Why Presentation Skills Can Help You Lead Your Country

‘Hey Frank, that guy needs to go on one of your presentation skills courses’ I looked around to see who they were referring too and realised it was the Taoiseach (pronounced tea shock) from Ireland a man called Brian Cowen.

The Taoiseach in Ireland is I suppose the equivalent to the Prime Minister in the U.K or indeed the president in the U.S.A. His role is to manage and govern the country, and yes these individuals were right, his presentation on the television left a lot to be desired and was hardly inspirational.

I then started to think of how presentation skills made such a difference to people, the reality is that this man may be extremely intelligent and may be an excellent leader, in fact I found out since, in a recent survey he was actually voted the 5th top leader in the world.

The problem is that even if he is the 5th top leader in the world his messages were definitely not getting across to the television viewers and the live audience, as they should have been. If you don’t get the key messages across then you are destined for failure.

In another opinion poll I read his popularity and the popularity of his party had dropped significantly and his chance of being elected next time round was virtually non-existent.

How can a man who is the 5th top leader in the world be thought of in such a low way that the opinion polls were reflecting? Obviously the state of the Irish economy is not great and apparently he is held responsible in some quarters as he was previously the Minster for Finance, but I think there is more to it than that. Unfortunately he does not present very well, if he has been on PR courses or received presentation skills training he needs to do more of it and practice, practice, practice.

I then started to think about the UK and the political debate before the last election, I recall Gordon Brown standing up and saying something like ‘If I am to be judged on my presentation and popularity then I will probably struggle to get in, I should be judged on what I can do for the country’ How right he was, he should be judged on what he can do for the country, but unfortunately that is not the way it works.

You only have to look at what happened in the U.K. elections and see how Gordon Brown fell and the others rose (particularly Nick Clegg). I watched the debate and to be honest if you take presentation and personality out of it, Gordon Brown was as good as any of the others, but again you can not take personality and presentation out of it and that was in my opinion his downfall.

About the Author: Frank O’Toole from Premier Training Courses has been teaching people to get their message across through coaching and presentation skills training that works.