Leadership Communication Lessons from Last Night's State of the Union

Any good athletic coach worth their salt knows the importance of going back after a game or match and watching “the tape.” It’s a chance to watch the game again more objectively, to see what key lessons can be learned in order to perform even better next time.

In general, watching the game footage can provide four different types of lessons, each of equal value:

1. What did our team/player do well? What should we do more of next time?
2. What did our team/player do poorly? What do we need to work on improving or find an alternative?
3. What did our opponent do well? Can we take a page from them and add a new play to our playbook?
4. What did our opponent do poorly? How can we take precaution so as not to make similar mistakes, and/or how can we – with integrity – exploit that weakness in future matches?

In the same fashion, political debates and speeches provide a similar opportunity and easy case study in the “sport” of leadership communication.

And just as an athletic coach would give credit to the opponent for a well-executed play, and recognize where her own team fell short, it’s equally important as leaders to be able to watch the performance of our political leaders – regardless of whether or not you agree with their claims or vision – to ascertain what communication plays they executed well and which they did not..

So with that, I’m offering a brief APOLITICAL “post-mortem” analysis of the speech performances in last night’s State Of The Union address by President Biden, AND of the subsequent Republican Response by Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, to share just a few of the lessons we can all take from the evening to be more effective communicators and overall better leaders.

(NOTE: I’m going to offer four key take-aways, following the four lesson types outlined above, but without correlation to the “our team”/ “our opponent” contrast. I have no horse in this race, and will merely address President Biden’s performance first since he spoke first.)

1.????Biden Strength: Use of rhetorical “signposting”

Signposting is use of a transitional phrase that signals to the listener, “Hey, pay attention to what I’m about to say!” Team Biden had a handful of consistently rotated signposts that acted like a yellow highlighter to whatever comment followed them. They included:

• “And by the way…”
• “And guess what?”
• “Think about it.”
• “Here’s the deal.”
• “Look…”
• “… Not anymore.”

Official call:

• Simple, conversational, and effective. Touchdown.

2.????Biden Weakness: Anonymous “third-partying”

In discussing Medicare and social security, President Biden made the allegation that “some Republicans want Medicare and social security to sunset,” which, unsurprisingly, was met with a chorus of boos from the Republican side of the chamber.

He then hedged the claim, saying, “I’m not saying it’s the majority of you.” When the jeers didn’t subside, he walked it back further with “I don’t even think it’s a significant… but it’s being proposed by some individuals. I’m politely not naming them.”

This last comment was the most destructive to his credibility on this point. “Politely” not naming the person or people who are supposedly proposing something so incendiary without explicit and available substantiation just throws the rest of the party under the bus.

Official call:

• Anonymous hearsay lacks integrity, reducing an argument to pure gossip. Fumble with turnover.

3.????Huckabee Sanders Strength: Establishing Points of Relatability

From the very first sentence, Governor Huckabee Sanders explicitly stated her role not only as a political leader, but as a mother of young children. This identity facet helps many in her core constituency group see her as “one of us.”

It shows she’s not just powerful as a successfully elected official, but she’s relatable, having the same concerns and choices about her children’s well-being and future as other families. It follows former President Bill Clinton’s “I feel your pain” angle. Shared experiences promote mutual understanding and empathy, which breeds trust.

(Of course, President Biden did this too, most effectively when addressing the parents of Tyre Nichols in the audience, and articulating the bond they shared related to the incomparable pain of having lost a child, albeit in very different ways.)

Official call:

• Establishing mutual connection with the audience through a common experience: Extra point for team Huckabee Sanders, as it was a basic reference, mentioned a few times. (The power of the specific example of a parent losing a child would get team Biden a 2-point conversion.)

4.????Huckabee Sanders Weakness: Personal Attacks and Name-Calling

This was the most disappointing part of the night. Although many of her counter-claims contrasted President Biden’s statements in a predictably standard way (e.g. whether the economic rebound was strongest before or after his administration took office), on multiple occasions Team Huckabee Sanders went straight to name-calling.

And for someone who led with the “parent of young children” identity, aren’t we as parents supposed to teach our kids not to do that?

Three times in fifteen minutes she came right out and called the Democratic perspective “crazy”:

-??????“The divide used to be between right and left; now it’s between normal and crazy.”

-??????“In Washington, The Biden administration is doubling down on crazy.”

-??????“(they want to) strip away your freedom of speech. That’s not normal, it’s crazy, and it’s wrong.”

What ever happened to “attack the argument, not the person”? Drawing a binary divide that implies “You either think like us, or you’re crazy" (and thus your opinions - and ostensibly you as a person - are not worthy of respect or consideration) only serves to drive the wedge further into an already fragile population.

And I really, really want to believe we are better than that.

A leader for one in an organization is the leader for all in the organization, and should lead by example, treating – and speaking to – all members with respect.

Official call:

Subjective name-calling (with a sprinkle of fear-mongering) lacks integrity, and arguably is not good role model behavior for small children or adults: Personal foul, targeting, 15-yard penalty, under review for ejection from (leadership communication) game.

It was, overall, a rather uninspiring night, speech-wise. (And I didn’t even have a chance to get into Biden’s finger-scolding or Huckabee Sanders’ general delivery that made Hillary Clinton seem warm and fuzzy.)

BUT –

The good news is that there is TONS of food for thought and super-valuable take away lessons that we can all learn from both speakers, regardless of whether we’d ever vote for either person or sooner relinquish our citizenship and move to Antarctica.

Leadership at its core should be about integrity, in word and in action.

Einstein purportedly said, “The only rational way to educate is to be an example. A warning example, if one can’t be the other sort.”

President Biden and Governor Huckabee Sanders: thanks for the great lessons last night.