Executive Rewind: Don’t Take Lessons From Politicians
They have a maddening habit of evading questions.
It’s a reputation that is well-deserved and earned over many years of practice. It’s a technique executives should shun; a bad habit that will tick off your target audiences.
Case in point, Republican Congressman Adam Putnam of Florida. Interviewed recently on the Fox News Channel—often accused of being the Republicans’ news network—Putnam’s feet, nonetheless, were put to the fire by Neil Cavuto. In effect, Cavuto asked “Who are you to talk?” when Putnam warned that the newly Democratic-controlled Congress would be raising your taxes and spending even more of your money to inflate the size and influence of government.
So Cavuto challenged him on GOP spending habits, especially over the past six years after inheriting a budget surplus. The business show host reminded Putnam how billions of dollars worth of Republican pork and the ever-popular practice of earmarking (does “the bridge to nowhere” ring a bell?), on top of the spending on the war in Iraq, have bloated the deficit significantly.
Putnam evaded. Cavuto let him pontificate for awhile and then asked again. Again, Putnam dodged, until, fully more than two minutes into the interview, he finally got around to barely acknowledging what we all already knew, that the Republicans “got carried away.” His evasion was a distraction, blurring any positive points he might have earned for the messages he intended to deliver. The congressman went into full speed spin.
What if he had simply said at the outset that, “Yes, indeed, spending was out of hand, but consider what Republican tax cuts have done for government revenues and budget deficit reductions…” The admission up front blunts the opening question and paves the way to communicating critical points that are not lost in the distraction of evasion and spin.
Attempt evasion and spin at your own risk. Audiences will notice and they don’t like it, probably anymore than you do when you hear someone else doing the same thing.
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