What has happened to that self-restraint in the expression of emotion; that stiff upper lip that is associated with strong leadership? As more and more high profile individuals are caught in the act of cracking under pressure are we witnessing the emergence of a new age in leadership?
In December 2009 we saw the COP15 self appointed chairman and Danish Premier, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, nearly in tears as he spoke about his frustration over the failure of delegates to reach an accord.
In January Alistair Campbell, Labour’s ex-communications chief, was seen struggling to keep his emotions in check as he was grilled by the Chilcott inquiry over Tony Blair’s decision to join the US and ‘go to war’ against Iraq. And we also saw Britain’s number one tennis player, Andy Murray, break down in front of the cameras after loosing to Spain’s Raphael Nadal at the Australian Tennis Open.
Then in February Gordon Brown’s lower lip was seen to quiver on Piers Morgan’s ITV chat show when the conversation shifted onto the subject of how he and his wife had dealt with the tragedy of losing their first child.
It’s obvious that a tearful woman isn’t news; all the above examples, that hit the headlines, are male. However it’s ironic that just as leaders, who happen to be female, have begun to gain access to the boardroom by mastering their emotions, male leaders appear to have discovered them.
Does this mean that women can now wear their emotions on their sleeves? Oh, if only that were true; that would be a breakthrough for gender equality. But alas it is not so.
The only individual, in the examples above, to have benefited from his emotional outburst is Andy Murray. Is that because he is a sportsman rather than a ‘leader’? No, it is because his ‘tears’ were spontaneous and authentic and everybody who watch or listened to his speech after the match recognised that. In all other cases what we witnessed was staged to a greater or lesser extent in an effort to manipulate the audience to achieve a predetermined objective. But they weren’t fooling anyone.
The only people who can ‘fool’ an audience are professional actors. In this case the audience expects to be ‘fooled’ and are co-conspirators in the deception. But we do not want our leaders to deceive us; we just want them to lead us. This is especially so in the aftermath of the recession.
In challenging times it is a brave leader who asks for help. Many will have been given their role by companies who expect them to make a difference and make it quickly. The pressure is on and after a ‘honeymoon’ period they must announce how they will deliver on expectations. Decisions can only be based on information received and under pressure this often results in overambitious targets being set; was it realistic to expect 192 countries to sit around a table and truly buy in to global reduction targets for carbon emissions in just 12 days?
Some of the predicaments that our leaders are now facing are clearly too nebulous to handle by traditional methods. More time is required to understand the underlying problem and deliver workable solutions. But how do you retain customer loyalty in the interim, so that they do not switch allegiance and take their business and your profits elsewhere? Well it seems that if your tactics will not work on an intellectual level then forget the mind and go for the heart.
Surely it would be better to maintain ones integrity by seeking help in tackling the issues head on rather than trying to throw up an emotional smoke screen. The author J.M. Barrie wrote ‘Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes.’ You may remember that Barrie was the creator of Peter Pan. Peter was a boy who didn’t like what the adult world appeared to offer and so he refused to grow up. How many Peter Pan leaders do we have in business today?
So what might we see next? Toyota's chief executive, Akio Toyoda mopping tears away with a handkerchief at a press conference in an effort to save face over the never-ending stream of vehicle recalls? Or perhaps the ‘Wholesale Applications Community’ will be caught blowing raspberries of frustration at Apple as they fail to regain control of the Apps market?
Well there’s no point in crying over spilt milk. Personally I’d prefer to choose which product I want rather than having that choice taken away from me though emotional blackmail.
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