Rebel with a cause and a sweater: How Fred Rogers' “thought leadership” built a legacy (Part 2)

Part Two

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In his historic testimony to a Senate Committee poised to halve the Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s budget, and in each day of his life, Fred Rogers’ mission was clear: First, to help children navigate their feelings about a challenging – and sometimes frightening – world. And second, to help each child recognize they are unique and valued. How did he deliver those messages so effectively that, nearly two decades after his death, he is celebrated more than ever before? And what can professional persuaders learn from this legendary figure? 

Fred Rogers was able to achieve a legacy because he had a clear mission and strategy to achieve it. He elevated others, never himself. He was ruthlessly disciplined and relentless. And he had a streak of rebelliousness – intentional or not – that jolted adult audiences to attention. These are the elements of “thought leadership” and understanding them will help you learn how to conduct it yourself.

The mission

The most important lesson to learn from Fred Rogers’ thought leadership is the importance of a clear mission. If you listen carefully to interviews with Rogers, you will hear various versions of it. For example, this statement is featured in the must-watch documentary “Won’t You Be My Neighbor”:

Children have very deep feelings, just the way parents do; just the way everybody does. And our striving to understand those feelings and to better respond to them is, what I feel, a most important task… I feel that if we in public television can only make it clear that feelings are mentionable and manageable, we will have done a great service for mental health.

Rogers found the idea that children ought to be seen and not heard, and that their feelings were somehow less substantial than adults, unacceptable. He believed that validating their feelings was the most important step in helping them navigate a difficult world and becoming a happy adult. “When we can talk about our feelings, they become less overwhelming, less upsetting and less scary,” he said. The other strand that ran through his mission was the idea of helping children feel good about themselves — just as they are — as opposed to what they might (or might not) achieve.

Everything you saw on "Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood," in Rogers' Senate testimony, and in his many commencement speeches and interviews, laddered to this mission. He spoke respectfully and honestly to children about their feelings about divorce, war, illness, death – all the things parents are woe to discuss with them. He validated their feelings about routine or difficult matters, and he spoke to their caretakers – parents, politicians and those in the entertainment industry – about the need to do the same.

As Tom Junod wrote in Esquire, in a piece that would ultimately inspire this year’s feature film starring Tom Hanks, Rogers viewed television both as a medium to bring his mission to life and as an adversary. “He was strong enough to enter into battle with that — that machine, that medium,” Junod wrote. “And to wrestle with it until it yielded to him.”

What is your mission? If it is only to sell something, or to damage the viability of a competitor, you are not a thought leader. If your mission is to bring change that will improve the lives of your fellow human beings – including potentially your customers – you might be a thought leader. You should think deeply about this question before attempting to engage in mass persuasion. 

The strategy

If your mission in life is help children deal with their feelings, you can’t very well exclude any child. That’s why Rogers’ strategy was to use the most powerful medium available to him – television – in such a way that his message appealed to every single child, no exceptions. Fred Rogers’ strategy was completely, consistently, and obsessively inclusive. He understood that television can be an intimate form of communication and he didn’t want a single child to feel that he was not speaking personally to them. That’s why the ordained Presbyterian minister, who prayed every morning, never mentioned his religious faith on his program. "I think Fred was very adamant that he didn’t want any viewer — child or adult — to feel excluded from the neighborhood," Junlei Li, co-director of the Fred Rogers Center at St. Vincent College told the Religion News Service. (Photo below: Fred Rogers with guest Jeff Erlanger, in 1981.) 

"Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" also featured children and adults from all walks of life, each treated with the same kindness and dignity. He wanted children see themselves reflected – a technique now broadly used on television. This powerful strategy of inclusion is a key ingredient to Fred Rogers’ lasting influence. The lesson is clear: if you are to engage in thought leadership, you need a thoughtful strategy that is directly connected to your mission.

Elevating others

One of the most famous moments of Fred Rogers’ life was his acceptance of a Lifetime Achievement Emmy on September 14, 1997. Taking the stage at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, surrounded by some of the most attractive and celebrated people in the entertainment industry, Rogers spoke not about himself but about others to whom he was grateful, and called for the audience to do the same. “All of us have special ones who have loved us into being,” Rogers said. “Would you just take, along with me, 10 seconds to think of the people who have helped you become who you are? Those who have cared about you and wanted what was best for you in life. Ten seconds of silence. I’ll watch the time.” In the must-watch clip of this speech, you can see the impact he had, in real-time, on the actors in the front rows.

The theme of elevating others runs through Rogers’ entire career. His program always celebrated and complimented his guests, from globally known concert performers to children with severe disabilities. Off the air, Rogers was known to consistently change the topic of conversations from himself to whomever he was speaking. This not only reflected excellent manners, it was a form of thought leadership. The purpose of persuasion is ultimately to serve people – to achieve a change that will benefit them. You don’t achieve that by talking about yourself and/or your business. You talk about others, especially those directly in front of you. When you engage in thought leadership, elevate the stories of those who have commonalities with your audience. Celebrate their achievements and communicate concern about those who face roadblocks you want to smash.

Disciplined and relentless

One of Fred Rogers’ oddest personality traits may have been his secret weapon: incredible discipline. He woke at the same time each day, swam the same distance, and ensured he weighed the same, 143 pounds, for most of his adult life. His program and advocacy were just as disciplined: they always carried messages that accrued to his mission. He was also relentless. “He wrote or co-wrote all the scripts for the program — all 33 years of it,” a friend, Jeanne Marie Laskas, explained in the New York Times. According to Fred Rogers Productions, he produced 895 episodes, for which he composed more than 200 songs and created 14 characters.

Because Fred Rogers was relentless, reaching millions through television wasn’t enough. He carried versions of his message to children and adults everywhere he traveled, whether he spoke to an audience of hundreds or to a single person. The film “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood” is inspired, in fact, on the real-life instance in which Fred Rogers, who was to be interviewed by a tough and cynical reporter from Esquire, became more interested in learning about his questioner. He saw a damaged person, who used to be a child, and needed to be healed. The friendship they forged lasted until Rogers' death.

Fred Rogers never stopped, and neither should you if you want to be a thought leader. Yet too many advisers to aspiring thought leaders recommend picking media interviews strategically and sparsely. That only makes sense if you are entertaining more media interviews than you can handle — which means you may already be a thought leader. If you desire to be one, you should speak, at least initially, with nearly any media outlet that will listen. You will also tweet; you will post on LinkedIn; and you will speak to audiences large and small, because you are relentless. Eventually you may achieve such a level of stature that will require you to cut back on engagements.

Fred Rogers the rebel

A genuine thought leader is unhappy with the state of the world today and a little angry that change is not coming faster. That’s why they relish in rattling a few cages to get peoples’ attention. Fred Rogers, the mild-mannered minister, possessed this personality trait more than you might suspect. Perhaps the best example was his response to racism on May 9, 1969 – just over a week after his groundbreaking appearance in Washington, DC, to oppose budget cuts to PBS. In “Won’t You Be My Neighbor,” Francois Clemmons, known as Officer Clemmons in “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” explained that, “Around the country, [white people] didn’t want black people to come and swim in their swimming pools and Fred said, ‘That is absolutely ridiculous.’ My being on the program was a statement for Fred.”

Clemmons, an African-American, goes on to explain that during that time, when many public pool owners were still operating segregated facilities despite the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Rogers responded. PBS viewers tuned in to see him invite Clemmons to share a kiddie pool in which he was resting his feet. “Cool water on a hot day,” Rogers remarks, looking up, with an unmistakably mischievous glare, directly into the camera. Rogers looks directly into the eyes of Americans – an act of righteous rebellion – as if to say, “This, my friends, is how you should treat your neighbors.” This was far from the only example of Rogers’ rebelliousness. His love for children meant he was angry about injustices that threatened them, from racism to irresponsible violence in children’s programming. These emotions came through subtly on his program and overtly when he spoke to adults (Photo below: "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," May 9, 1969).

What can you learn from Fred Rogers' rebelliousness? At least a smidgen of indignation is an essential element of true thought leadership. As the saying goes, you have to crack a few eggs in order to make an omelet. Are you as willing to go after threats to your audience as you are to blaze a positive path forward? A If yes, your thought leadership will create the tension you need to command the attention of your audiences.

Applying the Fred Rogers approach to thought leadership

Fred Rogers believed that, “Imagining something may be the first step in making it happen, but it takes the real time and real efforts of real people to learn things, make things, turn thoughts into deeds or visions into inventions.” This idea also applies to any effort to drive thought leadership – and in fact, “turning thoughts into deeds” is also a great definition of the process.

If you want to try your hand at using words to change the world, you would be well to do it the Fred Rogers way. Have a mission and a strategy. Elevate others. Be disciplined; be relentless; and nurture your rebelliousness. If you can take these steps, you may be able to make life a little more beautiful for people in your neighborhood and beyond. 

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Required reading:

• Rebel with a cause and a sweater: How Fred Rogers' “thought leadership” built a legacy (Part 1)
• CAN YOU SAY...“HERO”? by Tom Junod in Esquire, 1998
• My Friend Mister Rogers by Tom Junod in the Atlantic, 2019

Required viewing:

• Fred Rogers accepts Lifetime Achievement Emmy, 1997
• Kidde pool scene in "Won't you be my neighbor," Focus Films. 2018

Special thanks to Kristin Alexander for editing this article.