Who CARES wins?

Who cares wins?

It might be whimsical to draw conclusions from the US elections for the role of modern leadership in business – but then again it might not be!

In the election of what is still, arguably, the most powerful person in the world, there are some attributes which must surely trump all others.

 Vision? Surely……Strong Leadership? A sine qua non surely?

Looking at the Edison Research exit poll from across the USA on 2012 Election Day, there are some surprising findings.

The defeated Romney significantly outscored the victorious Obama on these two seemingly key attributes – indeed his superiority over Obama on Strength of Leadership and Vision was marked.

Where Obama reversed the tables, however, was on the attribute of ‘’ Cares about people like me’’ – here HE was the pre-eminent force with a staggering 82 to 18 lead. A decisive lead it would seem.

So, what to make of such an apparent non sequitur? The USA returned a leader who came second on Leadership, second on Vision, second on ‘’Shared Values’’ but who won by a country mile on Empathy. Bizarre or explainable?

Much has been made of the better use by the Democrats of social media during the Election – both communicating and listening. Obama himself in his acceptance speech highlighted the benefit of ‘’listening’’ to the electorate. Whether he did or whether he didn’t, it seems the USA thinks he did.

Business in 2012 and beyond would do well to study this.

Vision, Leadership and Conviction are all very well but not game clinchers without empathy. The leader may not be a naturally empathetic human being – indeed few naturally are - but with all the technology at a leader’s disposal today, there is no excuse for not being in touch.

Out of touch business leaders – in the silo, inside the bunker at the top of the ivory tower – will not only find themselves misunderstood and rejected but increasingly astride underperforming businesses without quite knowing what is going wrong.

It is all too easy not to have time – wrong balance sheet with wrong investors with wrong sales mix with wrong diary. The store visits, the team dinner, the employee survey, the ad hoc stroll around the factory or warehouse – so easy not to do it. So easy to be tied up. Too busy being fabulous for the few who actually don’t matter. Neglectful of the many who do matter.

I found a disproportionate return on time spent walking the floor – it was noticed, scrutinised by colleagues to see if it was genuine but always noticed nonetheless.

It was always easier not to do it – of course. Like the dentist, however, you would rather not but you knew it was the right thing to do and you never failed to be the better for it. People saw the person behind the name on the email. The returns were huge.

So Mr Obama. Consciously or not, you got this key attribute right. Mr Romney, with no apparent empathy, missed a very open goal despite seeming to have the traditional Leadership attributes in abundance.

In the end, the result seems to have stemmed from a swing attribute more than from a few swing states.

Colleagues will take care to forgive Leaders having to make tough decisions. What this election result would seem to show is that they don’t forgive Leaders not caring.