Episode #287: What We Can Learn From Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Presentation Skills

Until a number of weeks ago, I had only vaguely heard of Volodymyr Zelenskyy. I read he was an actor who played the role of the Ukranian President in a television drama production and then turned that into reality, by winning the election and becoming the leader. I was thinking of a reality TV star like Donald Trump or a B-grade movie actor like Ronald Reagan both becoming the leaders of America and put him in the same basket. In terms of presentation skills, Reagan gave some very good speeches in his time as President and although we credit him, we should also be crediting his speech writers. Trump generally tended to avoid set pieces as far as speeches went and preferred speaking to a few key points in his talks, offering a much more spontaneous style. As masters of media, they were both effective in using the bully pulpit to get their messages across.

Zelenskyy’s comment back to the Americans that “I don’t need a ride, I need ammunition” when offered an escape from the Russian invasion, was a spectacularly successful one liner. I doubt that a room full of his media advisors had spent hours anticipating and preparing that response. It sounded impressive because it came across as spontaneous and genuine. In one sentence he said, “we Ukrainians may have been written off by all the military and political experts but I am their leader and we are not giving up”. Many of us had the image of previous Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani fleeing the country, as the Taliban pushed into Kabul. Zelenskyy’s stock as a leader went straight up with that comment and he was perceived as a brave person and a real leader. Coming up with a breakthrough one-liner is certainly not easy but definitely worth the effort to try and craft a zinger. Try it and see what you can come up with. We only need one in a speech to have real impact.

Zelenskyy has obvious comfort in front of a camera from his work as an actor and he knows how to work the medium. I broadcast three TV shows a week on YouTube every week, plus produce vast quantities of video content relating to leadership, communication, sales and presentations. So after thousands of hours in front of a camera, I have become more comfortable with it, but it wasn’t natural or easy for me. Most business leaders only ever have a fleeting and random relationship with the medium. As a result, few business leaders can really work the medium and get the maximum gains from it, so there is still some way to go. If I can do it, trust me, you can do it too and probably you will do a better job than what I am doing.

All modern politicians today need to gain this skill and they do learn it, so there is no differentiation here particularly. Zelenskyy has done a good job though using his speaking opportunities with the various politician audiences of countries sympathetic to Ukraine. He has been beamed into joint sittings of the upper and lower houses of these countries political elites and has proven very adept at adjusting his angle of approach.

Japan’s example was a reminder for Americans of the Pearl Harbour attack that reeked such disaster, death and havoc in Hawaii and brought the USA into the war. The Japanese Tohoku earthquake, tsunami, triple nuclear reactor meltdown in Fukushima was a reminder for Japan of the damage that event caused and linked it to the current destruction that Russian missiles and long range weapons were inflicting on the villages and cities in Ukraine. For the French it was calls forLiberte, Egalite, Fraternite to be applied to the Ukraine in their hour of need. The speech to both houses of the British parliament rekindled memories of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s calls for national sacrifice to fight to the bitter end against Hitler, no matter what. When speaking to both houses of the Australian parliament, he mentioned the Malaysian Airline flight MH-17 which was shot down over the Russian separatist controlled Donbas region, in which 38 Australians died. None of Zelenskyy’s references were random and we should be doing the same. We need to spend time to select examples, stories and use these rhetorical flourishes to get our messages to resonate with our audiences.

The point here is that he tailored his messages very carefully to gain maximum appeal with his audiences. Yes, there is an element of emotional manipulation involved here and I am sure everyone in these audiences were aware of that. It nevertheless worked, because he was able to link his country’s current dilemma with the emotional wellsprings of his audience and to get everyone to feel a sense of shared commitment to Ukraine’s successful outcome in the war against Russia. This ability to connect at an emotional level with our audience is an absolutely critical skill which presenters need to work on continuously.

We always stress the importance of knowing our audience before we give a presentation. In theory this is what is supposed to happen, but how often have you attended a talk and really felt this was tailored to your interests and needs. Most business talks feel like the speaker is talking at us, rather than speaking with us and there is a world of difference between the two. We must plan how we are going to forge an emotional connection with our audience, rather than concentrating on downloading a bunch of stuff, which will all too soon be forgotten.

“Who is going to be attending and how can I meet the conversation going on in their minds about the importance of this topic I am going to be addressing”, is what I have in my mind when I am preparing my talks. The audience will have some thoughts about the topic. They will have some points they wish to hear more about and may have some need of ideas, insights, answers or recommended actions. What would these encompass? This is the type of analysis we need to be undertaking ourselves, when we are getting ready to give a talk. Preparation is the key, but that requires that we make the time available to do it properly. Remember, every time we get up and present we are putting our personal and professional brands on display.

Zelensky’s dress code for these talks is usually a military T-shirt, rather than a business suit. He is projecting he is a man of action and is ready for combat. He knows his audience will be dressed in suits and he could wear a suit too, but the stark contrast in dress lends more urgency to his appeals for support. In the same way, we need to dress for battle too. Depending on who you are talking to, it may mean a business suit of armour or it may mean something more business-casual. We are anticipating how our appearance will make it easier for us to connect with our audience. When I dress in the mornings, I consult my diary first to see who I am meeting that day, what I am doing and what impression I want to make. On that basis, I make my selections with the plan in my mind to have maximum impact on my activities for that day. Style, colours and combinations can quickly alter the image we want to project, but first we have to make decision about what we want to project. How do you decide what to wear each day? Is it based on what is clean or pressed? Grab your diary and do some thinking about what sort of a day you want ahead of you.

It is good that we go to this degree of trouble about how to project our appearance, yet do we also spend the time thinking about how to design the content of our talks, so they will resonate with the audience? We should spend the time to research who will attend, what they are interested in and then zero in on those points for maximum impact. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s example offers us a chance to reflect on what we are doing to further develop our own communication skills.

Slava Ukraine!