Empathy in Politics During a Crisis — Pt.1: US 🇺🇸 and UK 🇬🇧
This story is part of a series analyzing and comparing how the world leaders addressed their nations when the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the ground.
Preface — A Leader’s Challenge
The challenge for a state leader during situations like the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak is enormous.
How does one address a nation when the fear and uncertainty get the best of everybody, and there are hardly any right answers to questions that are on everyone’s minds?
How does one harness the entire nation to cooperate under such difficult times?
For us, the people, it’s a unique opportunity to zoom out and examine how our leaders communicate with us, compared to the rest of the world in the same situation.
United States 🇺🇸 — Donald Trump
At the beginning of his speech on March 11th, President Trump promises to protect the American people from the “foreign virus.”
This positions the global pandemic as an outside attack on the US rather than a state of emergency that hits the people worldwide. Even though China wasn’t mentioned specifically, it’s clear where Trump points his finger.
Next, the President states that the EU has failed to take the precautions required and, therefore, “seeded” the US with infected travelers.
The EU now joins the defendants’ stand and raises the bar on the fear-provoking tone of “we’re being attacked.”
Putting that note aside, people often confuse the narrative of “make America great again” with “we’re great, everyone else sucks.” They’re not the same, but both have three major things in common:
- They are irrelevant in this context as they bring no valuable, reassuring, or comforting information to the target audience’s ears.
- They are inappropriate so early into the speech timeline as there are probably many more important things to cover.
- Diminishing the value of what others do is too often used to cover the lack of one’s own actions.
President Trump then promises to make health treatment accessible to everyone to prevent surprising medical bills, provide financial relief for ill workers and caretakers, subsidize loans with low rates for small and medium businesses, and defer tax payments with no interest.
Finally! Now isn’t this just a tiny-bit more important than the previous statement?
Later, he notes the quick traveling restriction measures the US took against China and announced an intent to take the same action with travelers from the EU.
While this is a clear intent statement, explaining why (e.g. “to protect your health”) would probably bring some compassion points to this ice-cold address.
Summary
It’s only 9 minutes and 45 seconds into the speech that President Trump decides to wrap up with the following words: “Acting with compassion and love, we will cure the sick, care for those in need, help our fellow citizens, and emerge from this challenge stronger and more unified than ever before.”
While this is well formulated, it rather sounds detached and insincere from the mouth of a person who trashed the whole world and sowed fear in his people just a few minutes earlier.
This was a public address, and contained no Q&A.
United Kingdom 🇬🇧 — Boris Johnson
The Prime Minister begins by mentioning the necessary and reasonable measures that the UK takes and expresses his concern about the global spread.
Note the interesting combination of “necessary” and “reasonable.” It ensures that the government takes action in a consideredrate manner, which is an important step towards gaining people’s trust.
Without further ado, PM Johnson shares the 4-step strategy to guide the UK in fighting the coronavirus: contain > delay > research > mitigate.
Showing a clear and easy-to-understand game plan is rare in organizations, not to say countries, not to say in a crisis like this. PM Johnson takes on this challenge with remarkable success, provoking not only trust — but expected cooperation from the British people as well.
He then proceeds to specific directions like washing hands and social distancing, using the opener “What we all can do to mitigate the risk.”
While again practical and simply put — the decision to use the first tense plural can’t be coincidental. While it claims that everyone is equally responsible, it still manages to deliver the feeling that “we’re all in this together” — an important narrative when speaking to a nation.
The Q&A session from the journalists immediately follows the brief address (only 4-minutes long), with a few points worth mentioning:
When asked about any prognosis, Mr. Johnson answers using the words “too early to say” — probably the most honest answer anyone could expect then without rushing into unnecessary and preliminary conclusions.
When asked about whether dramatic lockdown measures are expected — Boris Johnson makes sure not only to deny it but also explains the logic that guided this decision, warning that introducing such measures too early will cause too much disruption without the needed effect or benefit.
When asked about low paid workers, 1/5 of which were expected to stop working at some point into this pandemic — Mr. Johnson’s response was: “we’re going to keep all options under review, but we’re aware of the issue.” Imagining myself as a British citizen watching this — I would probably have bitten my own tongue out of distress. There is so much empathy that could be spilled into this ice cube of a sentence! Really, a simple “we will make sure that no British worker will starve or in need during this challenging period” would do.
Summary
This speech is efficient, informative, and clear. Even though it seems to lack empathetic and warm messaging per-say — I find the humane honesty and transparency levels of Prime Minister Johnson’s approach trustworthy and reassuring in this specific address.
I’m on a mission to inspire people with empathetic ways of communication, so that they can build more meaningful relationships.
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