Miliband does well with instant rebuttal + 3 things that Alan Johnson does know

I didn't see the whole of Ed Miliband's press conference this morning, but did see quite a lot of comments on Twitter suggesting that he did better in the Q-A session after his formal statement than in the statement itself.

As I'd already questioned his effectiveness in 'face-to-camera' pieces a few days ago (HERE), I was intrigued enough to see whether any of the news channels had posted anything from the Q-A session yet.

The BBC instantly obliged with the following short clip, that is indeed rather interesting (full report HERE).

Welcoming smiles from Ed Miliband?

Note that, when Joey Jones from Sky News refers to Shadow Chancellor Alan Johnson's weekend gaffe, Mr Miliband grins (at 38 & 40 seconds in).

Not so much 'nervous' grins, I suggest, as an 'I know what you're talking about, I'm a good sport with a sense of humour, I expected that and what's more I've got a prepared answer up my sleeve' sort of grin.

And that's what he had: an instant rebuttal contrasting Johnson favourably with Chancellor Osborne, explained by three things about the economy that the former does know about:

Instant rebuttal as a useful weapon for interviewees

In conversation, answering "No" to a question that's looking for a "Yes" - instantly and without any delay, "ums", "ers" or other particles indicating that a 'dispreferred' answer is on its way - doesn't happen very often (for more on 'dispreferred answers', see Did The Godfather feature the longest pause and most blatant lie in the history of movies?)

But it really comes into its own when you want to ensure time to give reasons why you are disagreeing so immediately. As soon as you've done it, the floor is still yours for a while, as your questioner will expect and wait for you to explain why you don't agree before he/she speaks again.

If you then package your message as a contrast between Chancellor and Shadow-chancellor and explain it with brief list of three things that the latter does know, you're likely to come across as decisive, articulate and confident. It might even persuade or convince some of your listeners that you're right.

A promising day for Miliband

On the basis of this specimen, at least, I can see why the Twitterati thought that Miliband did better in the Q-A session than in the statement that preceded it. More generally, it may be evidence that he and his communication team are beginning to get the hang of things.

Who says managers can't talk about numbers without using slides?

My attention was drawn to this by a Twitter link from Shane Greer (@shanegreer), to whom many thanks.

It's a TED talk on Why we have too few women leaders by Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, and is well worth watching, not just because of her very effective use of anecdotes, rhetorical questions and a three-part structure that she sticks with and helps the audience to follow, but because of the complete absence of slides - even though you might have expected some as she goes through some key numbers and percentages.

What Ms Sandberg demonstrates, yet again, is that managers can give clear and compelling presentations about complicated subjects without having to depend on slides at all.

Although this is something I've been teaching, writing books and blogging about for years, it's always good to come across new videos like this that can be used to illustrate the point.

It's also interesting to reflect on just how important a part might have been played by Ms Sandberg's own presentation skills in helping her to break through the glass ceiling that she's talking about.

P.S. Charismatic woman?

Watching this again, I was reminded of something I wrote in Our Masters' Voices (1984) about the way Margaret Thatcher partly solved one of the central problems facing professional women - also posted HERE a couple of years ago and then developed in another post about Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin.

From what we see in this video, it would appear that, like Thatcher and Palin, Sheryl Sandberg has no qualms about coming across as unequivocally female in the way she dresses and appears. Given my ancient thoughts on the 'evolution of charismatic woman' from 27+ years ago, I'm therefore left wondering how 'tough' and 'decisive' she is as a leader in her everyday work.

Labour leadership: from Welsh windbag to Doncaster droner?

Although this clip was posted on YouTube by ITN, I didn't see it featured in its entirety on any of the ITN news bulletins.

However, some Labour supporters must have thought well enough of it for Labour List to embed the whole 2 minute statement on their blog (HERE).

What surprised me about it was that Mr Miliband seemed to ramble on for so long about so little - in marked contrast with some of his much more pithy statements during the Labour leadership campaign, where, on at least one occasion (the Sky News debate), he stood out from the other the candidates as the only one who knew exactly how much he could say in the allotted 20 seconds.

As the second 'face to camera' statement I've seen from Mr Miliband over the past couple of weeks (see also his Christmas message) - neither of which struck me as impressive as some of his performances during the leadership campaign - it's got me wondering what's going on.

Does he have new advisors who think he excels at this form of communication?

Or has the Welsh Windbag, now he's been given his party back by the new leader, been allowed behind the scenes to transform him into the Doncaster droner?