Speak in Persona, or not

Launch a 1,000 Ships

When in a leadership position, words spoken can be very important. That has been the traditional thought, at least.

One of the things that I learned early on is that individuals often have multiple voices (personas) that need to be differentiated. At times, care needs to be taken to declare which voice you are using.

For example, I was over the architecture group of a software company. I frequently reminded my architects to speak precisely. One associate worked for me that was very familiar with many different database platforms. Our company was a (pure) Microsoft shop, using Microsoft SQL Server. One day, we were troubleshooting a performance issue and he commented about how Oracle handles this problem. What people heard was we’re changing to Oracle (some like, some not liked). In reality, he was just drawing on his experience and brainstorming various solutions. But because of his position and perceived authority, it was taken as a direction change.

Infallibility

Interesting, the Catholic Church has long since developed a methodology to address this very concern. The Pope can be these and any number personas:

• Extraordinary Papal Magisterium
  This is often call speaking from the “Chair of Peter”. This is the voice of full apostolic authority. This is so rare it has only be invoked twice in the church history.
• Ordinary Papal Magisterium
  I think of this as when the Pope teaches or speaks as the “CEO of the Catholic Church”. His message should be respected and considered. This is the most common voice.
• As an Individual
  The Pope is still just a guy that has interests, thoughts, and wisdom as an individual, not necessarily reflecting the Church as a whole.

As an example of the last one, Joseph Ratzinger (when he was Pope Benedict XVI) wrote several history books about the early church. Even though both names are on it (Ratzinger is the author, the Pope B16 was listed to help sales), it is definitively published by the individual.

Then There’s Trump

Love him or hate him, he causes confusion constantly on which voice he uses. That might be a strategy or just his style. Either way, he follows his own path.

Donald J. Trump has many personas that he simultaneously invokes:

• President of the United States of America
• Leader of his Party
• Everyday guy

I think his use of Twitter has created this blend of voices where in the same breadth he can be “Leader of the Free World” and a “Guy you’re talking to at the Bar”.

At least with Twitter, he could have used @POTUS and @realDonaldTrump to switch hats. He has that down that to a certain degree but it’s clearly not a strategy.

Regardless of your opinion of the man, he has been the first president to have a direct line of communication to the people…and yes without a filter.