Does art emulate life or life emulate art is one of those proverbial questions. After 15 years of working in the corporate world, I find the work atmosphere at times very toxic, political, and the need to showcase and promote oneself to move up in the corporate ladder. Here are a few interesting and popularly known stories from the political world that you may want to remember for your corporate journey.
Silence is not golden, but speak when needed
During 2004-14 in India, many event organizers before the start of the program requested the gathering to put their phones on MMS mode. MMS stands for Manmohan Singh Mode aka mute mode. Every time MMS failed to speak up and address on key issues including corruption scandals, his silence and out of turn communication by the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi costed him and his party dearly in the national elections earlier this year. This incident is shows how one man's failure to communicate often leads to another man's success.
Don't ignore that which glitters - create visibility
Swaminathan Anklesaria in his recent TOI column said Bollywood is the language of the nation and not Hindi or Sanskrit. His theory seems even more convincing when you look at the background of many politicians who've ruled Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh (now Andhra and Telegana). From NTR, MGR, Karunanidhi, Jayalalitha to recent CM aspirants Chiranjeevi and Vijayakanth. These politicians have diligently used the reel life to attract followers to their ideology and win the throne. Many of these politicians along the way realized the need to have their own TV channels ( JayaTV, KalaignarTV, SunTV, CaptainTV) to get across their version of story to the masses.
Foot in mouth disease - choose your battles wisely
We have communicators like Kalignar Karunanidhi, 4 time Chief Minister of Tamil Nad, who has earned duly admirers through his timely quips, eloquent language, and word play. Then you have people like Mamata Bannerjee (Blabberjee) aka as motor mouth, often seen on the front page of newspapers openly challenging the Central Government and opposition parties. Her efforts often appear to be mere attention grabbing gimmick with less substance and blaming the media for misinterpreting her statements. Not long ago, during the Presidential elections in 2012, Mamata's words caused her embarrassment and made her to walk out of the UPA alliance.
Your success brings you enemies - manage perception
Before the election both BJP and Congress exchange and engaged in a war of words and throwing muck at each other. While the Congress party and it's members continue to verbally assault Modi, but the man had focused on building political equations. Modi hasn't made any personally comments/criticism on anyone and infact he wished Sonia Gandhi's birthday on her birthday, which made him look like a large hearted person in the eyes of public and Modi came across as one who looked at opponents beyond elections.
Losing the sheen - start with a bag of tricks
A good example is the Aam Aadmi Party; their meteoric rise happened when The national wealth was plundered by the ruling party (Common Wealth, 2G, etc.) and there was no redressal by the ruling party. Timely anti-corruption messages, hunger strikes for the passage of Lok Pal bill earned them a good mileage, but their their repeated hunger strikes and jail bharo stunts caused them their fall.
Don't be a loose cannon - measure your words
Lastly, we also have loose cannons in every party from Digvijay Singh in the Congress party, to the most recent Sadhvi Niranjana Jyoti who not only caused embarrassment to her and the party, but also in affected smooth functioning of the Parliament causing policy paralysis and loss to the exchequer. Sometimes, you wonder if malfunctioning is a part of their strategy to get attention like what we often see on the fashion floors.
Communication can be therapy - build your network to follow
From conversing with random strangers sharing their stories, giving them directions and free advice, Indians are open and talkative people by nature. May be that is why NaMo decided kickstart his election campaign earlier this year on Twitter and Facebook proving that an Indians listen, like and retweet as much as they talk and re-share. Once a chai wala , today, Narendra Modi is the second most widely followed leader on twitter with 8.6 million followers and second to the American President Obama with more than 25 million followers. When you are in the highest office in the country and it can get lonely and you want to share as much as you want to hear over tea on Twitter and social media can be both a sounding board and a free therapy session.
Breaking more than ice - be appealing to the masses
If metros to an extent helped us break the caste barrier, social media has gone a step ahead by breaking national, language barriers and helped specially Modi in his image makeover. Best example is again NaMo; his recent tweets in Japanese while in Japan and a tweet in Tamil wishing Superstar Rajinikanth on his birthday on Dec 12 helped him instantly connect and find a corner in the hearts of respective audiences.
No RTI for personal life - Ignore old skeletons
Atleast there is an opportunity to deny a RTI request when it comes to knowing Government secrets and spends, but when you step into public life there is nothing to protect your past and future. Indecent media and opposition hounded Modi and his wife from whom he separated 4 decades ago. I'm sure we all have skeletons in the closet, but learn to ignore them when they try to wake the up. Skeletons are dead!
Revival as much as survival - Let them make a U!
Let us not forget that media had tainted Mr. Modi as once a key conspirator in the Godhra riots and this year the man is on the Time Magazine Person of the Year contenders list. It is only through constant, appropriate and convincing communication Modi could win the votes of people in the largest democracy. The upcoming J&K elections will prove if social media can further go ahead and help political parties win religious votes on the opposite side.
As a communication professional, I find it interesting to analyze the political stage in Indian and pick out examples of good and bad communication and what we can learn from them to manage our destiny in the corporate world. In fact, I have often told my colleagues that communication is like hygiene; no one takes notice of it until it is absent. So, keep it hygienic and communicate to win!
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