In his seminal work on the art of rhetoric, Aristotle identified that there were 3 cornerstones of persuasion: Logos (the use of logic), Pathos (the appeal to emotion), and Ethos (the credibility and character of the speaker). Communicator of the Week Award goes to US President Donald Trump for the considerable part he played to secure the tentative Gaza peace deal. You may (as many do) consider Donald Trump to be an unpredictable, unprincipled, uncouth autocrat, but where all the parties on...
17 days ago • 1 min read
Golf is hard at the best of times! But when you're playing in the biggest tournament in the world, against the best players in the world, with the pride of your country or continent on the line, golf requires Herculean levels of effort, focus and concentration. The job of fans is to support their own team and to give some stick to the opposition. But as with all communication, you have to match your tone to the moment. 'Go in the hole!' when one of your players has just hit - fine ✅ Shouting...
24 days ago • 1 min read
Martin Luther King once said ‘The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.’ MisCommunicator of the Week Award goes to Disney as the corporation bent the knee to the Trump administration and cancelled the hugely popular Jimmy Kimmel show in the wake of Kimmel’s comments after the murder of Charlie Kirk. To be sure, the Disney Corporation made a calculated business decision that it was...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
‘Character is what you do when you think no one is watching’ Miscommunicator of the Week Award goes to Polish millionaire Piotr Szczerek, who was captured snatching the autographed cap of tennis star Kamil Majchrzak from the young fan that Kamil was handing it to. Piotr clearly assumed no one was watching but someone’s camera was, and then the internet did its thing to identify him, and then flood his and his company’s social media with clap back insult and vitriol. His paving company will...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Sometimes, there is just no substitute for putting in the work over a sustained period of time. Communicator of the Week Award goes to a my Dad, (Grandpa) who celebrated 50 years as a Chartered Accountant. The number of people that he has directly mentored and supported is huge. But the number of those that he has empowered and inspired by his example over decades of consistent excellence as a man and a professional, is incalculable. You can do good things or make a good speech every now and...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Dictators of the world, unite! Communicator of the Week Award goes to the Russian President Vladimir Putin. In this week's much-anticipated summit between President Trump and President Putin, the world was watching to see whether Trump would make good on his promise to pressure Putin into a peace agreement or at least a ceasefire with Ukraine. Spoiler alert: He didn't. Instead, Putin pretty much dominated proceedings, reestablished himself on the world stage, and came away having given no...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Sometimes, there's just no substitute for knowing your stuff! Communicator of the Week Award goes to Mehdi Hassan for his 1-man demolition in the Jubilee Channel YouTube debate '1 Progressive vs 20 Far-Right Conservatives' Given that he has written a book called 'Win Every Argument', you would expect Hasan to be good at debates. And it's fair to say that the 20 opponents he faced were not themselves professional debaters but largely young ill-informed far-right idiots. Still, there's a reason...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Dad: ‘What’s the one rule when things go wrong?’ Kids: ‘Dont panic!’ Dad: ‘Why?’ Kids: ‘Because you can’t make sound decisions when you make them in a panic’ I have this discussion every once in a while with my kids to drum into them the importance of getting hold of themselves in an emergency so they can use good judgment in those critical moments. So Mis-Communicator of the Week goes to viral kiss cam couple (or are they?) Andy Byron and Kristin Cabot, who forgot the ‘Don’t panic’ rule of...
3 months ago • 1 min read
There is a special and intangible bond that great teams have. It often stems from a common purpose, common values and a common world view. If ever that bond breaks, all hell breaks loose. Mis-Communicator of the Week goes to MAGA World, which is losing its collective mind over the whole Jeffrey Epstein business. Trump, Tucker Carlson, Roseanne Barr, Pam Bondi, Dan Bonginno, Kash Patel, Fox News, MAGA Twitter are completely at odds and in total disarray over the apparent investigation into...
4 months ago • 1 min read