Media training for CEOs – what this week’s interview with Dame Carolyn McCall tells us

In our media training for CEOs, we look at examples of CEO interviews to pull out learning points for the chief execs and their public relations teams who we work with. We know that the media interviews that CEOs do are unlike those that the rest of an organisation might be subjected to. That’s why delivering media training courses for CEOs is particular art. 

Dame Carolyn is of interest because she’s a very senior female business leader. Even these days, gender counts when it comes to newsworthiness. Female CEOs might find it annoying and patronising that journalists are interested in their gender (even if it’s not mentioned during the interview) but it’s something that has to be borne in mind.

During this FT profile, she comes across as natural, human and modest. There’s also an appealing element of honesty. ‘Her nearly nine years running Britain’s only listed commercial broadcaster have been tough,’ points out the interviewer before going on to ask whether it’s her “toughest ever role?” To which she replies, “It probably is, actually.”

Media coaching for CEOs

One of the focus points in our media coaching for CEOs – or for any spokesperson, for that matter – is sincerity and authenticity. It’s particularly important for business leaders to come across as thoughtful and sincere. If they just appear to be delivering key messages in dreary corporate-speak, why would the journalist, the markets and their teams believe them?

As we explain in our media training courses for CEOs, being able to deliver those key messages using words and phrases that work for you is essential. Finding the right stories from your personal experience to illustrate and prove them also helps. We identify both in our workshops. 

We get a brief reference to her early life growing up in India, Singapore and Australia, plus boarding school in the north of England and her thoughts about going into teaching before joining the Guardian Media Group. This is ticking the “human” box and we always warn the CEOs who do our media training that they should be prepared to talk about their life history and personal experiences.

The piece then goes on to talk about the much-publicised deal (the media love to talk about the media), which involved the acquisition by Sky of ITV’s broadcast division leaving what the FT called “a rump production arm, ITV Studios.” During the pre-interview negotiation between the FT and Dame Carolyn’s PR team this issue would obviously have come up. In our media training courses for chief executives, we explain how these things work – all of our trainers are working journalists, operating strict NDAs.

Media training for CEO 

She has a nice sound bite here: “It’s a historic transaction for this industry.” Identifying such strong, memorable quotes and dropping them into the interview a few times works well for the journalist but also for you as the business leader being interviewed. At the start of our media training for CEOs when we’re doing the first role play interviews, we’ll ask the CEO what quotes they think we’ll use. It makes for an interesting discussion. However, we point out that this isn’t how it should work.

Our advice is not to wait to see what the journalist takes out and uses after the interview. Decide beforehand with your PR team and then spoon feed him or her. Introduce the key messages, backed up with stories and proof points. Identifying memorable little sound bites or quotes and proactively bringing them into the interview is a great way of gaining more control over the final product. 

Naturally there are some tough questions during this interview. ITV’s separation of broadcast and studio seems to have failed to impress investors, the FT points out. “The share price is 20 per cent below where it was when the deal was announced in July,” the paper reports. As we explain in our media coaching for CEOs, identifying difficult questions and having answers ready for them is essential. 

The markets have responded badly

Dame Carolyn is very clear about why she thinks the markets have responded badly – it’s about uncertainty, something they hate. She argues that the impact of the deal should become clearer as the inherent risk is reduced, the ITV share price will recover. Could she say more here, though? This has got to be a key point for her, after all.

This brings the interview onto her general views on the stock market – and she’s not a fan. To what extent a CEO wants to talk about issues beyond their immediate brief is up to them. It’s something that we role play in our media training for chief executives. We’ll ask them some questions related to their industry or to regulation and ask for their thoughts on the market as a whole. 

Sometimes they give us some really interesting thoughts and observations. It’s only when we reveal after the role play interview what we would have quoted them saying and how this could have hijacked the whole article that they realise the value of sticking to their message. Or, at least, of not saying something unless they’ve planned beforehand to say it. Because we work extensively with CEOs and especially those who have founded the business, we know what a risk this is. That’s why we give them tools and techniques to help them to stick to their key messages and to avoid going off at a tangent.

Returning to this FT interview, there are some positive examples of successes during Dame Carolyn’s time at both easyJet and the Guardian Media Group. She could then relate these experiences back to what she’s doing and talking about at ITV? Overall, she comes across well. There are certainly no gaffes. 

Media training for CEOs

However, as experts in media training for CEOs, we’d ask, what is the key message that she and her team wanted to put across here? As experienced working journalists our media trainers will tell you that once they’ve done an interview with a company boss, they’ll have to report back to their editor on it. Before they’ve started writing it up or editing it for TV, they’ll have to come up with a “news line,” in other words, the one story that jumped out at them.

As we mention above, that might be something that the CEO had no intention of saying. On the other hand, it should be the message that they and their PR team have identified and plugged during the interview. 

“Bingo! Just what we wanted,” is the reaction that CEOs and media relations people should have when they see the published interview. Sadly, this is often not the case.

Media interview coaching for CEOs 

That’s why a growing number of PR consultants and in house media relations teams are coming to us for our media training courses for CEOs. Come and talk to us. You can follow us on LinkedIn here.