Below is my Australian Financial Review, Letter to the Editor this past Tuesday, on a video clip on ‘How we’re responding to AUSTRAC issues’, by Brian Hartzer, Westpac Banking Corporation CEO, who lost his job yesterday.
On reflection, Hartzer might still have his job if he understood that ‘what the customer perceives is what matters’. In this case the customer is the community.
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During his interview with Leigh Sales (7:30, ABC TV) on 7 February 2019 , Ken Henry, with the blow-torch of negative scrutiny squarely trained on him, grudgingly, showed cracks in his arrogant self-presentation.
Henry’s initial, pained countenance, downward gaze and mumbling speech at the start of the interview, was akin to a shameful, sheepish schoolboy in the principal’s office having to explain his poor behaviour.
Continue readingI was having a coffee with a participant who had been enrolled in one of my past sale presentation programmes.
He discussed how over the past few years he came to really appreciate and know the importance of ‘less is more’ communication. That is, using less words/omitting needless words in the delivery of your spoken messages, has more impact.Continue reading
“It’s still all about Kevin.” This was Nick Xenophon’s apt comment about Kevin Rudd’s farewell speech in the Australian Federal Parliament last week. With the melodramatic speech, Rudd revealed how much he is taken with himself. Continue reading
Last night in the final, major speech of his political career, Kevin Rudd chose to speak of the values of the Australian democracy, and the great values of the Australian Labor Party – to avoid and deflect his own responsibility for his party’s defeat in the federal election.Continue reading
Leaving aside who won the battle of the ideas, in last night’s leader debate, the person – who won the battle of the body language, speaking and presence, consistent with a leader of state who is a top performer – was Tony Abbott.
I scored:
Tony Abbott: 8/10 Kevin Rudd: 6/10Continue reading
Kevin Rudd has been fending off leadership questions this week as he increases his public exposure, such as on the Sunrise programme and in extended interviews with Sky News. My read of Rudd’s presentation is this: ‘It’s still, all about me’.Continue reading
Watching Anna Bligh and Campbell Newman over the last few weeks, the phrases that come to mind are, for Bligh: ‘steady as she goes’. For Newman: ‘slick and quick’.Continue reading
While watching Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard present themselves over the last seven days, the words that come to mind are, for Rudd: ‘slippery, phoney, smug’ and for Gillard: ‘shaken, scripted, wooden, school-marm’.Continue reading
At his final Press Conference as Prime Minister last Thursday, Kevin Rudd initially joked about the large size of the gallery, to hide the enormity of his anguish. He tried to hide himself with his innumerable ‘I’m proud of the fact’ statements. This was his final chance to catalogue, technocrat style, his achievements – to, in effect, say, ‘look at all I’ve done for you. . .why don’t you appreciate this . . .why am I being dumped’, but his voice, eyes and face weren’t playing along.Continue reading