• Do you approach contact with journalists with anxiety, fear or suspicion?
• Do you take control of media interviews to demonstrate your leadership on your own terms?

News coverage frequently accompanies leadership. Reputation and excellence make engaging news subjects, especially when they are in a state of dramatic flux. Yet, encounters with the media often don’t unfold as anticipated – with senior executives failing to demonstrate a positive leadership presence or to tell their stories in ways that inspire trust and confidence when it matters most. Why? Because people are often surprised and distracted by reporter behaviors that are absolutely predicable and frequently lead to absolutely detrimental consequences.

During this intensive half-day skills development session, executives learn how to interact with the media for more beneficial outcomes. Our distinctive approach to media skills coaching succeeds because we work to retool the way executives think about their interactions with reporters in two fundamental ways:

• we focus on the underlying anthropology of journalism – i.e., what makes all reporters tick, what kinds of information they respond to, and how they will respond
• we focus on the interview as an opportunity to succeed by telling a story of leadership

Session participants first learn the five components of news that determine how any reporter is likely to approach any story. Participants learn to craft messages that incorporate those five components with greater clarity and to develop strategies for taking control of an interview. They also learn to deliver their messages more persuasively so their words will survive the processes of journalism and appear intact in the reporter’s story.

Session participants also undergo a series of simulated press interviews of increasing intensity and hostility that rigorously test the skills we present. All interviews are videotaped. After each interview, our Fellows will give participants feedback and further coaching on specific techniques to improve media performance.

We custom-tailor our sessions to fit the needs of our clients. We prepare executives for in-person or phone interviews, for interviews with reporters at newspapers, magazines, wire services, television programs, radio programs, and blogs. We prepare executives for good-news, bad-news, or neutral-news interviews, with informed or uninformed, hostile or friendly, familiar or unfamiliar reporters. Our Fellows have more than 25 years of experience in media relations covering all media. We offer skills-building for participants at all levels of experience and for all types of interviews, including ambush interviews.

Contact us to schedule a training session.