The Ten Best and Worst Communicators in 2007

Orginally published on Monday, January 07, 2008 at 8:06 AM
by Todd Rhoades

Bert Decker is the CEO of Decker Communications. Recently, he posted his top ten best and worst communicators from 2007. Take a look and see who made the list and who didn't... then I'd like to take nominations for the church world best and worst communicators of the year, just for fun... Here are the best and worst...

OK… remember, these are Bert’s Best and Worst, not mine.  However, what can we learn from his list of best and worst?  Take a look?

The Best Communicators:

1.  Gov. Mike Huckabee:  Huckabee is open in style, authentic, natural and amazingly great at thinking (and speaking) on his feet. He tells stories, and connects with people. (See more detail here.) Powerful tools when you have to build trust and credibility visually, quickly and mostly through TV. And powerful tools for a leader.

2.  Dr. Mehmet Oz:  (from the Oprah show) He is a unique personality, fast eyes, crisp words forcefully put - when he talks about alcohol he says œhangover with a hard G. The communication experience he delivers is a man of the people - trusted by the people. He makes a good case for Dress & Appearance - always in surgical scrubs when on Oprah.

3.  Al Gore:  In a few short years he transformed himself as a speaker by becoming open vs closed, vulnerable vs. distant, fluid vs. stiff. He worked at it, and even though he did not ‘invent the internet,’ he did invent ‘global warming.’

4.  Ben Zander:  (musical conductor) He speaks on leadership, teamwork and creativity in an original style, yet he is a world-renown musician and conductor. A master at creativity - he expresses himself with reckless abandon - and makes the case as well as anyone that communication rides energy.

5.  Maria Bartiromo (CNBC Commentator) She knows her subject well, and has ridden her stint as financial commentator to a news anchor and respected interviewer on CNBC and nationally. Even when confronted with recent controversy, her confident communicating enabled her to overcome adverse publicity.

6.  Tony Dungy:  When his son James tragically died in 2005, he spoke up about it, and was vulnerable. When he wanted to put his beliefs up front, he did so with firm conviction. For when he speaks, he is low key but carries a big stick.

7.  Glenn Beck:  (Radio Host) ‘First Brain Friendly’ is a term almost invented for Glenn as he always has a ready smile even amidst strong diatribes. The first communicator to get his own steady hour show on the instant and pop-corny CNN Headline News, he interviews extremely well, is fast on his thinking feet, and is personally vulnerable, which make for great communication attributes.

8.  James Dobson:  He embodies our leadership concept of ‘œforward lean.’ In this blog account, there are more reasons Dobson excels as a communicator in person, on radio and in print and books.

9.  Steve Jobs, Guy Kawasaki, Garr Reynolds:  Here we have three top notch communicators at varying degrees of public impact, but ALL sharing brilliant use of visuals as PowerPoint (or Keynote) suppor

10.  Oprah Winfrey:  And she probably deserves to be on each year’s Ten Best Communicators list since she is so good, so versatile, and rather than reinventing herself she builds on what she has already created. She isn’t afraid of risking, in communicating and in life.

The Worst Communicators:
Even when he could no longer lie and had to apologize to his fans and the general public he did it in the most non-convincing way possible. Former Attorney Alberto Gonzales was kept on for a long time by President Bush, but to no avail - he could not talk his way out of a very strong appearance of guilt that was caused by his communications as much as actions.

1.  Alberto Gonzales:  Even when he could no longer lie and had to apologize to his fans and the general public he did it in the most non-convincing way possible. Former Attorney Alberto Gonzales was kept on for a long time by President Bush, but to no avail - he could not talk his way out of a very strong appearance of guilt that was caused by his communications as much as actions.

2.  Michael Vick:  What Vick did was bad enough, but how he handled himself made it worse. Stiff, appearing aloof and distant, he communicated that he was as bad as his press.

3.  Robert Eckert (Chairman of Mattell):  And he did not take advantage of his spokesman role to turn the tide for Mattel in the recall of lead painted toys made in China. He said the words, but his manner belied sincerity.

4.  Bud Selig:  One of the worst communicators even before this year,“ Commissioner Bud Selig could be called Big Scowl. This Bud could never nip it in the bud. He reeks of ineptness culminating in his ‘ums’™ and ‘˜ahs’ and lack of authenticity. Baseball sure could do better, and don’t expect the scandals to end anytime soon as long as Bud Selig continues to waffle in communicating and in decisions.

5.  Nancy Grace:  still don’™t know why she is on the air - perhaps it has a similarity to the fact that we tend to like looking at spectacular disasters. Harsh, snarly and abrasive, she remains on the air, but diminished in stature.

6.  Fred Thompson:  What happened to the credible, authoritative, smiling person we had known? We now saw an uncertain, hemming and hawing figure with downcast eyes. Of all people who should have shined in the debates, he has become a tarnished also ran because of poor communication and not meeting our expectations.

7.  Larry Craig:  Here we had no communications expectations of Senator Larry Craig, but we did have at least expectations that a Senator would at least tell the truth. Boy, talk about body language. Foot signals and tapping do communicate, and for Craig his ‘˜unconscious communications’ became conscious very quickly.

8.  Janet Jackson:  Janet Jackson has a great voice, but when she speaks it is high and squeaky, and she lacks authority.  She is unfortunately an example of many public figures who perform with confidence yet speak poorly - potential influence wasted.

9.  George Bush:  His lack of speaking ability, detailed on these pages and elsewhere, have unfortunately made his opinions seem less and less important.

10.  Suze Orman:  Suze is an admitted media star, and supposedly knowledgeable from being an author, but in person she projects sarcasm and bite. So she makes the list, but for Suze lovers, at least she is among the best of the worst.

OK… that’s his list… the best and worst of all public communicators.  (And you can read his entire post here). What do you think?  Do you agree or disagree?  Who would you nominate for best and worst communicator of the year?  (I, for one, would not have nominated James Dobson.  Dobson is fine, but recently, he’s communicated some pretty funny stuff (like the evils of sponge bob, etc.  I realize he was misunderstood in some instances, but isn’t that something a good communicator avoids?)

And finally, who would you nominate for the best and worst communicator of 2007 in the Evangelical World?  Here are a couple a few nominees for the worst communicator of 2007:

1.  James Dobson, for calling for Rev. Richard Cizik to resign his position from the National Association of Evangelicals because of his support of environmental activism (which Dobson called ‘demoralizing’.  A letter sent to the NAE said, “If he cannot be trusted to articulate the views of American evangelicals on environmental issues, then we respectfully suggest that he be encouraged to resign his position with the NAE.” One problem:  Dobson was not a member of the NAE.

2.  Juanita Bynum and Bishop Thomas Weeks, for the slap down in the parking lot.  It’s hard to communicate the gospel when you’re whacking each other at the hotel.

3.  Pat Robertson, for his prediction that there would be a ‘mass killing’ in 2007.  ”The Lord didn’t say nuclear,” he said, “but I do believe it will be something like that.  He said that the Lord told him during a prayer retreat that major cities and possibly millions of people will be affected after the attack.

4.  Ted Haggard, who after already being totally humiliated in the sex scandal of 2006, writes a note to supporters in 2007 asking for money for his family’s continued ministry and educational needs, only to be reprimanded from his overseers.

5.  Richard Roberts, who, after denying misappropriating tons of money from Oral Roberts University, receives a no confidence vote from the ORU faculty.  The vote was ‘nearly unanimous’.

As for the best?  That’s a little tougher.  I’ll leave those nominations up to you!

Please leave your thoughts and comments below…

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Hi... I'm Todd Rhoades. I'm a Christ-follower, husband, father and I love to connect leaders with other leaders. Hopefully you'll find something here at MMI you like and will return often. If you want, you can find out more about me or follow my every step on Twitter.

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