by Edward J. Barks

Some business leaders have a natural panache. Take Oracle CEO Larry Ellison. "In your face" may be too mild a characterization for the brash Ellison. How do you go up against a Larry Ellison or Jack Welch if your CEO lacks that kind of flash?

The answer is to approach your communication strategically and to use your CEO wisely. This applies whether you represent a Fortune 500 company or a small non-profit group.

Media training, presentation skills training and testimony training workshops can devote large amounts of time to defining and seizing strategic communication opportunities. Let's review a dozen techniques designed to secure strategic placements for your CEO and put your organization on the road to out-thinking the competition.

Media Opportunities


1. Target your opportunities carefully. It will do you little good to snag an interview for your CEO with a small local newspaper if your target is national in scope. Similarly, even The New York Times may be a waste of energy if your primary market is Toledo, Ohio.
2. Understand which type of media best suits your CEO and, as much as possible, play to those strengths. Is it radio? TV? General circulation publications? Trade journals?
3. Make sure your CEO grasps the difference between live and taped interviews. There are important distinctions.
4. Use your CEO for key interviews. Vice presidents, product managers, sales directors and the like can handle other assignments (do yourself a favor and make sure everyone who interacts with reporters receives media training).


Presentation Opportunities


5. Target your audiences carefully. Should your CEO be speaking to customers? Professional associations? Community leaders?
6. Position your CEO as an opinion leader. Seek out forums in your community and within your industry that raise his profile. You don't necessarily need to aim for a National Press Club luncheon to achieve a measurable impact.
7. Make sure speeches are rich with your main messages.
8. Block a chunk of your CEO's time and toss questions at him, simulating a real audience. Emphasize the need to use your messages as part of every response. This is critical, for many a presentation falls apart once the Q&A begins.


Testimony Opportunities


9. Leverage your CEO's legislative or regulatory testimony so it resonates outside the walls of the hearing room.
10. Know whom you are testifying before. Which lawmakers or regulators favor your stance? Which oppose it? Here's the critical question: Which are sitting on the fence? Those undecideds should be your top priority.
11. Sharpen your oral statement to a fine point. You likely will have approximately five minutes to plead your case. Make the most of it.
12. Insist that your public relations team draft your oral statement separately from your formal, written testimony. Common sense dictates that the communication pros are best suited to handle this endeavor.