The limits of authenticity (part one of two)

Like most of my American communication friends, I cling hard to "authenticity" as the most important element of compelling leadership. But if something is 100 percent true, we wouldn't have to cling so hard.

For instance, one thing we know about authenticity is: A speech on a subject you feel personally invested in will be a better speech than one on a subject you don't own. I've given both kinds of speeches, and I know it's true. When I speak on strategic executive communication, I am knowledgeable. When I speak on beautiful speeches, I am me—and I find audiences like me more than they like knowledge.

That's well and good for me and a lot of other "leaders," who can to a great extent pick and choose what they talk about. Even a CEO can focus her talks in areas where she's particularly strong—if she's an engineer, she speaks mostly on technology; if she's a manager, she talks about the corporate culture. (I encourage this, in my knowledgeable talks on strategic executive communication.)

But here we have Bernie Sanders, who speaks enthusiastically and articulately about economics and social justice. But as Chris Cilizza pointed out in yesterday's Washington Post, we've barely heard from him since the attacks in Paris last month. Why? Cuz the personal connection that he has for domestic economics, he doesn't have for foreign affairs.

I've seen this in President Obama a number of times—and maybe it's part of what so many people complained about during his lackluster Oval Office speech Sunday night. The first time I saw it clearly was at a shared press conference years ago with the Afghan president Hamid Karzai. Karzai was talking, and Obama had a look on his face that said, "Bitch, I ran for president on a social justice and opportunity ticket, and here I am a couple years into my presidency playing polite political grab-ass with a bastard in a long green dress who's the puppet-head of a corrupt country in a morass of a region where 'yes we can,' is more like, 'I'm not holding my breath.'"

A president can't be on his game every day, but whatever seems urgent to the country must appear to be urgent to him—emotionally, as well as intellectually. That's a lot to ask, and maybe it's one of the hardest things we do ask of a president. As authentic as you are, Bernie Sanders, I don't think you've got it. And Ronald Reagan, a Hollywood actor, had it in all over.

Let's meet back here tomorrow and talk about Stanford business professor Jeffrey Pfeffer, who criticizes the "leadership industry" for propagating a psychologically pleasing myth that authenticity is all we need.

Comments

[Glynn]

I watched the President's speech Sunday night, because I wanted to see it for myself and not be subjected to how both CNN and Fox News would interpret it. I had the impression that he simply didn't want to be giving it, that he was told by his advisors he had to and it was something he just had to get through. The one thing that was jarring was his use of "ISIL," when everyone else says "ISIS" or "IS." He made sure that people listening knew he was saying "ISIL" and not "ISIS" and he said it over and over again.

[David Murray]

Yep, I had just the same feeling, Glynn. Third Oval Office address in seven years, and we get ... this?

As I'm sure you know, the president uses ISIL vs. ISIS for the same very good reason you don't say North Dakota when you mean the Dakotas. The distinction seems academic and pedantic to some of us ... but it wouldn't grate on the nerves if the president didn't seem so academic and pedantic on this matter himself.

I greatly admire President Obama's calm, and his unflappable long-term vision and refusal to wrestle with pigs (because you both get muddy and the pig likes it).

But when people are scared, it's not enough to say you're going about things in a systematic way that will eliminate the threat in 20 years. If you're going to say a thing like that because it's undeniably and unavoidably true, you at least have to show up with, "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

Or at the very least, a "Yes we can."

My man isn't showing up with that on this issue, and it's disappointing.

[Rod Thorn]

I think the theme of his speech should have been "protection." And it should have been in two parts.

First, on the domestic front, he should have made an even stronger plea for gun legislation and ask citizens to organize and mobilize so they can put pressure on the do-and-know-nothing Congress to take meaningful action so we can ALL BE PROTECTED.

Second, on the international front, he should have made an even stronger plea to broaden and deepen the coalition against Daesh, and ask foreign citizens to organize and mobilize so they can put pressure on their do-and-know-nothing governments to take meaningful action so we can ALL BE PROTECTED (including Muslims).

Our citizenry is on edge, operating out of lizard-brain instincts for survival. The last thing they want is a completely dispassionate and professorial tutorial on how much we've already done and will continue to do. They want to be PROTECTED. Metaphorically speaking, our citizens have a gun pointed at them and the president is saying, "Don't worry, all will be fine." When what they really want is for the president to throw himself in front of them, take the gunman down, and make sure no one else can come with a gun to take them down.

I thought that he, the parent of two children, could've taken the authentic passion he must feel for protecting his own children and projected it onto our citizenry. They wanted it. And they needed it.

Perhaps the president is playing a larger, more strategic game that I can't comprehend. I certainly hope so. Because lizard brains everywhere are saying, "Must. Seek. Shelter." But they really want to be saying, "Bud. Wei. Ser."

[David Murray]

Rod, to this righteous analysis, I'd add only one point: Once assured that everything is being done to protect them, Americans must also be asked to show courage.

A lot of foolishness has been committed under the false promise to "keep Americans safe," a phrase President Bush and Chaney and all those guys used a lot, in a hundred different forms.

The phrase is at least two lies in one. "Keep," pretends we're safe now. "Safe" is an absolute term, and that's bullshit too. And it encourages the kind of government-as-mommy and citizens-as-babies nonsense that Republicans are supposed to hate.

American citizens deserve leaders who enlist us as partners in keeping America safe, not as quivering children expecting Donald Trump or anybody else to bomb all the world's danger and problems away.

If I were President Obama, those would be the lines I'd be thinking along. But he wasted a big chance Sunday night, and I'm not sure when or if his next play will be staged.

[Rod Thorn]

Agree with all, David.

Hopefully we're not too apathetic to rise to an "ask not" challenge if it's presented to us. But first it has to be presented.