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Why your organization needs media interview skills training

Written by: Daniel Keeney

Article Overview: Many top executives have seen for themselves how challenging the media can be to deal with. If they haven't personally experienced the cold stares of the press corps, they certainly have seen their friends thrust into the frying pan. In our dealings with CEOs and other corporate leadership, it is typical for them to tell us that a journalist's job is to uncover sensational details and present them in a way that turns heads and raises eyebrows -- the facts notwithstanding. Many feel that journalists aren't interested in the truth; they are interested in bullying their subjects and making them look bad.

Why your organization needs media interview skills training

Vice President Dick Cheney isn't the only one whose disdain for the media leads him to make mistakes for which an entry level PR flunky would be fired. Many top executives have seen for themselves how challenging the media can be to deal with. If they haven't personally experienced the cold stares of the press corps, they certainly have seen their friends thrust into the frying pan.

In our dealings with CEOs and other corporate leadership, it is typical for them to tell us that a journalist's job is to uncover sensational details and present them in a way that turns heads and raises eyebrows -- the facts notwithstanding. Many feel that journalists aren't interested in the truth; they are interested in bullying their subjects and making them look bad.

With this point of view, is it any wonder that corporate leaders often play defense when they find themselves scrutinized by journalists? Instead of proactively seeking to take advantage of the opportunity to get their story across or to express concern and sympathy, they insulate themselves away from the media, leaving journalists no alternative but to dig around and speculate.

It is a stark reminder of essential role that media interview skills training plays for those in the executive suite. The first line of defense when an executive is in the company of a journalist is preparedness. Beforehand, they should have conciously thought about what they want to achieve, what their key messages are and what questions the reporter is likely to ask. That's the minimum.

Hopefully, they've gone beyond that and they have practiced fielding questions and then watched themselves on video.

Embracing media interview skills training for your organization's executive team as well as its subject matter experts is a key step in ensuring your orgnization is ready for the unexpected. Here are the essentials:

1. Make preparation a priority. Research the reporter before each interview, including recent stories he or she has published. This will offer insight into their likely questions and it will help in preparing for the interview.

2. Define your key messages. Work with the organziation's leadership to identify three or four core messages, then boil them down to simple thoughts that you can easily remember. If possible, try to think of personal stories that illustrate these key points. Your objective in any exchange with a journalist is to weave these messages into your responses.

3. Brainstorm nightmare questions that you hope no reporter will ever ask. Spending time beforehand considering what a journalist might begin picking at in a worst case scenario can help you grow comfortable quickly bridging to your core points after briefly addressing the question.

4. Capitalize on every opportunity. Almost every reporter asks the same question at the end of an interview: "Is there anything else you'd like to add that we didn't ask?" Take advantage of this opportunity to reiterate key messages and sum up the interview in a positive light.

5. Build a relationship. The journalist may not be interested, but always offer to be a resource in the future. This can increase the likelihood of a constructive future interaction with that journalist and his/her media outlet.
Thanks to today's 24-hour news cycle, a local story can easily become a national story before you know it. There's no telling when a story will spin out of control.

Never let your organization's spokesperson walk into the glare of the media spotlight without experience. Media interview skills training is the best time to make mistakes -- rather than when the whole community is watching.

Related Articles
  “A Positive Look at Media Interviews and A Prescription for Successful Media Interviews”
  Why Media Training is a MUST
  The Top 10 Basics of Media Interview Preparation
  Hitting a PR Homerun
  Preparing for A Media Interview

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And Commitment From Above... - In my experience in larger organizations, there is often a conflict between the training the sharp-end employees receive and that of the more senior managers. That sometimes means the employees feel 'done to', and don't have the belief that their bosses will be on board too. That means they feel pretty disgruntled about the organization too and higher leaving/absence rates can be the more obvious symptoms, with deeper resistance, even sabotage being quite possible too. For example, sending a bunch of employees on a gung-ho selling skills programme (with a fancy lunch included), is incongruous with not getting their pay check right or management not building good relationships with their people. The key here is understanding what training will help employees deliver the needs of the business as well as ensurinjg it is of value and in context for the individuals too. If it's not a win-win (in the bigger picture of their workplace experience too), it's just not going to fly. Sending someone on a training courtse is not a 'fix-it' for all that ails an organization.
looking for training grant info - Hello All, I'm not sure if this is the right place to ask, but I'll go for it anyway in case someone can guide me appropriately. I want to increase my skills training as an add-on to my current abilities and found a perfect program through the Institute of HeartMath in California. Does anyone know of training grant money that might be available for women entrepreneurs? I don't need much, only about $3000. Thanks, Nancy
Franchise Choice - I would: .Spend time evaluating what my passions in life were and how i could take more time to be doing those things - work or social or family .spend time evaluating what would help me get to where i wanted to be - not concentrating on moving away from something i.e a job . Look at what skills I have and where i needed training i.e sales.business management/retail management e.t.c - what ever is needed. I would then invest in myself and acquire those skills on the open market from reputable training providers . Set up my own business doing something i loved . Invest the money saved into me, sales and marketing and mentoring from succesful people who had done what i was trying to do.
Important Franchisee Qualities - All of these skills are important Yasunori but I think good people skills is the most important. If you're good with people you're likely able to listen to them and be coached. With franchises you get training and a system to work with so you don't need as much general business skills. There are also programs for getting capital to fund franchises so access to capital isn't as big an issue as it used to be. It's still important but if you aren't the right fit and you don't have a good rapport with the owners, you won't have a successful franchise.
Training Budgets - Louis, When I first started out there wasn't any money for training. Everything went into making the product and trying to close a sale. Now that I have staff I'm starting to look at professional development as an investment in them. It helps keep them motivated and hopefully they bring back some skills that can help my company. Do you have any suggestions on what a good target % would be to spend on training / professional development? Jennifer.


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