Telstra CFO, Michael Ackland’s composure under pressure

Telstra went down nationally last week. Trains stopped, payments failed, triple-zero calls were affected. The kind of outage that puts a company on the back foot for weeks.

Telstra’s CFO, Michael Ackland, fronted the cameras mid-crisis. Ackland didn’t perform calm. He was calm.

He said this:

“We let customers down today in their hour of need. There’s nothing that makes that untrue for many of those customers who are in traumatic situations, and we apologise for that deeply.”

No qualifiers. No blame-shifting to “the system.” No corporate hedge-speak. Just a direct acknowledgment of harm, delivered in real time, under maximum scrutiny.

AFR’s Anthony Macdonald picked up on the same thing I did watching the footage. He noted Ackland’s authority and calm, his refusal to speculate on a root cause before he actually knew it, and, critically, that nobody got thrown under the bus on national television. That last part is rarer than it should be.

Here’s the distinction that matters.

Composure isn’t the absence of pressure. It’s what’s left when pressure hits and nothing underneath it moves. Most people mistake calm delivery for composure. The two aren’t the same thing. Delivery can be trained into a script. Composure shows up when the script runs out and the moment keeps going anyway.

Contrast this with how another major telco’s leadership handled a similar outage: deflection, technical jargon as a shield, a conspicuous unwillingness to just say the plain thing. The difference wasn’t intelligence or media training. It was whether the composure was real or not.

Ackland’s press conference is worth watching in full, not for the crisis-comms lessons everyone will draw from it, but for the simpler thing: the remorse was genuine, and it was paired with action, not a talking head reciting lines written for the occasion.

How you leave matters as much as what you build

Last week, Sir Keir Starmer stepped down as Prime Minister with quiet dignity, accepting his parliamentary party’s verdict without bitterness, excuses or performative outrage.

It brought to mind Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard’s resignation in 2013.

She faced intense scrutiny, personal attacks and relentless political pressure. Yet in her final speech, she chose evenness, decorum and humour over recrimination. She acknowledged what had happened without allowing it to define her departure.

There’s a leadership lesson here that extends well beyond politics.

People may debate policies and results for years. What often endures is how leaders conduct themselves when their authority is challenged or comes to an end.

When the room stopped believing in you, did you dignify the process? Did you protect what came next, even as your own chapter closed?

Because that is often what people remember.

Not the triumphs.

Not the title.

But the grace shown under pressure when it was time to leave.

How do you want to be remembered when your watch ends?

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Watch Keir Starmer’s announcement and Julia Gillard’s press conference below:

How does your voice make people feel with Sam Elliott

How does your voice make people feel?

There are voices we trust before we know why.

We feel a voice before we think about it.
Is this person calm? Rushed? Safe? Certain? Worth listening to?

Because we can’t see the voice, we dramatically underestimate how much it shapes trust and authority.

Here’s a short clip of Sam Elliott speaking as himself on the Off Camera show.
He’s not acting. He’s just talking.

https://lnkd.in/gt4fUgtU

Listen for a moment before analysing anything.

What do you notice?

For me, his voice feels:

  • effortless
  • deep
  • rich
  • smooth
  • unhurried

There’s no push in it. No grasping. No need to impress.
The cadence is slow.
The pitch sits low and steady.

Even when he’s saying something ordinary, the voice itself communicates experience and ease.

It’s a reminder that we don’t just hear meaning – we feel it.

The poet Maya Angelou once said:
“People will never forget how you made them feel.”

Voice is one of the fastest ways we create that feeling.

Two executives can say the same sentence.
One creates calm and credibility.
The other creates tension – and often, neither can quite explain why.

Now here’s the uncomfortable question:
How does your voice make people feel?

And what if it’s not what you intend?

What if improving your vocal tone by just 5% made your ideas land more clearly, made people listen longer, or made your presence feel steadier under pressure?

One simple way to start noticing is something I often suggest to senior leaders.

For seven days, record a 50-second open–middle–close about your day.
Then listen back immediately – not to judge, just to hear what others hear.

Most people avoid this. Hearing your own voice is confronting.
But it’s also one of the fastest ways to discover the signal you’re sending before you ever say a word.

Because whether we realise it or not, people are always listening – not just to what we say, but to how it makes them feel.

Jim Donovan on “Managing Client Relationships”

How does this person make me feel – before I even process their words?

I just watched a superb 17-minute talk by investment banker Jim Donovan called
“Managing Client Relationships.”

Yes, the content is strong.
But what really stood out to me was how he communicates:

  • Still, grounded posture
  • Slow, deliberate cadence
  • Calm certainty
  • No performance – just presence

He’s deeply believable.

Not because he’s trying to persuade, but because he looks and sounds like he knows what he’s talking about.

If you watch the clip, try this simple exercise:

Don’t ask, “Do I agree with him?”
Ask, “How does he make me feel?”

Then pick one small thing you could borrow:

  • his pacing
  • his stillness
  • his certainty
  • his lack of verbal clutter

That’s how executive presence is built – one borrowed behaviour at a time.

Watch the clip here:
https://lnkd.in/guymZaG5

Hans Zimmer and Rick Beato Interview

This 1:42-hour interview between Hans Zimmer and music educator Rick Beato is a masterclass in creativity, performance, and humility.

What struck me was how in sync Zimmer and Beato were throughout the conversation—and how open Zimmer was in sharing his own vulnerability.

A standout moment for me (watch 1:25:00–1:27:00) involved a phone call from Paul McCartney. Zimmer, battling stage fright, told McCartney he was tempted to cancel a performance to avoid the anxiety of going on stage.

McCartney replied by sharing that he too had suffered stage fright—so much so that he stopped performing for three years. But during one comeback show, he made a mistake, stopped the band, and said to the audience: “Stop, stop.” The crowd went wild.

His takeaway?
Just be yourself.
The audience is on your side.
Talk to them.

There’s a lesson here for anyone delivering a presentation.

  • If you make a mistake or lose your place, it’s okay to pause, acknowledge it, and move on.
  • The audience won’t judge the mistake—they’ll mirror your response to it.
  • Presenting is just structured conversation. Audiences don’t expect perfection. They want connection.

Be real. Be present. That’s what lands.

George Kurtz Today Show Analysis

Against the benchmark of a credible, believable, self-assured CEO of a major enterprise, in a major television broadcast regarding a significant crisis – conveyed through their affect, body language, speech and words – I scored CrowdStrike’s CEO George Kurtz in his Today show interview as: 9/10.

OVERALL, Kurtz’s presentation of himself and communication of his ideas was of a high standard, and this was reinforced by Kurtz doing a major media interview, to explain the incident, quickly after the incident happened.

Below is further analysis:
POSITIVE areas included:

  • Kurtz’s serious facial expression at the start of interview that conveyed the high importance he placed on dealing with the incident.
  • Immediately, at the start of the interview, saying he was deeply sorry for the impact that was caused by the incident.
  • The energy in his voice tone and speaking cadence.
  • Throughout the interview, Kurtz’s ‘matter of face’ speaking. There was no ‘spinning’ of the message.
  • Clearly explaining the cause of the incident.
  • His succinct answers to the questions.
  • The believability of his statement, “Our mission and why we’re here is to make sure that every customer is fully recovered and we’re not going relent until we get every customer back to where they were.”

ONE area for improvement is this.
To underscore the pain caused to people from this incident, at the end of the interview Kurtz should have restated that he was deeply sorry.

Kurtz’s performance was a polar opposite to the poor media performances; of the Woolworth’s CEO in February 2024 and, of the former Optus CEO, in 2022 and 2023.

Thanks for having me

I was listening to ABC radio this morning when Federal Government minister, Tony Burke was being interviewed.

After the interviewer greeted him, Burke responded with “Good to be chatting with you”. I mention this because this response and other phrasings such as “Good to be with you”; “It’s a pleasure”; “I look forward to talking with you;” are ones I suggest you use at the start whenever you’re being interviewed or when you’ve been invited, for example, to present to your leadership team et al.

What statement I suggest you don’t use in the above scenarios is, “Thanks for having me”. This statement, in my view, is sheepish and has the focus on yourself. “Good to be with you” is focused on the other person.

Leadership shows in unscripted moments

Watching Peter Dutton kick a football that accidentally struck a cameraman in the head, what stood out to me wasn’t the mishap itself—it was his reaction. (Please watch 9NEWS clip).

Rather than immediately checking if the man was okay, Dutton first clapped along with the crowd, then hesitated, seemingly unsure of what to do. When he did move toward the man, it was slow and uncertain. His apology, while present, lacked warmth—there was little emotion in his voice or expression.

It was a small moment, but telling. The absence of empathy and instinctive care didn’t align with the qualities we expect in someone seeking to lead the country.

Even the act of kicking the ball into a crowd raised questions of judgment. A more mindful choice—aiming for open space, for example—might have prevented the incident altogether.

We all make mistakes. But how we respond—especially under pressure—can say a lot about how we lead.

What small, unscripted moment have you witnessed that told you everything you needed to know about someone’s leadership?

https://lnkd.in/gdzYgadX

Mark Carney’s statesmanlike composure

In this short clip, Canadian PM Mark Carney continues to impress me with his statesmanlike composure and the clarity of his communication. His self-possession shines in his response to a journalist’s question.

Notice how Carney never rushes his answers or loses his cool. He calmly challenges the false assumption within the question with a quiet yet forceful retort. Pay special attention to the 4:00–4:12 mark of the clip, particularly his use of the phrase “From a position of strength,” delivered with a deliberate, decelerated cadence that amplifies his authority.

My only suggestion for Carney is to replace his ‘ahs’ silent pauses.

How could you adapt Carney’s composed delivery to enhance your own communication?

https://lnkd.in/g_zhNFEw