Communicating Shared Goals for Persuasiveness

Nick Maschari, senior vice president at Mission North

PARIS—President Emmanuel Macron set off a wave of criticism from his political opposition Wednesday by using a vulgar term to lash out at people who haven’t been vaccinated against Covid-19, framing their refusal to inoculate as a betrayal of French citizenship.

Matthew Dalton
Wall Street Journal

“The unvaccinated, I really want to annoy them. They undermine the solidity of a nation.

“When my freedom threatens that of others, I become irresponsible. An irresponsible person is no longer a citizen.”

Emmanuel Macron

Macron, arguably, might very well have had good reason to be triggered emotionally and lash out. Frustration and anger does that to people. Question is, was his communication helpful to his goals of getting more French citizens vaccinated? Or was there no goal, with Macron being very human and just blowing off steam?

He might not have noticed or cared that he came across as offensive to those he insulted, damaging his reputation, leadership capacity and the mission to inspire or persuade them to join their vaccinated citizens.

“Leaders are tasked with governing and leading in a highly-politicized, hyper-partisan environment. Substance matters a great deal, but tone and tactics in communicating their points of view and priorities often matter even more,” says Nick Maschari, a senior vice president at public relations firm, Mission North.

“Communicating with cultural sensitivity is hard, perhaps harder than ever because even within a single country like France or the United States, you have subcultural or regional cultural hallmarks that can supersede larger unifying national ones,” he says. “That phenomenon has made it harder for leaders, from Presidents Macron and Biden, to CEOs and other executives, to deliver one message that resonates with all their constituents.” 

Macron is in a difficult position of having to be assertive and communicate what isn’t palatable to part of his citizenry. The ‘how’ matters, like it or not. It’s not a simple task to understand different thinking and learn how to inspire extrinsic motivation or communicate in a way that acts as a catalyst for intrinsic action. It’s not impossible though.

“The best communicators and campaigners find ways to start with a shared belief or a shared sentiment,” Maschari says. “They acknowledge something that both sides fundamentally agree on. Without that initial shared truth or shared belief it's virtually impossible to move people toward an evolved or ultimately changed belief.”

It’s human nature, he says and understanding that is paramount to understanding how to best communicate and lead.

“We all experience this. We want to feel seen and heard, we want to have things we believe be acknowledged by those across the table from us before we open ourselves up to new information or having our minds changed,” Maschari says. “In sum, this accounting for shared beliefs is often missing because it's hard work for communicators. It requires empathy and marrying up the right message with the right messenger. There are certain messages or perspectives for which I would be an imperfect messenger for a variety of reasons. Leaders have to know when they or someone else is best positioned to be the voice that carries a particular message to a particular audience.”

Macron reached his emotional limit and clearly was frustrated and annoyed, thus he wanted to return the favor to those French he considers vaccine holdouts. Maybe his aggressive communication was meticulously planned. Whether it was or not, it can be debated that there may have been a more effective way to communicate important viewpoints in a manner that didn’t convey hostility, showing Macron as emotionally off balance and nasty.

His behavior was not that of the best leaders, Maschari says.

“Great leaders are able to compartmentalize,” he says. “They wall off personal frustrations, worries or concerns in service of the task at hand. That might be giving a performance review for an employee or a national address in times of crisis. Regardless of the circumstance, leaders have to use tone very intentionally or risk their message being muddled, or worse, outright dismissed.”

He explains that tone must align closely and intelligently to the content, with timing.

“This is true of tone that's overly positive or overly pessimistic,” Maschari says, adding “You lose credibility with your audience if your tone doesn't match the substance and the moment.”

It would have been more skilled, he asserts, for Macron, in addition to focusing on the big picture, to communicate in a civil manner to those who were upsetting him, to where they would be more receptive to listening and seriously thinking about his concerns for the collective benefit.

“He would have been better served by acknowledging those who remain unvaccinated are important to him, that he understands they might have lingering questions or concerns and he wants those concerns to be addressed in ways that work for them, not just him,” Maschari states. “Unfortunately, he's set up a ‘you're either with us or against us’ construct, which only draws brighter lines and makes it harder for people to cross over to your side. Incidentally, this has been the story in the U.S., too, even without President Biden saying it exactly the same way.”

The reality is Macron said what he said and in the way he said it. It's out there. Whether it proves effective has yet to be decided. Macron might consider follow-up communication that could prove to be an effective appeal to that segment of his citizens to which he was lecturing.

“We're all human and humans feel frustration. While we should expect leaders to be able to compartmentalize as I noted, we should also find moments to embrace them as humans. If President Macron didn't mean what he said he should clarify and consider whether an apology is necessary and do so quickly before public opinion further hardens,” Maschari says.

Additional curiosity and research could prove helpful. The right questions could unlock the answers Macron and other world leaders, and employers too maybe, are still seeking.

“Short of an apology, he should consider the beliefs of vaccine-hesitant or vaccine-skeptical audiences: What's holding them back at this point? Who would those audiences view as credible and compelling? What evidence or actions would be persuasive to them and who would they need to hear from to take that evidence into account in service of changing their beliefs?”

Maschari says the truth is ‘total compliance’ is a rarity, if not an impossibility and that’s important to understand and accept.

“Leaders today shouldn't expect to get 100% compliance or support from their constituency, be it voters or employees. We don't have that level of unity in our countries, companies or local communities. But what you can do is account for differences, begin with a shared belief and go from there.”