Zelensky’s massive mistake + market crash comms + Joe Aston’s Rampart

Hi

In this edition, I look at Zelensky’s Washington car crash and draw a few lessons for leaders and communicators. I also examine a simple model to help communicate during these extremely volatile markets. And I help readers of Joe Aston’s new Rampart to understand … just what a rampart is!!

As usual, drop me an email with any comments.

Ben

Zelensky’s massive mistake

Like many people, I was deeply pained by Donald Trump’s treatment of Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House. Zelensky was representing the heroic Ukrainian people who have fought bitterly against Putin and deserve respect.

But if we detach from the emotion of the situation, and accept the realpolitik, there are lessons that leaders and communicators can learn from the debacle.

The main one is the power of concession. To persuade an audience, you need to start not with your thoughts and feelings … but theirs.

Zelensky broke this principle and has paid a bitter price.

The rule of rules

French philosopher Emile Chartier (who used the pen name Alain) wrote one of the best summaries of effective persuasion in his essay The Art of Persuasion.

Alain says that if you start with your own opinion or argument, your audience views this as an assault – you’ve effectively, in Alain’s words, fired a ‘cannon-shot’ at their personal citadel.

Feeling besieged, they slam the door to your opinion.

But how does one keep the door to the citadel open? Or even get your opinions politely escorted inside and welcomed?

“The rule of rules,” Alian says, “is that you start with his opinion, not yours”. [My emphasis].

Before offering your own views, you butter them up by first articulating your audience’s opinions and views.

They say, I say

Alain notes that when a salesman addresses a customer before launching into this sales pitch, he begins with the preamble: “What I am going to tell you, you know as well as I do”.

And even better: “What I’m going to tell you, you know better than me.”

Good lawyers, Alain says, learn to first develop, even strengthen, the opinion of their adversary and the judge.

Skilled writers deploy this principle all the time. It’s the ‘They say / I say’ model.

They almost always begin with what the general public, or someone else, is thinking or saying about the topic (they say). Only then do they then move to offering their own thoughts or argument (I say).

In copywriting it’s called ‘getting them nodding’ at the start.

Zelensky’s zero chance

Zelensky in Washington failed to deploy this principle.

He failed to get into the mind of Donald Trump, failed to ape his words and feelings, and therefore failed to persuade the US President.

Trump wanted a quick minerals deal and a swift ceasefire so he could brag about being a peacemaker and give the stock market a (now much needed) boost.

So Zelensky had a difficult, if not impossible, persuasion challenge: remain faithful to Ukraine’s goal of a just and lasting peace with security guarantees; but also mollify Trump’s urge for a quick win via a ceasefire.

But Zelensky put his pride and his domestic audience before his primary audience in Washington: Trump.

Zelensky gave himself zero chance of bringing Trump to his side because he was hellbent on giving his opinion – we are fighting for everyone, don’t trust Putin, etc – rather than letting Trump know that he understood and empathised with Trump’s opinion.

The principle of putting your audience’s opinion first, though seemingly obvious, is difficult to put into practice because of our natural pride and tendency to focus on ourselves.

Trump woos Putin

The harsh and major truth of the situation in Ukraine is that Trump’s primary audience is Vladimir Putin. Trump can bully Ukraine into a ceasefire, but he can’t bully Putin into one. Trump needs to persuade Putin.

In contrast to Zelensky, Trump has used the persuasion principle of putting the audience first to butter up Putin. He’s literally aping and conceding to Putin’s opinion: Ukraine are the baddies, Zelensky is a corrupt dictator, etc.

Perhaps Trump is parroting Putin because he admires him and because he identifies with him. But from a persuasion perspective it has so far been effective.

As the New York Times has noted, Russia’s stance towards the US has abruptly changed. Putin himself says Trump “inspires certain hopes”. Russian politician Alexei Zhuravlyov says: “Do we need Trump? We do. Do our interests coincide? They do.” 

I understand there is a danger here that I’m being overly generous to Trump, and overreading the situation; and there is no guarantee this persuasion technique will work with such a person as Putin in the long run (Trump is already moving to threats and Putin has laid out tough conditions for agreeing to a ceasefire).

But the principle still stands.

To have a chance of persuading someone, you must articulate their opinion, thoughts and feelings before your own. It’s not surprising that Trump, the salesman, is simply using this principle on a grander scale.

Zelensky didn’t and he’s been forced to fall into line with a US ceasefire with nothing gained.

A simple model to help asset managers communicate in this volatile market

Of course, effective communication and persuasion isn’t all about taking your audience’s view. You do eventually have to put your position forward, to show leadership, especially in difficult times.

This is particularly important now for asset managers and wealth advisors with markets selling off heavily.

Successful communication in tough times is about balancing two things:

·       Empathy: Investors want to know you care that things are challenging for them.

·       Authority: But they also want to trust you are in control.

Unfortunately, in stressful markets it is easy to go too far one way or the other:

1. Too empathetic

You can apologise profusely and repeatedly for underperformance or negative returns in a sharp sell-off. But that undermines investors’ confidence in your ability to weather the storm.

By over-empathising, you paradoxically appear self-obsessed: it may feel like an emotional catastrophe to you to underperform or lose money; but your busy investors are likely to be concerned … but far from suffering an emotional crisis.

2. Too authoritative

Ignoring the elephant in the room – a bear market, sharp correction or underperformance – and making out everything is ok, that everything is under control, does work for a while.

But eventually, when the market jolts lower that one more time, your investors will realise you haven’t acknowledged their pain. They will become resentful. They will also view this lack of empathy as a communication void and read all sorts of scary things into that void.

You will lose trust almost instantly.

A wise guide

So when communicating during this difficult market, it’s good to be mindful of these two mistakes, and try to balance your empathy and authority.

Many successful investors adopt the persona of a wise, empathetic guide: they’re concerned about the people they have taken on an investment journey … but they’re confident in their ability to navigate through the storm and bring their investors home safely.

What is a rampart?

Former AFR columnist Joe Aston has launched a new publishing enterprise. I was expecting him to leverage his high profile and simply call it joeaston.com.

But, instead, he’s called it Rampart.

Obviously, taking a generic name, rather than his own, makes it easier to sell as a business proposition if it’s a success.

But what has surprised me is how few people know what a rampart is.

For me, reading about Crusader Castles as a boy finally paid off.

Here is the Oxford English Dictionary definition of a rampart:

Fortification. A defensive wall or mound of earth, with a broad top and usually a stone parapet; a walkway along the top of such a structure.

There is nothing defensive about Joe, who is famously always on the attack, but the name denotes independence and strength.

For those wanting cost-effective help naming their businesses and products, there is a great AI-generated naming tool, Aesop, created by global naming guru, Tanya Gustafson, who is based in New York but married to an Aussie fundie.