Do you find your media spokespeople are unwilling to be briefed ahead of media interviews?
Perhaps, with a busy diary, they are hard to tie down for briefing and feedback sessions.
Or, maybe you have a spokesperson who struggles with nerves and over prepares for every opportunity.
These three scenarios will sound familiar to many working in communication and media teams.
Could coaching techniques provide the answer?
This is something we looked at during one of the first masterclasses of The Media Team Academy – our new year-long learning and development programme specifically for comms, media and PR professionals
Delegates of the academy – 240 people have signed up to the first cohort – were joined by Kirsty Waite, from the BCF Group, to find out how using business coaching methods can help improve relationships with spokespeople and other colleagues.
‘Business coaching’ is a term some may not be familiar with – so what exactly is it?
“The perception of coaching is that it can sometimes be complex and confusing,” Kirsty said.
“In simple terms, coaching is a way of holding a conversation that helps guide someone from their current state to the desired one.
“It is an approach to guide people towards a situation, a goal, or to think differently. By asking questions, we can challenge perceptions, empower people to think for themselves and encourage them to take responsibility.”
To put that into context, think about when someone comes to you with a problem or a question. Do you try to solve it even though you know they are likely to come back to you again in future with a similar issue?
Or do you try to help them find the solution for themselves?
“The default approach we tend to have is to tell rather than ask,” Kirsty said. “We fix it rather than helping them to figure it out. The automatic response is to give them the answer.
“We live in a time-sensitive world, and we think it is easier to fix it ourselves. But by doing that, we create a dependency - they won’t think for themselves. And that will take up more of your time.
“But if we get them to think for themselves, they won’t be knocking on your door asking so many questions.
“The world of work is changing. Many of us are working remotely. And we have less face-to-face time with people. So, when we do have that time, we need to make it as effective as possible.”
Coaching can increase engagement, improve performance, change people’s perspectives, get them to take responsibility, increase transparency and is a way to give feedback more effectively.
But don’t you need coaching qualifications to coach? And how can this theory help me when I’m trying to brief a spokesperson or get them to take part in an event or media interview?
Our sister company, The BCF Group, offers several Institute of Leadership and Management accredited courses with formal qualifications.
But this masterclass was simply about introducing some coaching methods to the way we work.
Most people are a little bit scared of coaching,” Kirsty said. “Never mind thinking about being a coach themselves or bringing coaching techniques into how they work.
“They think they need to be qualified before they can dip their toe into it. But everyone can adopt a coaching approach, regardless of whether they have a qualification. And it doesn’t need to be in-depth, sit-down sessions.
“Coaching is a tool in the tool bag. It is something you can use to help in a conversation.
“It is just a different approach. Instead of taking a telling approach and solving the problem, we are going to get curious.”
Three coaching skills you can use right now
This may all sound great. But how do you start?
Kirsty says there are three coaching skills you can use immediately.
And the first is about being curious and asking questions.
As we’ve briefly mentioned, there is a natural tendency to solve the problems and questions people bring to us.
It feels easier and quicker. But the benefit is likely to be short-term.
“When people come to you with a problem, there tend to be other things behind it,” Kirsty said.
“We won’t solve that if we answer the problem. We won’t get to the root cause.
“And when you give the advice all the time, you reduce the scope of how to answer that question to your knowledge and experience.
“But if we empower people to take responsibility for their own thinking, we might get a much better answer or solution. And when they come up with it themselves, they are much more accountable for it.
“To do this, we need to tame our advice monster. It is about saying less and asking more. So, when someone comes to you with a question or a problem, instead of instantly trying to fix it, slow down and ask a question.”
Asking questions is the crucial component of curiosity. But what should you ask?
Kirsty said: “There isn’t a secret bank of the best questions to ask. And coaches can get caught up in trying to find the perfect question.
“You need to ask something that uncovers more. So, ask open questions that get them to reflect, ask for more information and challenge their thought process – ‘is that the best way?’, ‘what are the consequences of doing that?’.
“This makes them think things through rather than make assumptions.
“It takes a change in habit, so try, try again and get back on the horse. The key is to practice and reflect on how you deal with different people and how different scenarios play out.”
The second skill you can implement now is supportive feedback.
There are different types of feedback. But for Kirsty, the two areas to focus on are effective feedback and performance feedback.
Effective feedback is goal-related and specific to a task, such as using more examples in media interviews - something we always stress during our media training.
“Be specific about what you want to talk about and what you want to say,” said Kirsty. “Avoid generalisations.
“You need to be honest and win the respect of the person you are giving feedback to. Even though it is something that needs to be improved, the feedback is all about the positive and focusing on the desired result.
“Focus on the action and the behaviour, not the person. It isn’t a personal attack. And come with examples to help them understand.
“Always give a takeaway and make it clear what you want them to do next.”
Performance feedback is also crucial and looks at the overall picture. Was it a good interview? What could have gone better?
It can feel daunting, particularly when giving feedback to someone senior. Kirsty suggests the best way into it is to ask for their thoughts first.
“If you are providing feedback on an interview, start by asking them to provide feedback on their performance,” she said.
“They will normally bring this up themselves if it didn't go well. And that saves you from needing to approach that conversation.
“You can then manage expectation from their response, rather than needing to guess where they are in their head. And that makes for the right conversation.”
Working with those more senior brings us neatly on to the third coaching skill you can use now - influencing without authority.
“This is the ability to influence others without having any power over them,” Kirsty said. “For example, you are unlikely to be a line manager for your spokesperson. You can’t tell them they have to do the interview.
“So, there has to be an authentic exchange between the two of you to make it happen. To do this, you need to understand the other person. What is important to them? What are their priorities?
“If we want someone to do an interview and just out of the blue turn up at the door and expect them to want to do it, we haven’t taken any time to understand what is going on with them.
“The likelihood then is they won’t want to get involved. When we are more intentional about getting to know them, and what they have going on, we will become more effective at asking them to do things.
“You’ll know what they need and what you can offer in exchange.”
To help put coaching techniques to use, The Media Team Academy members faced three scenarios.
The first was about ‘Joanna’, a confident spokesperson and public speaker who is unwilling to spend much time being briefed and doesn’t easily accept feedback. She has just given a trade publication interview where she had been too candid.
Kirsty said we need to get a better understanding of why she is not using the briefing. Did she not see it? Does she not understand it?
“Once we have that information and understood how she thought the interview went, we can be open about how you felt it came across - backed by evidence - and how it differed from what you and the organisation had wanted,” she said.
“Then ask her questions to find out what we need to do differently, for example, whether she needs a clearer brief or perhaps needs to spend more time with your beforehand.
“While it is annoying that she does not read the briefing, we need to approach her with empathy and not point the finger.
“Asking these questions will hopefully make her realise briefing time is not wasted. No one wants to give a bad interview, and you, her and the business all have aligned goals.
“If we do all this, and it happens again, we may need to consider the feedback coming from someone else. Potentially someone more senior or from a peer who has performed a similar role.”
The second scenario was about ‘Priti’, a busy director who is hard to pin down for interview briefings and feedback. Despite having a profile interview coming up with The Sunday Times, she is yet to commit any time for briefing.
Kirsty said: “It is likely this interview is going to be a wasted opportunity.
“So, we need to stay curious, connect with her and try to influence without authority. Do we know what is going on with her? What her priorities are? Have we asked what works best for her? Is she worried about how long the briefing might take?
“Let her tell you so that we find out why she is avoiding the briefing. Until we start to ask, we don’t know.
“After that, then ask how you can best support her. Build that relationship and get her to understand the importance of getting the interview right. Let her know that you are in it together and that you want to make this process easier for her.”
Kirsty says you must also ensure feedback is part of the briefing process and book it in the diary.
“Ask her how she wants to do it. Find out what works for her. Giving her autonomy about how this works will help her fit it into her diary. And she gets a feeling you want to help her.”
Media interviews can be daunting. Even seasoned spokespeople can come unstuck. So we have put together a handy interview checklist from our media training courses to help spokespeople ensure they are properly prepared, know what to do both during an interview before and after they have been in the media spotlight. Download your copy now
Finally, we met ‘Josh’. He has recently been promoted to the senior leadership team. He has limited media experience, and is not a natural presenter. But he is empathetic, and the media team would like to use him more. Josh’s confidence is holding him back and he over-prepares for interviews.
Kirsty said: “It would be a shame not to use Josh because he has that empathetic nature and will come across well. But getting him in front of the camera is going to be hard.
“Stay curious and find out from Josh what he needs to feel confident about the interview. Has he had media training before? Has he had a bad media experience? Maybe he doesn’t know what is expected of him.
“Let’s find out what is going on. Approach him with compassion and find out what you can do to help. You want to influence Josh but, to do that, you need to know what he needs.
“Unless he feels those needs are met, he will not want to be a spokesperson. Or he will be so nervous he won’t be able to give a good interview.
“When it comes to feedback, give someone like Josh plenty of positives and then move on to how you can help him get better - he will be keen to develop.
“And sometimes it doesn’t take long for someone to start to feel confident.”
This masterclass was part of a series for members of The Media Team Academy. During the year-long learning programme, they will be invited to 12 Media First masterclasses and another six that focus on personal development. If you and your colleagues would like to be part of this, you can find more information here. We are now taking applications for our second cohort, which start in April.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
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