mayorcandidate

[mayorcandidate]

Mayor Candidate

Are you running for election? Congratulations to you on your initiative.

As a candidate for political office you will need to research your options and prepare. Learn the issues, take a position and build a network. Yet another thing - discover ways to present your message well. And take action better than the competition.

The mayoral candidates spoke at a residential area meeting. Four of the five candidates attended. These were each allowed an opening and closing statement. In between these were asked to answer several written questions from the audience. The candidates were allowed up to 90 seconds for every single answer.

As a specialist speaker and executive speech coach I was under impressed by the candidates. But I was not surprised by having less presentation prowess. It could be very easy for political candidates to enhance their presentations skills. Why do they neglect such a powerful tool of persuasion and success?

Let's be clear Mayor Candidate . The objective of these community meetings is to show that the candidates understand the important thing issues of the audience and that they'll do something about it.

Here are my presentation methods for these mayoral candidates particularly and all political hopefuls in general.

Learn How to Use Microphones The first speaker tested his microphone by blowing about it before he spoke. That is both annoying and unprofessional. The easiest way to check a microphone is to speak. Don't say "TEST, TEST" or "Is this thing on?" Just speak normally.

First be Human Just one speaker (the incumbent) thanked the organizers and complimented another candidates in the room. That is a sign of experience, confidence and compassion.

Talk to the Audience, Not your Notes One speaker seemed to learn everything he explained - his opening and closing and even the answers to questions. In between he was busily scribbling notes while another speakers spoke. He clearly was not in the room. He may be a good back room researcher and thinker but not really a leader.

Don't Look Angry One candidate displayed his anger a few times. He also complained that current council have been divisive. He promised to correct that by forcing them to be more efficient. How? By getting angry at them?

Concentrate on What's Relevant This same angry candidate included an argument about federal politics - on a completely unrelated issue. He went in terms of to encourage the audience to contact a nearby MP about his pet federal issue. What does that have related to this municipal election? Do you want to be mayor or would you would like to rant?

Conclude Ninety seconds might sound like a short time to speak but successful politicians have to speak in sound bytes which is often 5 to 30 seconds. For the program they received signals from the timer at 60, 30 and 10 seconds - yet they missed the chance to conclude. All the time the speakers trailed off and sometimes they ended so meekly that people wondered if these were done speaking. Conclude every mini speech and end strong.

Smile A laugh indicates confidence, warmth and trust. Why didn't these candidates smile more? Every mini speech must have ended with a smile and steady gaze at the audience. Instead they frowned, looked down and glanced sideways at the MC. No one looked happy with their message. The sound in the room was bad. Just suppose that no one understood the language spoken and saw only the speaker. In the event that you looked up at the speaker at the conclusion of their mini speech you'd have felt like it was another disappointing answer.

Make me Laugh The surest way to connect with anyone is to produce them laugh. So why didn't you make us laugh? There were a few weak attempts from two of the candidates during the 90-minute torture session. We don't expect you to be Seinfeld. However, a chuckle goes a long way.

Repeat or Reframe the Question By enough time we heard from the third speaker the audience could have forgotten the initial question. Some questions were long and multipart and a few of the speakers went off on tangents. Repeating or reframing the question will remind the audience of the question and help you stay on track.

Be Prepared A number of the candidates was winging it at times. It looked as though they had never considered or considered the questions before. Yet, none of the questions were surprises.

Yes, I realize that substance counts in addition to style. Nevertheless when there appears to be little difference in substance we gravitate to style. Unfortunately we don't ask our political candidates to write an exam. So we have to judge them on style because that's all we can see.