Being Too Perfect in Business Videos Can Hurt Your Leadership Brand

 

Be vulnerable, be likeable.

Being likeable on video is important. It’s a bad strategy to be unlikeable, to be rigid or cold or aloof or pompous.  Video is very personal. We watch video in our homes. We don’t invite strangers in if we don’t like them. Building rapport quickly is important. A bit of humility, a bit of self-deprecation, a bit of attribution to others with none to yourself. These simple things go a long way on video.

If you do exercise authority and control in your position...

video is a great tool to help restore balance to how you are perceived in your work mode. Using video to let your team or your customers peek through the crack of the open door, is a useful strategy to connect with people on a more personal level. Frankly, it’s good for you too. Connecting with people is good for your heart and your soul.

Hard Boiled Eggs Have Hearts Of Gold

Barack Obama did this well during his presidency. He humanised himself by producing the West Wing Week show. He opened his office to the nation. The people got to see Obama family life. I’m not suggesting CEO’s need to do this but a few short videos about things that light you up outside of office hours, and how they energise you, these videos can add to the energy and  purpose of your business.

And resist the impulse to be perfect.

Have you ever heard of the Pratfall Effect? 

A pratfall is a cinematic/comedic act where someone takes a fall and lands on their bum. Very slapstick to watch and very hard to master. Watch the old Buster Keaton movies to see it done artfully. The Pratfall Effect is a psychological term for what happens when we see someone who is usually very competent, make a blunder.

The counter-intuitive effect is that it increases the person’s likeability…

they appear slightly more human, their fallibility makes them seem more approachable. In advertising it’s called the blemishing effect. (1) Note: if you are incompetent to begin with and you do something incompetent then you are still seen as incompetent, if not more so.

If you are seen as a leader, a person of authority in the eyes of your intended video audience, then doing everything you can to cover up your imperfections, to slavishly maintain your perceived persona, may not be as important or beneficial for you as you imagine. 

 


 

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratfall_effect   https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110711111932.htm

Include one of these Bios

 

Short Speaker Bio 30 words

Julian Mather is a world class videographer turned smartphone video evangelist. His simple message: you win more business with a smartphone and a smile in the 2020’s www.julianmather.com

 

Medium Speaker Bio 95 words

Julian Mather has seen the world through many lenses. Through a telescopic sight as an army sniper. Through the TV lens as a globe-trotting videographer for ABCTV, National Geographic and BBC. Through smoke and mirrors as a professional magician.

He's traveled far but his longest journeys have been from behind the camera to in front of it. From stutterer to professional speaker.

He is now a smartphone video evangelist, speaker, writer and chief agitator of the Business Video Rebellion and loves helping business master the missing business skill of video. www.julianmather.com

 

 

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