LEADERSHIP IN THE MEDIA AGE
BY MICHAEL WESTLAND-ROSE
Much is said, taught and written about leadership - the qualities of a leader, the inspirational skills, motivating teams and so on - but very little has been covered about how the media age we live in presents certain challenges to leaders and how they need to handle it.
The Worldwide Stage!
Leaders, more than ever are, in a sense, in the spotlight on a potential worldwide stage.
The impression they create, the influence they have, and their very reputation can be at stake. There's a famous quote that says 'people will forget what you say, they will forget what you do, but they will never forget how you made them feel'.
So for instance, the leader who gives a less than inspirational presentation, which is also a webinar, which is also being recorded and placed on an internal website (or maybe even on YouTube) could have far reaching implications. Way beyond any day-to-day face-to-face interactions with people, a recorded webinar or webcast might be viewed by many hundreds of people over a length of time and, in some cases, viewed by a worldwide audience.
Now and in the future leaders need to be fully aware of the various technological media they may appear in because this, as much as anything else, will affect peoples impressions of them. Leaders at some point in their career will need to make use, or will unknowingly appear in webinars or webcasts, LinkedIn, YouTube, Social Media, blogs (where something might be written about them) and possibly even broadcast media such as radio or TV.
Presenting The Right Image
With the onslaught of 'media' one can draw parallels between the image of a leader and that of a celebrity. The media age leader will need to plan a strategy for developing and creating the right image. A common example of this would be when a leader delivers a presentation.
Lets imagine that half the attendees of the meeting are in the room (face to face), but the other half are viewing the presentation online. In this situation, how the leader comes across online is just as important as the face-to-face aspect. It could be that the online attendees can’t actually see the leader. They are only receiving the slides and the voice. So the sound and the inflection of the voice, as well as some really clever slide design, would be paramount to holding peoples attention and inspiring them to an equal level as the face-to-face audience.
Some years ago I was asked to work with a Finance Director of a major corporate who, I was informed, didn't come across very well when presenting to the rest of the board. When I worked with him it turned out the main problem was that he always frowned and looked worried. There was some work to do on his slide design as well, but the main issue was the frowning. Some of what he needed to say was serious news, but a good percentage was good news. The trouble was that it was difficult for people to believe the good news, or even recognise it as such, when he always looked so worried! Imagine what effect this would have had on his personal image and reputation had the same presentations been zapped across the world as a webcast!
28 | TRAINING MAGAZINE EUROPE FEB 2015