Tips from Parliamentary appearances

This morning, Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin appeared in front of the Senate Committee into Environment and Communications to investigate the national outage last week.

There have been a string of CEOs that have appeared in front of inquiries (e.g. major bank CEOs, Qantas's Alan Joyce, PwC CEO, former PwC CEO, and various other executives).

I thought I would share with you some tips and tricks for any executives appearing in front of a Parliamentary Inquiry.

Parliamentary Inquiries are set up to investigate, empower or defer an issue. They can be quite challenging forums for executives as you are on the back foot in responding to questions, rather than directing the presentation. 

Tips for appearances:

1. Stay cool, calm and collected — some members will provoke you, stay professional and respond to the questions thoughtfully, even to combative arguments.

2. Have a brief opening statement — 3-5 minutes in length, to help anchor the issues. It can often be off-putting to see executives asked to 'wrap up' their responses when they are off track, so make sure that your statement is on point and succinct.

3. Dress appropriately — committee members get riled by executives who wear high end fashion, as it signals an executive out of touch with the common person. This is not a beauty parade!  

4. Take Questions on Notice — It is a good idea for executives to have the facts and figures at their finger tips. But if you're not sure, don't lie or mislead a committee — this can be found in contempt of Parliament and carries a criminal offence. So commit to coming back to them in the coming week.

5. Familiarise with members of the Committee — read their biographies and familiarise their issues of concern and questioning style. Example, are they coming from a pro-consumer perspective? pro-small business perspective? or are they political point scoring? 

6. Practice, practice, practice! — hold mock sessions where you practice friendly and hostile questions, and ensure that each executive at the table knows what their responsibilities are (e.g. executive Jane Smith will take carriage of topic X).