The importance of seeing past political charisma

Appointments to the boards of both commercial and social enterprises are the most important decisions they ever make. Bad appointments impact morale and teamwork and this results in significant decreases in productivity, loss of good staff, a poor culture and, in the most serious cases, insolvency.

Elections are run to appoint the people who we want to run the biggest social and commercial enterprise in the country, and it is important that as voters we treat this seriously and do our homework. What makes a good process is one that is validated by research coupled with processes which attract high quality candidates who can make things happen and enhance diversity within an organisation.

In today’s world of presentation and personal brand management, recruiters require extra skills. The ability to see past the enhanced and escalated CV (likely not written by the candidate), and to decipher the differences between aspirational and achievable goals.

In politics, it is also important to see past charisma. The truth is, charisma is in fact a learned behaviour, a skill which can be developed. In my time in the police and on the parole board, I found charisma manifested in the majority of fraud offenders I dealt with.

My concerns about the undeserved successes of charismatic people and their ability to influence the most careful of us has heightened even more due to my addiction to the CNBC series American Greed. The offenders in successive episodes invariably begin by winning people over with their charisma, commentary and presentation. And by the time their duplicitous behaviour is recognised, millions of dollars have been lost and multiple lives destroyed.

In July 2016, I found myself at the Republican National Convention where the selection of the candidate to stand for the position of the most powerful man in America was taking place. The conference venue, an international sports stadium, was packed to the gunwales. Presentation was front and centre. It was decorated with balloons and streamers and there were cheerleaders and people in high viz vests throughout.

This was the selection process for the Republican candidate to run America, the biggest business in the world. This was his final interview to make the short list.

As the process commenced, I felt I was at an Amway conference. The music was loud, the speakers introducing us to the main candidate had been well prepped with messages of how good the candidate was and how bad the opposition would be.

Underpinning all the messages were ones of fear. The main ones being fear of crime and fear for personal safety. The candidate’s messages were laced with false hope that he was going to stop crime, deliver jobs and Make America Great Again.

The candidate for this powerful role was introduced by his daughter, who sincerely told us that he was special – in her mind the most caring, intelligent, effective and honest man in the country. At the time it was hard to ascertain to whom she was comparing this man and I detected a large degree of bias in her presentation.

He followed with the same message, clapping himself as he came on stage. Then came the sales pitch for 1 hour 16 minutes and 41 seconds. I could see his auto cue and I have to acknowledge that some of the content was his own thoughts as the auto cue kept pausing and he kept talking. These ad lib pieces focused on his personal endorsement of his own amazing skills and credentials.

Speech finished, job done, selection process for next stage completed. It was then I realised I had missed the significance of the key clues. The first musical performance was Communication Breakdown (Led Zeppelin) and It’s the End Of The World As We Know It (REM). The closing pie` ce de re´ sistance was You Can’t Always Get What You Want by the Rolling Stones.

This candidate progressed through to take the top job. And the Rolling Stones complained about him using their music without their permission.

A salutary lesson for us all.

In my time in the police and on the parole board, I found charisma manifested in the majority of fraud offenders I dealt with.