WE ARE ALL MORE THAN OUR RESUMES
At a recent conference a speaker suggested that resumes typically describe work experience but fall far short of capturing a complete picture of our skills. Executives are often engaged in much more than their paid jobs.
This has been the case for me too. For the last several years, in addition to launching a consulting business and holding a full-time corporate position, I have been the President of the Ukrainian Culture Center of Los Angeles (UCCLA). I am the first female President of this 80 year old organization and have seen the organization through 2 crises now – COVID-19 and the russian invasion of Ukraine.
Along the way I have learned a great deal. Today’s post is the fifth of a multi-part series of posts in which I will share the key lessons I have learned, the mistakes I made and where my financial planning and analysis skillset served me in responding to russia’s invasion of a sovereign country. In the spirit of “making my mess my message” I hope these you find these insights useful.
LESSON 5: GET MEDIA TRAINING BEFORE YOU NEED IT
Within the 1st three weeks of the war the Vice President of the Ukrainian Culture Center of Los Angeles and myself conducted more than 75 interviews. This included radio, television, on-line journalists and print journalists. One of the key features of working with the media is the urgency of their demands. I found working with media personnel difficult as planning anything and reacting to everything seems to be their modus operandi. For those of us who are more planning oriented this can be anathema. At the same time and even without any media experience, we were highly cognizant of needing to respond to every opportunity to be interviewed. It was about keeping Ukraine at the forefront of the conversation. It was about raising money and support for the war. In the end, it was about keeping people alive.
So, it was with this backdrop of “baptism by fire” that we executed numerous interviews. In general, I think that the conversations went well. If I had a choice, I would have been prepared with the following:
- A list of talking points that were curated and approved the either the Office of the President of Ukraine or some other Ukrainian Organization that operates on a national or international level.
- A selection of sound bites that might be proposed by someone with television interview expertise. Having an understanding of how to construct and then utilize these sound bites in an interview during a crisis would have been helpful.
- Coaching around how to engage with television in general and then specifically about what information should be shared when you are on screen. Examples include: placing your organization’s phone number or website on the banner at the bottoms, recommendations on how to route people to websites (how many times to mention, how to work it in), and how to construct a pre-meeting with your interviewing to achieve alignment on what the questions might be and how long you have to respond.
- Training on the differences between engaging with print, radio, television and social media. Each medium has unique demands in terms of communication style.
As I stepped up to give my 1st speech at the Center just after the invasion, there we so many people at the Ukrainian Culture Center of Los Angeles that we exceeded capacity and there were people out the door and lining the sidewalk. The entire left side of the great hall was lined with television cameras. As I approached the podium, I was unexpectedly greeted by 7 different news outlet microphones. Each had their logo and a number for their channel– ABC, NBC, CNN, CBS, NPR, etc. There was no place for my speech notes. What I learned was that “in the moment” is NOT the time to learn how to give speeches and engage with the media. If you are the leader of any organization whether it is for profit or not for profit, communication skills are not enough. Knowing how to be eloquent, share a consistent message, be inspiring and answer questions from the media on the spot is a next level skill set. Having the training before the situation hits you is very beneficial.
The concept of talking points and messaging is not unlike preparing for investor communications, board of director communications or earnings call communications. In financial planning and analysis, we tell the story of the business through the numbers. That’s where I can help.
#financialplanningandanalysis #communication #leadership #FPAExpertise