At the end of last week, I caught a tiny “behind the scenes” moment on television that made me laugh out loud — and reminded me of the many small ways professionals quietly “cheat” on TV. Right at the end of the cricket coverage, guest commentator Glenn McGrath turns to presenter Alex Hartley and asks, […]
One of the most common questions we’re asked — whether in presentation training or on-camera coaching — is the deceptively simple: “What should I do with my hands?” The moment you start presenting, being interviewed, or recording a piece-to-camera, your hands can suddenly feel like a problem. Where do they go? So, what should you do? First: […]
The power of a well-told story or anecdote is one of the not-so-secret tools of leadership. Most people we train have heard this idea before — but few really know how to do it well. A short, well-crafted story can create a real wow in a presentation and be hugely effective in a media interview. Last week, […]
A short, measured police briefing after the Huntingdon train stabbings offers a textbook example of what good looks like if you are a spokesperson tasked with giving a statement after a major incident. This video is just a few minutes long but demonstrates so many of the points covered in our standard Crisis Communications training. […]
Waitrose got it seriously wrong last week — first in the way it handled an autistic volunteer, and then in how it responded when the story hit the headlines. For several years, 28-year-old Tom Boyd, who is autistic and has limited communication skills, volunteered at Waitrose in Cheadle Hulme. He clocked up more than 600 […]
Within minutes of the start of President Trump’s address to the Israeli Knesset last week, every major news outlet flashed headlines quoting the same line: “the historic dawn of a new Middle East.” Serious analysis came later — about foreign policy, tone, and intent — but in that first wave of headlines, every journalist reached […]
BBC One’s Have I Got News for You — a favourite watch for many old hacks (like us) — became the story itself this week. During the show, presenter Victoria Coren Mitchell repeated a claim made on social media that Euan Blair’s company, Multiverse, had won a government contract to run the new digital ID […]
If you present regularly but want to get better, you can learn a lot from TV news. When you watch the news, notice how presenters use graphics. The visuals have just a handful of words, one chart or image. Clean design, few words. The rest is left to the presenter — to explain, to interpret, […]
Keir Starmer’s interview with Laura Kuenssberg on Sunday was in many ways more important than his set-piece conference speech. At conference, he speaks to his party; from the studio, he was speaking to the electorate — and a combative, barely respectful interviewer. Against this tough brief, the Prime Minister delivered a workmanlike rather than commanding […]
The coverage of Donald Trump’s state visit to the UK has been full of body language analysis. Smiles, leaning in, mirrored gestures — all signs of rapport. On the surface, it looked natural, even warm. But I’d bet good money that on the British side at least, hours of coaching went into making it look […]