Empathy in Politics During a Crisis
A series of stories analyzing and comparing how the world leaders addressed their nations when the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the ground.
The year 2020 will be forever remembered as the year when the world was caught completely off guard. On the one hand, COVID-19’s unique mechanism ensured its spread at an early stage of infection even before the person carrying it even knew s.he was contagious. On the other, globalization in the 21st century allowed everybody to travel everywhere in no time. This unique combination has unified the world in an unprecedented challenge worldwide: the virus hit everybody hard, fast, and did it everywhere.
A Leaders’ Challenge
The challenge for a country leader in such a situation is enormous. How does one address a nation when the fear and uncertainty get the best of everybody, and there are barely answers to questions that are on everyone’s minds? How does one harness the entire nation for a cooperation in such a difficult time?
For us, the people, it’s a unique opportunity to zoom out and do a check-up on how our leaders communicate with us, compared to the rest of the world in the same situation.
em·pa·thy | \ ˈem-pə-thē \
The capacity and action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner.
Why is Empathy a Quality Crucial for a Leader?
Think of what qualities we seek when we vote. Some think it’s the power or charisma. However, the greatest leaders truly understand how their people feel, what they desire, and what their motives are. Only by practicing true empathy can a leader truly relate and then use the charisma at hand to convey the message and ignite people to follow. Note that I’m not judging specific intentions or political views, as they are marginal for this topic’s sake.
When there’s no certainty, and everything goes sideways at times of real distress, we should seek leaders who show empathy and embrace hope, not fear. We should seek leaders that unite us and don’t divide us.
Criteria
This series’s point of interest excludes the actual measures each country has (or has not) taken. Instead, we’re going to focus on the ways the leaders decided to structure and convey their messages to the nation:
- How often did they use the first person singular (“I”), focusing on themselves?
- How many of them used the first person plural (“us”) to create a sense of unity?
- Did any of them use the second person (“you”), amplifying their message to sound more direct, be it for positive or negative purposes?
- Have they decided to use the third person (“she”, “he”, “they”) to detach themselves from those who they spoke about?
- How did they choose to convey the social distancing and hygiene practices?
- How many of them addressed actual people’s concerns, such as changes in day-to-day life? Health insurance? Job security?
- Which leaders delivered a straight informative speech, and which ones used a more conversational, down-to-each language?
- Which of the speakers left time for Q&A so that the press can ask questions of public interest which might not have been covered in the speech?
A Note on Cultural Differences
While it’s fair to assume that there are cultural differences between countries that might affect each leader’s style of speech, do consider the fact that the whole world was in the same boat at that point, and that most of the people probably had the same concerns: How can we protect ourselves? How will this affect our day to day lives? Our workplaces and businesses? How long will this last?
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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