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By most accounts,
President Bush’s choice Ben S. Bernanke as the next Fed Chairman is
a worthy successor to Alan Greenspan. But when Bernanke takes
office, it almost certainly will end what most agree has been
Greenspan’s frustrating practice of being almost impossible to
understand.
According to
recent news accounts, Bernanke differs from Greenspan in that he
is widely considered to be a plain-speaker.
For example, when
attempting to explain how to keep inflation to around 2 percent, Bernanke said he embraced a “Goldilocks
theory -- not too hot, not too cold.” That's a nice simple analogy,
especially compared to phrases like “irrational exuberance” that
made Greenspan’s language so opaque.
Or
consider Bernanke’s contention, described recently in the
New York Times, that fighting stock market bubbles by raising
interest rates is ineffective and might harm the economy. “One
might as well try to perform brain surgery with a sledge hammer,”
Bernanke said. Another nice analogy that does the trick.
In our
mind, the best leaders always speak with clarity. Leaders
should motivate and influence.
You can’t do that if you can’t be understood.
So
here’s hoping that Bernanke will tutor us all in how to speak simply
about complex things like interest rates and other economic
issues.
At Speechworks we
help our clients learn how to communicate in a way that connects and
persuades. If you’re interested in becoming a great communicator
give us a call at 404-266-0888 or check out our website at
www.speechworks.net |
