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A Rob Oakeshott Masterclass, or How to Kill your Audience Slowly
Picture this. You have the attention of the Prime Minister, the leader of the opposition, the general public, most of the nation's journalists, some of the international media and heads of state from around the world. Every one of them is watching and listening as you announce a decision that will change the fate of the nation. Public speaking gigs don’t get much more important than this. Nail it, and you’ve established yourself as a person of influence and authority; a strong leader worthy of the esteem of a nation and the position of power you hold. Mess it up, and you’ve done some serious damage to your personal brand and potentially your future career prospects. So how did Independent MP Rob Oakeshott respond to the pressure of this unique situation…
To put it bluntly, he had a shocker. After 17 days of deliberation, Rob Oakeshott’s decision speech demonstrated a breathtaking failure to recognise the need for brevity from a room full or journos and a general public with dwindling patience. Click here to watch the speech in full… if you’re fond of self-flagellation.
From his opening joke quoting his favourite childhood film The Highlander, saying ‘and then there was one’, it was clear Rob Oakeshott was revelling in being the sole focus of a nation impatient for a decision. It was also clear that he had completely failed to recognise that the previous 17 days of deliberation and negotiation had left many feeling frustrated. At a time like this, attempts at humour are only advisable for those who can successfully pull it off and seeing Oakeshott laugh alone at his own joke was a poor start. And it only went downhill from there.
So what lessons can we learn from Oakeshott’s excruciating speech?
1. Read the room and be willing to change your plan if necessary. Surely Oakeshott was aware of the very obvious signs of infuriation coming from his audience. Audience groans are rarely ambiguous. People slumping in their chairs are hardly engaged and interested. And yet he ploughed ahead with his plan regardless. Whether in a press conference or a boardroom, a good communicator reads the responses of their listeners and adapts their approach accordingly.
2. Avoid telling the audience things they already know. “It’s been an absolute line ball, points decision, judgment call, six-of-one, half-a-dozen-of-the-other, this could not get any closer,” Oakeshott announced to a room full of people only there because of precisely that fact. No audience likes to feel patronised and stating the obvious is a sure way to alienate the room.
3. Avoid self-indulgence and get to the point. Oakeshott spoke for 17 minutes, and his key message came in the last 10 seconds. While his intentions may have been good, he left the public with the impression that he is at best naïve and self-indulgent, and at worst a shameless attention seeker woefully out of place in federal politics. In business as in politics, many reputations have been damaged by long, laborious presentations delivered by people just a little too fond of the sound of their own voices.