Ghana’s Political VVIPs Need Communication Advisors.
Political Communication advisors are not always spokespersons but the ones using hindsight experience to advise steps to be taken subsequently.
Communication ought to review all the threads within a presentation and be able to point out trends that are helping or otherwise.
A total communication analysis must incorporate an examination of every previous tape, and notes taken and presented to modify the next performance. Body language is no exception. The ones that elicited positive reactions may be done more.
In some cases, the communication advisor must insist the speaker sticks to a prepared speech just to avoid unintended slips which could prove catastrophic to the career.
I have been in a crowd that was jumping in excitement at the arrival of a personality. During the extempore, a word issued drew an eerie silence that leaned towards a faux pas.
All political debates held in television studios produce no clear winners but the opportunity for the poorer side to pull even, in a kind of tug of war in which all parties staunchly defend themselves or lines of action. At such forums, we notice fine individuals but not the clear advantage in the heckle-strewn debates. The real deal is/are monologues or community engagement.
If a stoic appearance will put the personality in a better light, go for it than ‘forcing’ light-hearted moments that are self-hurting image-wise.
Communication finds an outlet in the trade-off between protocol and security officers on the one hand and the crowds in the open air. Their vital roles in guiding and protecting the personality sometimes draw wedges between officials and the people. This either makes the engagement on durbar grounds look like choreography or enacts a natural bonding.
In the very important exercise of issuing policy statements in final sales pitches of political parties, there will be no need for a laughing party in the auditorium. The présenter must wear a serious mien whilst delivering the message.
It is also important that communication advisors dissuade the personality from making a public speech if the latter looks tired. They may insist but the advisor must also insist on his position and take him away from it. A person can read on the VVIP’s behalf. Tiredness causes incohérence.
Analogies by the speaker could be outlandish depending on the midst of the conversation or speech. Examples are references to sophisticated corridors such as wall street, EU Parliament, and lions club dinner when the address is made to the chiefs and people of a given remote area that knows not beyond its immediate environs.
Never must the VVIP admit to self-imposed shortcomings in public speeches. It will be taken out of context and no amount of damage control can expunge the strength in the spins.
It is part of communication if a given consistency on the part of a personality aligns him or her with the rich and the far-removed from the grassroots or the trend finds attachment to the poor. Within the Ghanaian context, the personality due to face the ballot box will pay a dear price if there is excessive alignment with the high class, for they are not in the majority. Every step on the way is communicating and revealing the personality
Communication ought to be innovative. Would the speaker always go box to box with the opposite number (that is, talking the jargon exoteric to the learned community e.g debt amortization, judgment debt, macro and micro economy, GDP, etc which always fly over the heads of the masses) or the communication sheet will evolve from a cultural premise the people are familiar with?