What do Nigel Farage and Russell Brand have in common?
Last night’s BBC Question Time was one of the most interesting, raucous and compelling broadcasts I’ve seen in a very long time. Aside from David Dimbleby’s superb management of an at times seemingly uncontrollable audience, there was the fantastic spectacle of two mainstream MP’s staring in stunned silence as Russell Brand and Nigel Farage said, wait for it……exactly what they thought.
Mordaunt and Creagh looked perplexed, uncomfortable and horrified at the passionate communication of genuine, deeply held beliefs that both of these men were delivering and the effect was brilliant.
The audience were not only indulging in sometimes angry exchanges with each other, but also forthrightly putting their views to the panel. Rarely have I seen such engagement in political debate.
What Farage and Brand have in common is that they hold deeply personal views and, crucially, are not afraid to announce them, powerfully, succinctly and with a fervour that is lacking in almost all political communications of the last 20 years.
This led me to think about the highest profile business leaders of our time, those that truly stand out amongst the also-rans. I came to a surprising conclusion, lot’s of people don’t like them. Some even hate them. These leaders don’t care, because they know that there are also lots of people who positively love them, their brands and their products. They don’t want to be nice, or acceptable or OK. They want to tell the world what they are passionate about and it’s up to the rest of the world whether they agree or not.
When you speak to your people do they look bored? Do they look at you like you’re going through the motions, giving them the fluffy, PR officer approved message with no substance, or worse that you don’t believe what you are saying? Do your customers?
If you simply say what you believe, truthfully, passionately, you’ll never need a set of notes or a Communications Director again.
Jeff Bezos doesn’t care that lots of people hate Amazon, because he knows millions love it and he sticks to the mission, the place where you can buy anything. Jack Welch didn’t care that the senior team at GE hated him when he put the customers and staff first and closed every executive washroom. Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t care that millions of people hate Facebook because millions love it, and they love it even more than they love their privacy. Michael Ryan doesn’t care that Ryanair has had more bad press than any airline in history, he just tells you it’s cheap, and what more do you want?
Too many businesses, like mainstream political parties, are trying to manage a mediocre image, with a broad reach vanilla product or service, with dull employees who don’t rock the boat and just regurgitate the tedious mission statement to bored clients. These are not great businesses, memorable businesses, loved businesses, because they haven’t taken a position and communicated a heartfelt belief.
Businesses and you, their leaders, must take the scary step of telling the world what they really, truly, believe in and guess what? lots of people might not like it, some will even hate it, but you don’t need everyone to think your business is OK, satisfactory, nice, you just need some people to love it, to engage with it and to propagate that message to their friends.
Now wouldn’t that make your business a much more interesting, engaging and fun place to work?