What Tuesday’s Presidential Debate Taught us About Communication
(Disclaimer: La Tonique Media LLC does not represent any political ideology. While we do not espouse any political beliefs, we do seek to provide a balance perspective by incorporating voices from both sides of the political spectrum.)
By Sabeeta Singh
This topic certainly needs no introduction, but as a university lecturer my perspective is to breakdown the communications lesson we learned during Tuesday’s night presidential debate. It is a general consensus that the debate got ugly, contentious and led to international embarrassment. The format was simple enough to follow — two minute answers with rebuttal opportunity, I wonder if the format itself is what led to the presidential debate rearing an ugly head of its own. Both opponents agreed to the rules but throughout most of the debate the moderator struggled to take control and remind the panelists of the conditions for continuing the engagement. I believe if moderators were given the ability to turn off the microphones, we would have had a more controllable debate.
It is a general consensus that the debate got ugly, contentious and led to international embarrassment.
(Julio Cortez | Associated Press)
There were so many examples of successful and unsuccessful communication styles so I decided to note a few worthy of conversation. Here we go:
Never Interrupt — It is very disturbing to someone’s flow of thoughts and ideas when you interrupt them midway through a delivery. Throughout the presidential debate we saw numerous examples of interruptions that broke the flow of the conversations leading to chaos. I don’t care how badly you want to jump into a conversation — LET THE OTHER PERSON FINISH.
Tone in Communication — We must realize that we should not attempt to out-speak the other person in a conversation. When people try to talk over each other the message gets lost, and there is chaos in the chatter. Overall, no one wins and it eventually leads to a big, ugly argument.
Less is at times more — I find the most effective conversations are where the message is on point rather than lengthy and wordy bits of chatter. My tip is state your position, make it precise and move on. If it is a really important point that you want to reiterate you may continue to do so but be mindful that too much repetition can dilute the message.
Watch your words — Delivery of message is so important in creating an impact so we must always be mindful of showing confidence and not stuttering as this can weaken an otherwise compelling argument. Another no-no is NAME CALLING, we must be respectful in conversations and never resort to this practice. Body language, posture, eye contact are also judged when we communicate so being mindful of our non-verbal cues are important.
The eyes are the window to the soul — By strategically using eye contact you will be able to manipulate the way your message is received and you always want to be honest in your delivery. When I lecture I find I communicate best with my students through building a connection suing eye contact. When you have the ability to face someone head-on and look them in the eyes it says miles about your confidence and authority on the subject being discussed. I tend to not trust people who cannot look me in the eye or appear fidgety — it’s a sign that they have something to hide.
Stop and think before you act — We all need time to gather our thoughts and the spent word cannot be recoiled, so control your emotions during conversation particularly heated ones like the presidential debate. When tensions are high we easily switch to reactive mode, that is when the other person wins. DO NOT LET YOUR OPPONENT GET INSIDE YOUR HEAD. We say when there was evidence of a loss of control on both parties in the debate, the audience immediately shifted their focus to the reaction (loss of control) and the message got lost. Keep your composure and direct all attention to the message to make it impactful.
Talk to your audience — Your choice of messaging style when communicating should be appealing to your audience — that is the best way to get people to buy in and support you. You must be able to connect with your message to gain trust.
Despite Biden being a polished debater, President Trump’s unconventional communication style is based on the power of unfiltered conversations that can throw even the most gentlemanly a curve ball.
The one thing that is certain is that Tuesday night’s presidential debate was certainly historic — in terms of what not to do! It was rolling punches coming in on both sides hurling with absurdity that reminded me of reality TV to the point of stand up comedy. It certainly was a hot mess in there that could possibly be the biggest train wreck of a presidential debate in American politics – so here is a first.
You can follow Sabeeta on Twitter @sabeeta1009.