This country is crying out for clear leadership

We have had enough of spin and blind party faith – it’s time for a new direction, writes Bill Hobbs

DIRECTNESS, clarity and simplicity in expression are the hallmarks of great communicators including political leaders. Honesty, integrity, telling it as it is with sincerity and passion is what we value in our leaders. There’s an old saying that endures because it’s true. “People don’t care how much you know unless they know how much you care”.

With an ability to craft and tell a story that resonates with people allowing people to connect with one another, great communicators enlighten and encourage a higher order of public dialogue and debate. By shining a light on dark places, they speak of them with an honesty and sincerity that gives people hope for a brighter future. They show how much they care.

Last week, US President Obama provided an example of great communication - how to do it right. In a speech seeking to quell a vicious, bitter, fractious debate he spoke of the young nine year old victim whose life was taken by a deranged gunman. “I want us to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as she imagined it”. In two short sentences, his powerful, sincere message was hope inspiring. He shone a light on a dark place – the rise of the Tea Party movement and right wing extremism.

Far too many Irish political, institutional and business leaders insist on hiding dark places. When a light is shined on these, they withdraw further into the shadows, hoping not to be caught out. They are driven to engage in ambiguity and fudge, dodging searching questions with defensive spin.

The current Fianna Fail saga, with its bitter narrative of who knew what and when, shines a light on a shadowy world of parochial loyalties and friendships that interlace Irish public and private life.

Embedded in its organisational culture are values that demand a myopic loyalty to the party. A form of parochial paternalism, it’s a system designed to ensure the unchallenging, unquestioning followership of its current leadership. Its biggest blind spot has been its collective failure to admit to making mistakes. Which is why when the lid of the Pandora’s box opened by Anglo Irish Bank’s demise is finally closed, Fianna Fail may have ceased to exist as a formidable political force.

Without the ability to tell the real story with believable integrity using a compelling, informative narrative, the snail like pace of secretive official investigations has been layered with media revelations engineered by those anxious to project an honest if ill-fated endeavour. Insiders have sought to apportion blame on external influences and regulators who bottled out.

We are left with trying to make sense of supposition, conjecture, rumour and innuendo to understand what went so badly wrong. Instead of direct active admission such as “I made mistakes” we are fed with a line passive non-statements such as “mistakes were made” carrying the subliminal subtext of “but not by me”. It should have been different.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen will probably stand down as one of the least impressive of political communicators and leaders. He will probably be remembered for his twin, starkly contrasting styles. The bellicose, stout defender, whose aggressive, pugnacious performances were cheered on by party loyalists, is one dated image. But it’s his most recent style with its meandering, jargon laden incoherence that frustrated, angered and bored the living daylights out of most of us which will endure.

Yet he is not alone. Almost every other erstwhile leader has none of the mastery required to communicate their vision, their views and opinions. None are capable of telling a compelling story, creating a narrative to help us understand why we have arrived were we are at and where we are going. None it seems have the capacity to raise the bar in public discourse. Instead we, the public are considered passive participants, receptacles for clever spin written by aides who cannot fashion a meaningful voice for their masters.

Instead of thoughtful clarity and simplicity, we have been treated to a stream of contorted language and sentences that struggle to amount to anything other than clever, informed nothingness. This style is now evolving into the typical pre-election party rhetoric of cheap point scoring, trite sound bytes with the usual claims and counter claims parroted by election candidates as one side tries to shout down the other.

Can anyone recall any single potent story, metaphor or message, one lucid sentence that sought to address the national crisis with clarity, simplicity and vision? Is this not a question to pose of Fianna Fail leadership but others as well, including those whose rhetoric remains rooted on political point scoring and inter-party faction fighting?

Has any political leader impressed? Are they capable of telling a compelling story, articulating a believable vision with the directness and simplicity in expression of great communicators?

A version of this article appeared in the Irish Examiner, Business Edition, Monday 17th January 2011