Lynn Interviewed by Bulldog Reporter

She has developed personal coaching sessions for Fortune 100 C-level executives, corporate communicators, doctors, lawyers and leaders in non-profit. Current and past clients include Microsoft, Bluetooth SIG, Alaska Airlines and several major PR agencies. Here, she draws on this extensive experience to tell others in communications how they can help their execs avoid the “Stepford CEO” label and come across as confident, comfortable communicators:

Who in the political realm seems to fit the “Stepford CEO” model?

The worst cases on both sides of the aisle were in the 2000 election. I’m thinking of Bob Dole on one side and Al Gore on the other. Both were brilliant, authentic and even funny characters who were over coached to the point that Dole seemed to forget who he was and Gore couldn’t tell you who he was. They were stiff and overwrought, and completely lost their connection to voters.

How did this year’s presidential contenders compare?

We had better orators all around. Huckabee, Romney and Edwards were all better in terms of visual and vocal tone. There has been a lot of research to show that content is less important in perception that visual or vocal tone. Look at Obama, for example. The perception is he’s lacking in content—but look how far comfortable, elegant oratory takes him. He’s comfortable in his skin. He’s seemingly authentic. Turn that focus to McCain and the perception that he has buckets of content, yet he can’t master the visual or vocal elements—with the resulting perception being that he isn’t as presidential. Voters are hungry for someone with content, experience—and the ability to connect with people.

How about on the corporate side—any examples you’d care to share?

Steve Jobs and Steve Ballmer are two very different characters who always bring their full selves to the presentation, for good or bad. Ballmer has been the butt of a few jokes for his hugely visible passion. But after working around Microsoft for many years [with Waggener Edstrom], I’ve come to understand it’s completely authentic.

How can readers make sure their execs don’t come across like Stepford CEOs?

First and foremost, you can’t craft three messages in a vacuum and expect CEO to articulate them. You have to know what’s important to the CEO. You have to get close to the executive and have the CEO’s ear. If you don’t have that access, then get to the person with it. This is where a communications coach or trainer is so valuable. A CEO will often say they don’t have time to meet with the communications team at the company, but that often changes when they’re told they’re working with a trainer. Trainers often have better luck than in-house PR people, because they’re seen as outsiders.

Why is that a good thing from the CEO’s perspective?

The executive is more likely to open up, because he or she isn’t talking to an employee or someone who reports to the CEO. Also, if you phrase it as “communication training,” that resonates with executives at this level—versus using the term “media training.” Another thing that resonates is stressing that improvement in communication skills can be used for media, shareholder, staff and team meetings, speeches and so on.

How do you find out what’s important to the CEO?

Ask them. Say, “What matters to you? What is your vision—what brings you to work excited every day?” Then you craft some key messages that reflect that. You will save yourself a lot of work if you find out what matters to your CEO first, and then craft your messages.

A client once asked me, “Isn’t this what I just told you?” Well, it was—but it was boiled into soundbites. He felt listened to and vested in the process … With the media, he didn’t even have to think about those key messages. Every answer to every question reflected his personality.

What were the results—which soundbites got used?

In the area of national verticals and newspapers, we saw 100 percent pickup with at least one key message reflected.

You recently said investigative news stories are a lot like traditional Disney stories or movies—why did you say that? How can that be?

I actually said every single story is like that, but it’s especially evident in classic Disney stories like “Dumbo” and “Snow White” and even the more recent “Lion King.” Every single movie has ten story elements, really, which can include: protagonist, antagonist, unlikely hero, inciting incident (which is where the conflict lives), call to action, transformation and a moral.

So which of those elements are investigative journalists looking for in their stories?

What an investigative journalist is looking for is a darned compelling story that subscribers will read and pay for. So they’re looking for conflict and color. There is an element of conflict and color in each of the ten story elements. Very few news stories have all ten. But if you were to go through The Wall Street Journal or Financial Times and find today’s two best stories—you’d easily find at least four of those elements.

Point us in the right direction—where can we see that exactly?
If you look at column one on the front page of The Wall Street Journal every day, the first graph always starts by setting up the story. It opens with who the character is, what their inciting incident is and so on. So my advice is to study column one, instead of just reading it. Look at the elements they’re using to make the narrative compelling.

How can PR people use this?

By letting the CEO in on the storytelling process, you can determine if she is poised to be the protagonist. Or you might set your CEO up as the villain, for example, with someone else in the company positioned as someone who is working to change his or her mind. It happens in companies every day, where a CEO has one vision and someone in a lower position sees a very different idea, vision or even potential in a product or service. That person starts to be the mouse that roars. You can use that to your advantage in telling a story where the CEO bends his ear to hear this new perspective—and then acts on it. Then your CEO who was seen as the villain who wouldn’t listen goes through transformation and realizes this was the right time to do the right thing.

I can see how that might work—can you think of a CEO who was recently repositioned from villain to hero?

Bill Gates was once widely perceived as the most arrogant, dominant monopolist in the technology industry. But he has transformed himself. He left his job this past weekend—walking out as the most generous, global philanthropist the world has ever known.

Another example could be Scott McClellan. For him, the antagonist was a closed administration. The Valerie Plame scandal was the inciting incident. His transformation as the protagonist was that of going from White House insider to whistleblower. Since then, he’s been vilified by the administration, of course—so depending on your perspective, he’s either a villain, victim or hero.

Why do you do this—what do you love most about media training?

Companies today are hiring such smart people and expecting so much of them, especially in the tech space, where they have degrees, research fellowships and so on. They’re not only expected to excel in those areas, but they’re also expected to perform in speaking engagements, shareholder meetings and in talking to the press. They didn’t get those fellowships because they were comfortable in front of large groups of people. Most of them are scared to death that their social skills won’t support them in a speaking environment.

So what I love is showing them that with those brains and natural talent and just a few tools, they can dramatically improve their comfort level, confidence and win over audiences.

What one thing—what media relations silver bullet or magic pill—do you give them?

Most everyone confuses confidence with comfort. I have yet to train an executive at a high level that was not confident. Confidence is a state of being. Comfort is a state of mind. Their confidence doesn’t leave them in front of audience. So we give them tools to be more comfortable—and they see that confidence never leaves them. That’s I what do. I work with some of world’s smartest people every day—and I want to make their jobs easier by helping them to be more comfortable with the speaking process.

Your advice to others who may be considering setting up their own shops?

Let it be known if you’re ready to make that leap! Find other entrepreneurs. The community of entrepreneurs today is growing so fast. It’s an environment of abundance, where other like minded small business owners are willing to share and network. If you have the experience and have worked for years in your practice in several different areas and you can go out and find yourself in versatile situations, you’re close to success already. But adding that support network makes the leap easier, more rewarding and potentially, more successful.