Julia Gillard ‘Robotic and rehearsed’

An interesting article in The Age newspaper about Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s speeches and public speaking which echos what I’ve been saying for some time.
While message management and media management are important skills for those in the public eye, you need to throw us some scraps of authentic and natural.
The key skill is message management, not gesture management.
Kevin Rudd fell into the same trap. In the beginning he seemed strong and in control with his slow, forceful sound bites. But after a while it seemed forced (fake) and robotic and we found it difficult to connect with him and it became easier to believe the negative stories about him.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is at her best when she just chats to us. You don’t have to go off message, you just need to remove some of the body amour when speaking in public.