Leaders, trust and the power of words
By Nathaniel Glassman, Class of Spring 21
I can easily group every job I have ever had into two distinct piles. One pile is full of good jobs and the other is full of bad ones. As I sort through my memories of old jobs, it takes a split second to determine which pile each one belongs to. How am I able to judge the quality of each job so quickly? The answer is simple: if my bosses and managers were fair, honest and diligent, it was a good job; if the leadership was petty, surreptitious and lazy, it was a bad job. Great leadership is essential in most situations. This may seem like a grandiose statement, but I assure you it is not. Leadership is present in everything from kindergarten teachers to the federal government. And a fundamental aspect of leadership — one that can lead to the success or failure of an organization — is communication.
Canada is well on its way to start mass vaccinations. This means that the country (and the world) will undergo more massive and unpredictable changes. It is the responsibility of leaders, in every position of power, to aid those they lead in overcoming these changes. This may take the form of tackling vaccine hesitancy. It may be the introduction of hybrid work. Either way, leaders are responsible for communicating these changes with transparency and compassion.
The problem is, this is easier said than done. And worse yet, if done irresponsibly, the effects can be devastating.
Think of Donald Trump’s inciting of the riot on Capitol Hill that occurred January 6, 2021. This is an example of the power of leadership communication at its worst. In his speech before the insurrection, Trump said, “And we fight. We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” Words have power. If they are communicated by someone with power, the consequences can be deadly.
On the other hand, there are leaders like Prime Minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern and the President of Taiwan Tsai Ing-Wen. These two leaders’ decisiveness and willingness to work with — not against — experts has resulted in the two countries having effectively shut down COVID-19 domestically.
(On the subject of words having power, Taiwan is its own country.)
In a New York Times article titled Why Are Women-Led Nations Doing Better With Covid-19? by Amanda Taub, Jacinda Ardern’s address to the citizens of New Zealand is described. Amanda Taub writes, “Ms. Ardern addressed the nation via a casual Facebook Live session she conducted on her phone after putting her toddler to bed. Dressed in a cozy-looking sweatshirt, she empathized with citizens’ anxieties and offered apologies to anyone who was startled or alarmed by the emergency alert that announced the lockdown order.” This is a stark contrast to Trump’s style of antiquated machismo leadership. It was not only Prime Minister Ardern’s words that impacted her communication as a leader, but her openness and willingness to show vulnerability via her clothing and address-from-home. This displayed a tremendous amount of empathy and relatability to the citizens of New Zealand.
Inspiring and exemplary leadership is not a skill that everyone possesses. This is where we, as communicators, come in. We have an enormous responsibility to ensure that whoever we work for or represent is communicating with truth, virtue and compassion. And my goodness do we have our work cut out for ourselves. Trust in leadership is not inherent.
In the essay Up, Simba, David Foster Wallace writes, “in this post-Watergate-post-Iran-Contra-post-Whitewater-post-Lewinsky era, an era in which politicians’ statements of principle or vision are understood as self-serving ad copy and judged not for their truth or ability to inspire but for their tactical shrewdness, their marketability. And no generation has been marketed and spun and pitched to as relentlessly as today’s demographic Young.” Mind you, this essay was written before social media existed, but there is tremendous truth in this quote. Trust in leadership must be earned. More than that, people are not inherently willing to trust those in positions of great power, nor should they be. There have been more than enough examples — this past year, alone — of why this is true.
Communication is the most essential and ubiquitous means of building trust to and from leaders. One would be hard-pressed to find a time when the method, content and delivery of a message from leaders to their employees, constituents or what have you did not affect the relationship between the two parties. It can be boiled down to as simple of a statement as this: how you speak or are spoken to dictates your relationships.
This is why scrubbing dishes by hand, back bent at a 90 degree angle over a tub of oily water was one of the best jobs I have ever worked. My managers never asked me to do anything that they were not willing to do themselves. They immediately welcomed me as a friend and a valued member of the team, while joking amicably about the crappy reality of washing dishes. They spoke to me with kindness and candour. We trusted one another. Great leaders show up in life at the most unexpected times and they have the power — cognizant of it, or not — to motivate and inspire those around them. Even if that just means making dishwashing somewhat less horrible.
