Here’s a message I sent to my private mailing list today. I haven’t blogged in a while so I thought I’d share something. If you like it, you can join over 100 other people (or 144 to be exact) who receive an email from me once a month. The sign up link is here. Enjoy.
Happy 2017 folks!
Hope your new year celebrations go well. It’s only 6pm in the UK so we have another six hours to go, and I figured I could squeeze in one more email before the year ends.
This year, I’ve read so many interesting books (37 in total but I was aiming for 50), and it’s hard to recommend one must-read, but out of the all the books, I think the most relevant — given what happened politically in 2016 — has to be “Lessons from the Top: the Three Universal Stories that all Successful Leaders Tell.” In a nutshell, the book’s key message is this (emphasis mine):
“…every leader begins with a personal story, a way of answering the question ‘Who am I?’ Lady Gaga tells us repeatedly that she was the weird kid at school, though she also turned out to be highly driven and creative. She describes herself as ‘a freak, a maverick, a lost soul looking for peers’. Secondly, every leader’s story involves a group narrative, a way of explaining ‘Who are we?’ In Lady Gaga’s case ‘we’ are the outsiders. She calls her fans ‘my little monsters’, and in her leadership story she is ‘Mama Monster’ who keeps in touch with her offspring on Facebook and Twitter. Thirdly, all leaders offer a collective mission, the answer to the question ‘Where are we going?’ or ‘What is our common purpose?’ Lady Gaga tells her followers that together they can change the world. She promotes a positive message about gay rights. This ‘leadership projection’ is what most of us would call storytelling.”
Notice how Lady Gaga can be replaced with any influential leader, regardless of whether they are deemed ‘good’ or ‘evil’.
For example, Trump’s leadership projection was this:
- Who I’m I? A pragmatic and successful business man. I’m a winner. In fact I’m so good at winning that despite several bankruptcies I made a comeback. (Notice Hillary’s team lost her “who I’m I” narrative to scandalous and oftentimes unfounded accusations.)
- Who are we? Patriotic Americans. And you know what, “I’m with you!” (Notice Hillary’s message was “I’m with her”, making it more about her and not the people.)
- Where are we going? We will return America to its former glory. (Notice Hillary’s destination narrative was unclear.)
We saw something similar with Brexit and history has more examples yet it’s easy to forget a potent lesson: you can’t win with facts alone. We’re moved by a compelling narrative. We’re moved by stories. We’re moved by emotion. Credibility or facts come last.
Masters of persuasion know how to weild powerful stories to advance their agenda. My signoff message for 2016 (and my biggest lesson for the year) is that you should watch out for these tactics in the coming year. There will be important facts and issues that lose ground due to ineffective storytelling. And likewise, there will be trivial and oftentimes straight-out lies that pick up momentum thanks to powerful storytelling. Don’t get caught out if you’re a follower. And if you’re a leader, remember the tool you have at your disposal. Use it wisely.
Michael