By Joyce Newman
Congratulations to Federal Reserve Bank officials for holding their first press conference. But, did Chairman Ben Bernanke really seize the opportunity?
The Fed Chair got off to a strong start by stating what he was going to be talking about. Sadly, he then dove into a prepared statement and rarely looked up. The script was placed off to his right, which is where he looked rather than at the audience (cameras).
To make it even more obvious that he was reading, he flipped his pages rather than simply and unobtrusively sliding them from side to side.
Another challenge was that the statement was written to be read and not spoken. As a result he was difficult to follow and we lost track of the themes that he had set out at the beginning.
Next time, his handlers need to bump up the font size, put less on each page and have him slide rather than turn over each page.
Bernanke made an effort to insert pauses while reading his statement, however, during the Q&A, his attempt at pauses turned into "ums" which were very distracting.
It was disheartening given the state of the economy that the Fed did not take this opportunity to demystify economics for the average American. We need more examples, plain English and less financial jargon.
Given that no one has a crystal ball to predict the future, it is understandable why Bernanke had to use a lot of tentative words such as, "I suppose", "hopefully" and "I think". Such words just don't do much to add to our confidence in him and/or the economy.
During the Q&A, we saw the first hint of his personality when he used his own words and smiled while responding to certain questions.
People listen to speakers they "like" and "trust", so seeing more of the real Ben Bernanke in future press conferences would serve him well!
The pressure on the Chairman during this first historic press conference must have been intense. With that said, I am looking forward to his next performance.
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Joyce Newman is president of The Newman Group, Inc., leaders in presentation training and media coaching. She can be reached at joyce [at] newmangroup.com. |