Despite win, Mitt Romney has a leadership problem

CBS

COMMENTARY Mitt Romney has a leadership problem, he doesn't know it, and he can't fix it. Gingrich has a similar problem, but he does know it, and he has tried unsuccessfully to fix it. You may have the same problem: You need to change something about yourself -- a position on an issue, or even how people think of you as a person -- and you need to do it with authenticity. In leadership, change is rarely optional, and authenticity never is. Get change and authenticity right and you're Ronald Reagan, who left the Democratic Party and became the standard bearer in the 20th Century of new conservatism. Get it wrong and you're, well, Romney and Gingrich.

Romney won Florida handily Tuesday, and certainly he's the odds-on favorite to win the nomination. But he still has a challenge ahead. What Romney is asking the Republicans to believe is that he's looked deep inside himself and seen the error of his ways on abortion and healthcare, and that he's converted to the right of where he was for most of his adult life. What he's asking us to buy is nothing short of a political rebirth. Anyone who has heard a debate on abortion knows that switching positions isn't like picking a different shirt. The question people are asking is: Has he really changed? Are the words they're hearing authentic? And the answer they are coming to is, "no" on both questions.

One of the most interesting fields in communication is deception detection. Research across many decades shows that we aren't great at detecting whether someone is lying to us. But one factor that makes us question truthfulness is when verbal and nonverbal messages are in conflict. Conflicting verbal and nonverbal signals renders leaders ineffective.

Here's where this research is biting Romney. A person who really changed fundamental views comes with an air of sureness that is both centered and, if you buy what he's selling, magnetic. It's a change that's so important, it's all people want to talk about. Think of someone you know who became religious -- or suddenly became an atheist -- and you often wish they'd shut up. But you probably don't doubt their authenticity. Romney communicates his move to the right with the importance of switching out a blue tie with red stripes to a red tie with blue stripes.

Having watched him for many years, I'm a fan of his (and as a capitalist, found myself defending his work at Bain Partners as necessary and of service to the economy), and only wish he'd act like who he really is: a smart man who is deeply confident in his abilities, his faith, and his success in life. Unfortunately, he also comes across as believing that if he speaks his mind, he'll lose the election. So he's hired coaches who stage every gesture, wardrobe choice, and half-curved smile. His Pixar-generated hair adds to the problem: a zealot (which is what self-reinvented people often become) puts message before appearance. Think Ron Paul. It appears Romney's trying hard to look like a regular guy, but regular guys don't hard try hard. The result of this performance is a tsunami of confusing signals, and it leaves people increasingly convinced that he's trying to pull one over on us. In a word, inauthentic, and that calls into question whether he's really changed.

Romney made the first mistake of authentic change: Avoid real reinvention, and act the part instead. Unless you're Christian Bale, you'll fail. (Actually, great actors like Christian Bale reinvent themselves for a role, rather than play a part. If you saw the Fighter, you know what I mean.)

Gingrich made the second mistake of authentic change: Cover over the cracks of a change-in-process with rage.

Gingrich knew he needed to hit control-alt-delete on his public persona after ethics violations, years spent as a Washington insider, and breaking up with various ailing wives in ways that qualify him to have his own reality TV show. Instead of joining the make-of-fun-Gingrich parade, I've seen what appears to be authentic remorse, repentance, love for his new wife, anger at Obama, and indignation for Romney. The problem is, anger doesn't work when the person who is angry appears to still be evolving.

Unlike Romney, his verbal and nonverbal messages align. The problem is that he's rolled out several different versions of his new, improved self, and none of them are very nice to be around. This change begs a bigger question: Who will he be six months from now? If he has changed, how do we know the change will last? The problem isn't authenticity; it's whether he's done changing. (Personally, I hope the answer is "no.")

Gingrich's poll numbers track the sense-making process perfectly. People saw him and didn't know what to make of him. As they sorted through the signals, he got attention, and a lift in the numbers. Voters figured him out in the same way they finally passed judgment on Simon Cowell -- he was fun to watch for a while, but the anger gets old. As people came to this conclusion, his poll numbers fell, and the Florida results showed that attention is moving away.

So how can you do better, when it comes authentic change? Here are a few ways to start:

First, know what's required. Authentic change means looking deep inside yourself, and acting on what you see. This is not for the timid, and this process can't be faked or acted. The best line on self-reinvention comes from Warren Bennis' classic On Becoming a Leader: "Once-borners... have been invented by their circumstances, as in the case of Johnson and Nixon, while twice-borners have reinvented themselves, as in the case of Roosevelt and Truman." (Don't think of twice-borners in terms of "born again" -- this concept has nothing to do with religion.) Authentic change requires effort, curiosity, and acceptance for what you might find. If you want to go deeper on authentic change, my personal blog offers a realistic look at the process.

Second, commit to a long process that starts now, and won't end until the "new you" solidifies. At best, Gingrich comes across as a work in progress, rather than a twice born person. Maybe he's born one and a half times, and that's a bit too strange for the White House.

Third, build your social role around that new person. With Romney, we get the feeling that the real him is in there somewhere, tucked away in an Al Gore lockbox. We want to connect with that person -- the one we can't see no matter how hard we look. Most people don't think about it that deeply, and end up with a feeling that something with him is off, but they can't articulate what.

Change and authenticity are foundations of leadership. This election cycle offers lessons on what happens when people when people don't get them right.

[sjc_1]

Romney was for it before he was against it, he has flip flopped so many times, no one knows where he stands today, just wait a day or two and it will change.

[rider1956]

I don't want to vote for OBAMA.
I don't want to vote for OBAMA.
I don't want to vote for OBAMA.
I don't want to vote for OBAMA.
I don't want to vote for OBAMA.
I don't want to vote for OBAMA.
I don't want to vote for OBAMA.
I don't want to vote for OBAMA.
I don't want to vote for OBAMA.
I don't want to vote for OBAMA.

[chenz66]

"It appears Romney's trying hard to look like a regular guy, but regular guys don't hard try hard." He's a phony. I cringe every time I see him in jeans trying to pretend he is a regular guy. He reminds me of people I work with that want to fit in with the average worker but pretend he is better than everyone else when the executives are around. He never knows how to be himself.

[mary-miami]

Romney is a figurehead for extreme rightwing fascist group that just wants a candidate that will do their bidding. What the GOP wants is to create a two class system of rich and poor, where only the very wealthy will have freedom and voting rights. Many GOP candidates have said that people who rent their homes should not have the right to vote. GOP hate Unions because they protect the working class from abuse by their bosses. Labor laws protect workers by establishing regulations that protect the employee from working an excessive (more than 8 hours) day and not having rest breaks or being paid a miserable wage. GOP wants slave labor and that's why it doesn't like unions. GOP doesn't like environmental laws because they want to be able to pollute our lakes, rivers, air...just so they can become billionaires all the while paying a miserable salary to their workers. GOP doesn't want working class to vote because then it will never be able to enslave them; that's why it is determined to take away women's rights...because then it doesn't have to deal with womens issues and can brush them aside. GOP wants to change our Constitution back to when women didn't have the right to vote and GOP wants to erase the First Amendment which protects our free press and speech, not to mention religion because GOP wants to censor our news information, and control what religious beliefs people choose to engage in. GOP are rightwing extremists that discriminate against the working poor. GOP doesn't want to increase the minimum wage to a living wage because it wants to keep a percentage of the population "poor" so that it can enslave them. The reason many people have to ask for government aid is due mostly to the fact they don't earn a living wage. As far as healthcare is concerned, healthcare is a human right and everyone in existence deserves it, for free. Those of us that are middle class should remember that anyone can suffer hardship. Poverty is not a crime, it is a misfortune. The only party that respects and defends the working class is the Democrats. I will vote to re-elect President Obama.

[wej1970]

How can anyone in their right mind write an article on Leadership when we have Obama in charge? Talk about NO leadership. This man has so many things that a Leader would not due that there's no where to start. However, of the most anti-Leadership quality is the way he has divided this country. He has done more to turn back race relatons in 3 1/2 years than we've see in the last 20 years. This man could not lead himself out of a wet paper bag. Why won't CBS News and others alike vet the president? He has been given a pass for far too long.

[magnumdr]

Romney is just the best of the worst. I wouldn't trust any of these people to run our Country. Does anyone really wany another Republican like Bush to get into office and ruin our economey even more.

[nonpolitico]

Pity Ronnie Reagan isn`t available!!

[RobAla]

Wait a minute. The author of this piece states that a man who has executive experience in being Governor of a State, has led several businesses to success after they had hit rock bottom, and had turned a failing US Olympic effort around to be successful - has no leadership? What about a community organizer, with no executive experience and had been a US Senator for only 2 years prior to being elected President? There is no comparison. This author is either wacky or just plain showing bias.

When it comes to energy, President Obama's plan is to force the United States to rely on sources of alternative "green" energy that absolutely are not ready to meet the needs of this nation. Unfortunately, that leaves us very short - short on oil, because China is consuming so much of the oil produced. The oil that is now being produced by US companies today were given drilling rights under the administration of President Bush. Yet President Obama tries to take credit for the amount of oil production in the US. What a load of crap.

Somebody in this country needs to have a practical vision on how to turn this economy around. President Obama's "vision" has not been about the economy or suffering American people. President Obama is obsessed with a "vision" of "fundamentally transforming" the United States into something that it is not. I have come to the conclusion that he does not care who gets hurt in the process. I believe, that in his mind, the ends justify the means.

When asked by a reporter in 2009 what he thought about the stock market tanking, he told the reporter that he didn't watch the stock market - that to him it was like watching a political poll. The collapse of the stock market is nothing like a political poll. Millions of Americans (not just the rich, but every American with a 401K) lost large portions of their life savings and retirements. Either President Obama was completely stupid, or he simply didn't care about what was happening to millions of Americans.

Just before becoming President, Barrack Obama stated that Americans could build coal fire power plants - but his policies would make it so expensive that the power plants would go bankrupt. Does this sound like a President that is concerned with people out of work?

In an interview Barrack Obama did with the San Francisco Chronicle editorial board very early in the presidential campaign, January 2008 - he said the following:

"Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Coal-powered plants, you know, natural gas, you name it, whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers."

Does this sound like someone who is concerned with Americans suffering under the weight of high energy costs? NO. President Obama is a radical extremist with a consuming ideology that outweighs any concern that he has for suffering Americans. He has a dreamed up personal "vision" that he wants for America, and he does not care who gets hurt - as long as he can bring his own personal vision to pass.

We need a practical leader, with proven practical solutions, to turn this nation around economically. I am SO ready for a new President.

[nonpolitico]

I totally agree. All the political fools and knaves who signed up at a "world conference" which was never subject to any popular National mandate, have obviously never studied anything about the world and its evolution.
The blindly led Climate Change activists were so keen to force their opinion on the world that they got Gullibility Gore to write a book about the unacceptable truth.Which was emotional garbage, not scientific fact!!
That the world climate is changing!
OF COURSE IT IS!!! It has always changed. 9000 yrs ago, ICE AGE!!
Earth warms after being frozen solid for hundreds of years!!.
(Notice they don`t call it Global warming very much these days!)
Then there was the "Sea Level rise"! How it would inundate parts of the world etc etc.
Anyone been to Sydney Australia? On Circular Quay, near the Opera House, there are TWO sea level measure indicators. One is dated 1799, the other dated 1844. These show that, rather than RISING, the sea level has dropped significantly since the early 1800s.
Obama has pushed the "Green" agenda. It gives him a chance to fool and control the USA, whilst at the same time allowing US Industry to decline!
There is a world agenda against Freedom and Liberty, and Obama is part of it.
I agree change is essential in November, but we must ensure that any replacement should commit to repealing Patriot, and all the other "terrorist" legislation which takes apart the US Constitution, allowing Washington to control without reference to the documant which BINDS THEM, as it was meant to do.
Citizens need to get it right.
ONLY a candidate committed to that document, who espouses the values contained within it, and promises to remove all the Big Government mischief done since before 2008, should be considered for the White House.
If Obama wins a second term, in my opinion, the USA will be relegated to a Socialist nation where freedom of choice and expression will be slowly taken away by a dictatorial Federal Government.
All USA is also SO ready for a NEW president and for USA to re-assert itself across the world for the sake of freedom, (in USA and across the world)!

[longtree-2009]

so this article is like an endorsement of obama as it seems only highly critical of gop candidates. assuming logan is a democrat since nothing is written of obama here that is any way critical.

[Oh-Pin-Yun]

A moderate, a liberal, and a conservative walked into a bar.
The bartender said, "Hi Mitt!"