What about what not to do? What can managers take from that? Well, you've got to be able to defend yourself and you have to be able to react quickly. You can't just bounce around as McCain seemed to do with a different theme every day. But for example, when McCain said the economy is fundamentally strong, it was only a few hours before the Obama campaign had a snippet of that, ran it in a commercial to show again their message that McCain was out of touch and was not responsive to the economy. They used that to put him into the box of, this is George Bush again. Whether you agree or disagree, you have to admit, it was an excellent use of quick strategy, quick use of media, but consistent with themes that he'd used for months and months and months. That's why it was effective. Yeah. Thank you so much for joining me, TJ. Thank you. I've been talking with TJ Walker of Media Training Worldwide. In New York, I'm Aaron White with the Wall Street Journal.