Communications lessons from the Liz Truss debacle

The chaos surrounding British politics at the moment has dominated the news headlines around the world and proved to be something of a national embarrassment.

Liz Truss became the UK’s shortest-serving prime minister after resigning a mere 45 days into her tenure.

While the political issues and turmoil is for others to discuss, what struck me was the communication challenges that have always afflicted Truss and which I felt would inevitably make her difficult job impossible.

Here are some lessons which executives should heed if they want to succeed as communicators and leaders.

Clear communication

Truss clearly struggles with communication.

How much preparation did she have for her interviews and speeches?

She was so wooden, so awkward as a public speaker, leaving vacant pauses where she waited for applause that belatedly came and failing to deliver her messages with a compelling and inspiring narrative.

You have to take everyone on the journey with you, explaining the road ahead and the challenges and opportunities that may be encountered to get to the promised land. Truss never did that.

In her position, she HAD to be more comfortable and confident, with a better grasp of the topics she was discussing and using key messaging sporadically to reassure audiences that she was competent and trusted.

What we saw repeatedly was the opposite, a rabbit in headlights incapable of getting information across clearly and concisely.

Stakeholder engagement

It is so important for leaders to take their stakeholders on the journey with them.

That means ensuring as much support for your decisions as you can, and briefing those third-parties who may be affected by your actions.

Ultimately, Truss’s downfall began when the mini budget proved to be as catastrophic as such proposals had been predicted by her leadership rival Rishi Sunak.

Truss and Kwarteng should have undertaken much more extensive consultation both with financial institutions and her own party.

Had they done so – and been prepared to listen – such extreme measures and certainly the extreme reactions that caused a British economic meltdown may have been avoided.

Empathy

Did Truss ever give the impression that she understood the issues she had been tasked with addressing?

She rarely seemed to know the detail about the proposals she was making or why, simply wedded to an ideology that ultimately proved to be her undoing.

It was never apparent that Truss truly grasped the concerns of the electorate, such as rising mortgages or the cost of living.

Listening to your audiences is fundamental.

Responsibility

Admitting her role in the crisis may have bought her more time and sympathy – after all, we are all human and capable of making mistakes or errors of judgement.

It’s how you deal with them that ultimately defines your fate.

And Truss never took ownership of mistakes that were made.

Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng was tasked with implementing the economic vision that they shared, but when things went wrong, he was made the scapegoat.

If you’re prepared to save yourself at the expense of your allies, how can you expect others to show any loyalty to you?

That may be politics, but not once did Truss accept her role in the fiscal crisis, appearing to deflect the blame onto her long-time friend and ally.

She then avoided speaking in the House of Commons when economic u-turns were made, giving the impression that she was ducking responsibility or lacking the ability to face further scrutiny.

Delivery

In order to move on from the economic crises, Truss had to change the news agenda.

That meant changing the narrative to focus on different angles that would allow her government to move on from the mini budget disaster.

She would speak in the days before her inevitable resignation about the energy price cap, although that was semantics to some degree.

But there was a real lack of authority from her from the start and she always appeared to be reacting after her ideological approach had been proven unworkable.

Where the country needed reassurance, there was only doubt.

She lost the confidence of the people and of her own party, swiftly bringing an end to one of the most ignominious episodes in British political history.