Leadership, Magicians & Credibility

We hold our leaders in democracies in high regard, right until the point that they show a decline in integrity. Democratically elected leaders around the world have an important magic trick to perform if they wish to remain in power, and that is to keep their integrity intact. Around the world, however, we see leaders that undermine their own credibility, and they lose their integrity.

I was recently listening to a discussion about political leaders and I realized political leaders today are a lot like magicians.

They first attract you to the show. They usually do this through their campaign promises. Then, when elected, they create illusions, and the longer that the audience can buy into the illusion and believe that what they are seeing is reality, the longer the audience will remain engrossed and support the magician.

Magicians try to intrigue the audience with their tricks and their biggest trick is to entertain and keep the audience engaged. They need to create a sense of wonder, and take the audience along with them on a ride, as they wax lyrical, and distract the audience with shiny objects, smoke and mirrors.

Now and then they get the audience to focus on their assistant, while they ‘adjust things’ to ensure that they maintain the illusion.

They don’t reveal what’s behind the curtain at first, but slowly they move the audience (voters) to what is behind the curtain. This is their real agenda, not the one they marketed to the audience.

Magic shows don’t just happen, the magician has teams of people behind-the-scenes booking and organising and administrating. These leaders have magical powers, they have the power to change the lives of the average person.

But behind the scenes there are powerful people who fund the magic show, and without them, the show does not have the production value that attracts great audiences.

The Political leader now has a balancing act to perform. He or she needs to keep the funders (wealthy lobbyists) happy and the audience (voters) happy.

The powerful funders (lobbyists) of the show have their own ‘magic’ that they would like to see, and they direct the flow of the magic show and how it will play out.

It is very important to the funders of the magic show that they remain hidden, and that the audience targets their accolades or criticism towards the magician and not them.

These funders (wealthy lobbyists) of the magic show look for flexible magicians who can adapt to their needs while distracting the audience with shiny objects.

The Political magician now has to drip feed the real agenda rather than admitting upfront what it is all about. The political magician will initially state what the audience (voters) want to hear until they are in office, then slowly they move the audience (voters) to the will of the wealthy lobbyists, and then masterfully have to convince the audience to take part in their own deception.

Like the frog being boiled in the water, slowly increasing the temperature over time allows the frog to get comfortable in ever-increasing temperatures, until the frog realises too late that he has reached boiling point.

The magical show only continues as long as the magic (deception) flows. The flow of the magic increases or decreases, depending on the magical records. The magical records (polls) are the numbers kept by the magical record keepers (pollsters). The record keepers update the numbers weekly or monthly and those records reflect public sentiment or the ‘polls’.

Once any leader reveals too much from behind the magic curtain and the audience (voters) get wind of the tricks that are being played, the magic show (deception) ends. The magic trick loses its power, and the audience walks out. (votes disappear.)

Many times the record keepers (Pollsters) records are not correct, and this spells disaster for any magician (leader.) The act of magical record keeping can in fact be a part of the magic show, a further deception. This happens when the record keepers give more favour to virtual signals in the technological and digital sphere, rather than the actual reality of life.

Leaders in these situations lose touch with what the public thinks and they believe that the bubble in which they are living is the reality of those that they lead. This is very dangerous and when the polls are as wrong as the leaders are, that’s when the great magician loses his or her audience.

The audience looks for another magician and a better magic show that intrigues them. But the magic show is all run on what the magical record keepers tell them the audience wants.

When the magical record keepers get it all wrong, as has happened a few times in the recent past. Then the leader and those that surround him or her ask ‘How did this happen?’ They look outside to cast blame when they should look inward to see deeper within, to learn.

Outstanding leaders look outward to reward others for success, and look inward to analyse and learn when things go wrong.

Losing touch with the everyday people, ignoring the plight of the average man and woman, has brought many a leader to face their doom.

The magic show cannot continue without an intrigued and engaged audience, so the best magicians speak to their audiences to find out what they want.

They then balance the wants and needs of the audience with what the wealthy lobbyists want. Finding that common ground makes a leader exceptional. More and more, the lobbyists’ wants do not align with the audience's needs, and therefore we have the increasing disillusionment with our leaders.

The information age and technology moves faster than leaders can think, so there is this rather volatile environment in which we live. More and more, the audience are questioning the leaders, and undermining them with technology, and this is the state of many democratic nations.

Leaders of today have tremendous challenges in navigating the speed of the flow of information. Integrity as a quality has never been more important.

Thank you for reading and let me know if you agree.