Against the benchmark of a credible, believable, self-assured CEO of a major enterprise delivering a presentation to the public regarding a significant loss of trust in the leadership of the enterprise – conveyed through their affect, body language, speech and language – I scored Qantas Group CEO, Vanessa Hudson in her 1:34 minute, 21 September update speech, as 8/10.
Overall, the affect of Hudson’s presentation of herself and communication of her ideas was genuine, yet there was an underlying sense of Hudson wanting to quickly get the speech over and done with, that undermined her believability.
Below is further analysis:
Positive areas for Hudson include:
- Starting the speech, addressing the matter of poor service and, offering an apology.
- Energy in her voice.
- Concern expressed through her facial expression.
- A rushed speaking cadence at the start of the presentation. The sentence; “I know that we have let you down in many ways” was unmeasured in its delivery. The sentence would have been more believable, if had been delivered in chunks, separated by definite pauses. For example; ” I know . . . that we have let you down . . . in many ways”.
- The speaking cadence for the balance of the presentation gave the feeling of ‘speeding to the finish line’. Aspects of the presentation were pat – as if the performance been rehearsed many times, before the final performance went to air.
- Hudson has stereotypical ‘out – in’ gesturing technique, that distracted from her speaking and didn’t add any impact to the words.
- The pronunciation of “CEO” was heard as “see oh”.
- The sentence “We understand why you’re frustrated” was assumptive. The sentence could prompt one to counter that Ms. Hudson doesn’t really know all the reasons why her stakeholders are frustrated?
