As he prepares to assume the presidency of the United States on Friday, Donald Trump formally inherits the world’s most powerful platform for communicating. No, not Twitter! It’s called the "bully pulpit," a term coined by President Theodore Roosevelt near the turn of the 20th century to mean a platform or position of influence from which to carry out an agenda.
Today, however, we see many leaders using the bully pulpit to literally bully others into accepting his or her particular point of view. In Roosevelt’s time, the term "bully" was used to mean something was wonderful, excellent or good. So, a bully pulpit meant an excellent and legitimate platform from which to express his or her views.
In both these instances, the bully pulpit is an effective medium to convey messages, but leaders every moment are faced with a choice of how to best use it. Will they bully others into line with their position, or help others understand and adopt their position?
Here are five ways you as a leader can better exercise the power of your position’s bully pulpit:
1. Shape the bully pulpit to fit your personality as you work on your flaws.
In her book, The Bully Pulpit, Doris Kearns Goodwin provides fascinating insights into the relationship between the two former presidents Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft. Kearns explains Roosevelt’s admiration for Taft (his secretary of war before succeeding him as president). Early on, Roosevelt recognized qualities in Taft that he himself lacked, such as Taft’s capacity for personal intimacy with people.
Kearns also notes that Taft “marveled at Roosevelt’s self-confidence, talent for publicity, delight in confrontation, and rousing rhetorical manner.” Taft exercised the bully pulpit, too, but in a much different way that best reflected his identity and character.
Properly exercised, the bully pulpit should reflect the leader’s personality, strengthening a natural and genuine extension of the leader’s communications relationship with followers. Don't just be yourself when using the bully pulpit; seek to be your best self.
2. Communicate a greater common good, not your personal interests.
As the nation’s top chief executive, Roosevelt understood his role to lead the public toward the common and greater good. He wrote: “I do not represent public opinion; I represent the public. There is a wide difference between the two, between the real interests of the public and the public’s opinion of those interests.”
The lesson for leaders: If you want followers to really listen, don’t prevaricate to curry favor or boost your popularity. Focus on the organization’s real aim and the means to achieve that aim. Employee and customer surveys can help identify obstacles and barriers to achieving goals, but the real good — not popular sentiment — should drive the message. Use the bully pulpit to sharpen the organization's focus on achieving the noble purpose it exists to pursue.
3. Connect directly with followers to bust up the status quo.
Leaders who understand the nature of the bully pulpit are never captive to the chain of command. Kearns says in her book that the new President Roosevelt “struggled to reconcile party allegiance with the drive to address social problems, a balancing act that became more difficult as the troubling aspects of industrialization intensified.” Roosevelt came to understand the reactionary orthodoxy of his own party that “distrusted anything that was progress.” So, he made his appeals directly to the people. Trump took on the status quo of the establishment much the same way.
Status quo thinking is resistant to progress. Bob Benmoeshe, the late CEO of AIG, was a big man who understood how to use the bully pulpit of his position to change AIG for good. He traveled constantly throughout the vast company pushing and prodding his employees to bust through the status quo. It worked. Benmoeshe brought AIG out of the financial crisis, repaid the government fully plus interest, and restored the company’s balance sheet and reputation.
4. Channel your energy and enthusiasm to activate the emotions of followers.
Theodore Roosevelt’s energy was legendary. Trump’s stamina and energy in the 2016 election was a remarkable contrast to Clinton’s, who often required extended periods of rest to recover from campaigning. In contrast, Trump sometimes did up to six or seven election rallies in a day, infusing and gathering energy from his self-made bully pulpit. The result was a visible “enthusiasm gap.” Occupants of the bully pulpit must demonstrate vitality if they hope to inspire the confidence of followers.
Sometimes senior executives are too tentative in using the bully pulpit, fearful their flaws will be exposed, and thus, squandering opportunities to show passion for their company’s products and services. The bully pulpit sorts the weak from the strong; the genuine from the counterfeit.
5. Bypass formal communications mediums to get your message out.
Kearns explains the tension between power and the press in the Roosevelt-Taft era and how the emergence of the new technology of print photography changed communications by putting a face to the names in print.
Trump sensed and exploited a different tension — between the people and the press — and turned the bully pulpit against the ubiquitous medium of the modern press itself, shaming and attacking them for their liberal bias. He went around establishment journalists going directly to his audience through rallies, Twitter, alternative news channels and sympathetic talk show hosts. Are you using alternative information platforms to broadcast and control your message?
As part of your leadership learning this year, study how past leaders have used the bully pulpit. Roosevelt and Taft may be one place to start, but don’t limit yourself to that single time period. Understanding the various ways this unique platform has been used throughout history holds valuable communications lessons for all leaders.
