Media training for CEOs – interview with the new Archbishop of Canterbury
She’s the CEO of a multinational, multibillion pound organisation that’s facing disruption and challenges. Its customer profile is changing, competition is growing and keeping teams enthused and aligned is tougher than ever. We’ll leave the slightly glib comparisons with corporate life there, but the point is that, as a leader, the Archbishop of Canterbury Designate has a lot on her plate.
In our media training for CEOs, we help them to define the following statements: “This is who I am, this is where I’m going, and this is why I want you to come with me.” Whether they’re just starting in their role or they’re unveiling financial results – good or bad. It could also be that they’re launching a new product or defending a difficult decision, whatever the context, understanding this personal narrative and being able to refer to it is essential.
Performance for CEOs and their communications teams.
The incoming Archbishop of Canterbury, and the first woman in the job, Dame Sarah Mullally gave an interesting interview just after the announcement was made. So, as experts in media training for CEOs, we were interested to see how she came across. Obviously, the spiritual world is not the same as the temporal one and being leader of one of the world’s great faiths is unlike almost any other leadership role. However, CEOs and their communications teams can certainly learn valuable lessons from her performance.
Dame Sarah starts with a nice little anecdote about having to ask the person who rang to inform her about her appointment to repeat the message. This kind of storytelling sounds human and, in this case, injects just the right amount of humility. As we explain in our media coaching for CEOs, if they’re doing an interview about their appointment, “How did you feel when you heard that you’d got the job,” is something that journalists will often ask.
Media training and presentation training for CEOs
Overall, Dame Sarah tells a coherent and logical story about her personal journey. We’ve been coaching CEOs to identify and tell their personal narrative for nearly 30 years now. It’s something that we explore in our media training and presentation training for CEOs. People understand this idea increasingly well now – but that understanding brings certain challenges.When it was fresh and unusual people were more willing to listen to it. Often, they’d never heard a CEO talk like this. One of the first leaders to explain and return to their own life story was Margaret Thatcher. No politician had ever used it in speeches and interviews to explain their personal credo, to lay out their party’s manifesto and, ultimately, to share their vision for the country.
Since then, almost every politician has had a go, some more successfully than others. But the point is that familiarity can breed contempt here. We’ve grown so used to hearing personal narratives that we quickly notice anything that sounds forced or insincere.. Sir Keir Starmer and Theresa May have both spoken about their parents’ careers, for example. But, instead of engaging and inspiring audiences and helping them to better understand these politicians and their convictions, the sharing of these stories has prompted a shrug of the shoulders or even some eye rolling. Here we go again!
Media training for CEOs
In our media training for CEOs we dig deep to really join the dots. To explain clearly, simply and convincingly, how their experiences and backgrounds have made them who they are today and created within them a passion for what they do and a vision for the organisation that they lead. We often refer to Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech. It’s almost 20 years now but it’s a great example of how to do this
In her interview, Dame Sarah makes an interesting point about her choice to become a nurse rather than a doctor because, she says, she felt that it offers a more holistic and hands-on approach to caring as she sees it. This tells us something about the leader that she intends to be. It’ll be interesting to see how she develops this idea in her sermons, speeches and interviews.
Media interview coaching for CEOs
In our media interview coaching for CEOs, we encourage them to use metaphors to explain their ideas. In this case the Archbishop Designate talks about a holiday to Slovenia, in which she and her family went cannoning down a waterfall. She talks about the preparation and due diligence that she did beforehand – checking the credentials of the company and ensuring that what they were going to do was as safe as possible.
“However, once you’ve done that, at some point you just have to take your courage in your hands and jump,” she goes on. “I did all of the head, but at some point, I think as a Christian you have to take that step off and put your faith in Jesus Christ.” It’s a lovely metaphor – simple, powerful and easy to understand. She could add a little bit more detail and picture painting so that we, the audience, could feel ourselves with her, looking down the waterfall and then jumping.
She goes on during the interview to draw out comparisons between her work of a nurse and as a priest and now leader of the Anglican Communion. There’s a good line about the personal management style that she’s maintained while working in these different organisations. “I’ve always worked with teams and therefore as an Archbishop my ministry is shared – I don’t know how else to do it. That has completely shaped me,” she says.
Media training and speech writing for CEOs
Dame Sarah talks about how she considered whether to become a full-time priest around the time she was offered the role of Chief Nursing Officer for England. She takes us through her thinking here. These crossroads in life and the difficult choices that they bring together with revelations about how and why someone has reached a particular decision are fascinating – and revealing. That’s why in our media training and speech writing for CEOs we encourage our clients to talk about them. As Dame Sarah herself says: “It was the hardest decision that I’ve made in my life.”
Throughout the interview Dame Sarah’s delivery is relaxed and understated, as is appropriate here. There may well be times, though, when, as a preacher and the leader of the Church of England, she might need to show more passion and more energy.
Speech writing for CEOs
Her choice of language is natural and conversational. This, rather than industry jargon and the latest management-speak, is something that we’re very keen to emphasise in our media training and presentation training for CEOs. She has a lovely phrase about her wish to “Give a voice to the voiceless.” Later, clearly speaking to a large and important part of her flock, she includes an African aphorism: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.” We work to include these phrases when we’re asked to provide speech writing for CEOs.
Media training for CEOs
Finally, Dame Sarah acknowledges that there will be those who don’t agree with the appointment of a woman to this historic position, and she reaches out to them subtly but unmistakeably. She ends with a vision of her ministry and leadership.
If we’re being really nitpicking, we’d hope that the Archbishop of Canterbury Designate uses more human stories, respecting the privacy of those she speaks to, of course. This is something that we advocate in our media training for CEOs. Overall, though, Dame Sarah has delivered a first interview in the job that is impressive and reassuring.
Media training and presentation training for CEOs
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