Dear Uncle Matthew
I’m wondering how to get my CEO to stop reciting scripted responses. He’s really engaging, intelligent and witty, but has a background in PR and sales. Sometimes his answers come across as an all too blatant sale for the company.
The position of PR agent was given to me after working for the company for four years, and I have no background in PR… I’d be interested in hearing how you’d deal with this.
- Reluctant PR flack
Dear Reluctant,
Welcome to the wonderful world of PR. There’s an old saying that a diplomat is someone sent abroad to lie for their country. But when it comes to PR, in my view, truth sells not hype.
I have a couple of suggestions that might help you encourage your boss to let his personality shine and, in doing so, put the best possible light on his business.
- Redraft the ‘scripted responses’ as talking points or background briefings. Make it clear that they are meant to inform him but that they are not meant to be read out verbatim. You could even write bullet points rather than sentences so that they can’t be read out.
- Show him video clips of how he comes across in a stilted press conference and the normal engaging, intelligent and witty version at a private function. He may simply need some feedback about how he comes across.
- You could also show him videos of well-known good speakers – the politicians and business people of your choice – and show him how they use their personality and intelligence to make their points without hype and bluster.
- Get him some media training. Perhaps he feels nervous in front of the press and reverts to what he thinks is appropriate language in self-defence.
- Talk to him. Tell him what you told me. Explain that you don’t think that the job of PR is to stifle his personality or turn him into a corporate drone. Help him to differentiate between stuff he has to be careful about (things that affect the share price, announcing job layoffs etc.) and things that he can be more direct about.
- If none of that works, draft better speeches for him. If he’s going to read out scripted responses, give him scripts that incorporate his own personality and thoughts. Work with him before a PR event to get his normal human response and then script it back to him.
It won’t be easy. Most PRs seem to want their spokespeople to stick to the script. But if you succeed in turning your CEO from a robot back into a human you will be doing a good job for him, your company and yourself.
Uncle Matthew
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Thank you!