Managers can learn this from politicians – and what they should not imitate.

This is what makes your performance so important

Managers and politicians move in completely different spheres and have different tasks. However, both professional groups have one thing in common: they must be excellently received by their diverse publics.

The politicians need that even a little more than the managers. Re-election and so on. In my home country of Austria, state elections are probably due in Upper Austria and Vienna in September. For a voice coach and language expert, these are always very interesting insights into the Rhetorical and other behaviour of politicians.

But we need no elections at all to realize that managers in particular can learn a lot from politicians regarding their communication. Politicians are trained to speak up where appropriate. As if trained, they jump at every opportunity to contribute themselves and their opinions. So of course they are heard.

Executives n are trained to put their product and their company first, not themselves. This is not always advantageous. Just because they provide good figures does not mean that they have a meaningful effect on the outside. After all, they can only be perceived as representatives of their company if they can be experienced personally. High-ranking managers are not always like that. They often entrench themselves behind various hierarchies and armadas of press people.

If you then appear at balance sheet press conferences or investor relations meetings, their appearance is not always convincing. They present facts and figures without emotion and step down again. What they can't do is to formulate in pictures. Images that trigger emotions in the listener. Most politicians shake this Rhetorical Picture painting from the wrist. Managers, on the other hand, communicate out of benefit, that doesn't work.

Politicians, on the other hand, often exaggerate with their pictures, they become too shirt-sleeved, direct, populist and thus appear slightly arrogant, condescending and, in the worst case, lecturing. Voters are increasingly seeing through such external appearances, which seem to be designed out of pure ego.

If the Politicians would be a little more reserved in terms of "jumping into the limelight", staying more on the factual level and managers stepping forward more and becoming more visible and emotional, then in my opinion both professional groups would be very helpful in achieving a balanced and welcome presence with their publics.

This is what managers can learn from politicians:

They know about the importance of appearance, voice and body language and go specifically and often into communication training for this purpose.
As a result, they always have the right replies ready and are rarely embarrassed, countering brilliantly even with the most unpleasant questions from the press.
They have mastered the so-called bridging from the ff and can elegantly redirect to their topic, no matter what the original question was.
They do not let themselves be thrown off balance by interruptions and intermediate questions, they simply continue to speak calmly.

My recommendation to all managers who come to me for coaching is: Look at the above points and implement them. But refrain from the negative sides of politician communication, such as too much populist approaches or Rhetorical Exaggerations, be real, stay with yourself and leave the ego at home during your performances.

You
Arno Fischbacher

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The author:

Arno Fischbacher is a business voice coach and rhetoric expert, speaker and author. He prepares executives and employees of the top companies in Germany and Austria for negotiations, presentations and media appearances. Fischbacher is the author of several books, past president of the German Speakers Association (GSA) Austria, chairman of the European Network of Voice Experts, stimme.at.

If you would like to learn more about specific training opportunities with Arno Fischbacher, make an appointment here free information talk.