How do Leaders perform as Public Speakers?

President Obama’s response to the attempted Christmas bombing

President Obama is one of the most articulate speakers to occupy the Whitehouse in years. During his campaign for the Presidency, he delivered exciting and inspiring speeches that have been set to music, used to teach English in Japan, and enabled him to become elected President of the United States. As President, Obama continues to deliver powerful speeches that display his articulate intellect. His most recent example of excellent public speaking was in Oslo, Norway. The speech fit the moment, was totally appropriate for the intended audience, and had the gravity of a Presidential speech that touched people. He also delivered it well.

When I say he delivered the speech well, I mean that all the things they teach you in speech class, or Toastmasters, of Dale Carnegie were there. He had great eye contact, effective gestures, meaningful facial expressions, and purposeful movement (for TV). Quite often how a speech is delivered is more important than what a speech has to say. He combined both the how and what to deliver a home run in Norway.

In contrast to Oslo, the President’s response to failed bombing of an airliner on Christmas day was less effective. The event was pretty dramatic. During a time when most of us were enjoying the Holidays, the nation was alerted to the fact that evil people continue to seek ways to harm innocent people in America. Apparently, a Nigerian man found a way to smuggle an explosive device on board an aircraft that departed Amsterdam for Detroit. The attempt appears to be to spoil our Christmas with the sight of human carnage and destruction in our homeland. People across the nation were concerned, some were scared, and all looked to our leadership to reassure and comfort.

The President delivered a brief (six minutes) statement about the attack, he explained our response to the event to prevent future occurrences, and he made a comment about the crack down in Iran. What he didn’t do was deliver the level of comfort we look for when we perceive peril. Like a father speaking to children during a thunderstorm, the audience might like to be reassured in a warmer fashion. Consider the following: The storm frightens a little girl and her father states in a blunt mater-of-fact monotone, “You are safe, we have lightning rod on the house. All is well.” After making those remarks, the father walks off into the next room. It does the job but perhaps it would have been a bit more effective for the father to deliver the message in another manner.

The same thunderstorm and the same frightened little girl but this time the father looks deeply into the child’s eyes and says, “I understand how scary thunder-boomers can be. Your Gand-Pa told me when I was a little boy that our house would keep out those thunder-boomers and that’s what made me feel better. He would also hug me and read one of my favorite stories by flashlight just to make it fun if the lights went out. Would you like to read a story by flashlight sweetheart? I’ve got a big hug for you.”

Now I’m not saying that President Obama needs to tell us fairy tales to make us not scared of the “Big Bad Al Qaeda” but I think a more timely response and one that was a much comforting as it was informative might have been more effective. He had poor eye contact and he was a bit too matter-of-fact. Perhaps a press conference with brief questions and an opening like this: “Thanks to the courage of the passengers and crew of Flight 253, a vicious terrorist plot was thwarted and their family and friends and our nation were spared horrific news.” The advantage to these words is that they acknowledge both the fear and the facts while giving it the positive motivating storyline. He also needed to be comfortable enough with what he wanted to say so he could look up more often. Again, eye contact is so important to us as an audience. And a brief press conference would have allowed the American people to see him answering questions at a time when we all need to hear answers.

His response was adequate but it was not a home run it was just a single.